Windows Drops Under 60% in Global Desktop OS Share for the First Time in Years
StatCounter’s June 2026 report shows Linux at one of its strongest recent positions, while Windows falls to 56.55%.
https://linuxiac.com/windows-drops-under-60-in-global-desktop-os-share-for-the-first-time-in-years/Open linkView original on lemy.lol
60 replies
Okay, but StatCounter's graph (edit: here) clearly shows that "unknown" is what's cannibalizing most of that – and this is specifically measuring web traffic.
"Lemmy celebrates the rise of bots polluting web traffic stats because they didn't bother to read the article beyond a misleading headline that reaffirms their biases."
Looking at the included chart (below), I don't think the growth in "unknown" is the primary factor of Window's decline in market share. The chart does show, over the last two data points, that Mac OS and Linux have increased at the same time that Windows has decreased.
This is all but one data point anyway, so it's not fair to draw a long-term conclusion based on that regardless.
Those "last two data points" are two months. For OS X, there's some upward movement the last two months (about 3%, which isn't a lot given it spiked late last year from 8.3% to 14.07% to 8.2% in a span of three points), while Linux is practically flatlined with a very light upward incline just the last month.
To the extent StatCounter is useful to begin with, the Linux point is functionally meaningless while the OS X increase of a few percentage points may or may not be significant; trying to divine a trend from twitches in those two points is reading noise. Look at the "unknown" line, meanwhile, and see how it begins mirroring Windows' decline around mid–late 2025. It rose from 11.3% in September 2025 to 21.5% in June 2026. That represents actual, meaningful, lasting change.
Yes, that's pretty much what I said in the line of text under the graph.
You completely debunk the idea that "I don't think the growth in "unknown" is the primary factor of Window's decline in market share." in the same comment you said it? Because what you said makes absolutely no sense in the face of the actual numbers.
I expound on the two points because you can't just rest your argument on them and then limply, vaguely disclaim that it's terrible methodology.
Bruh people on Lemmy say the most mind-numbing things
Thank you for demonstrating.
How many Linux users use anti-fingerprinting extensions that prevent sites from seeing their OS? Wouldn't that place them in the "unknown" category?
I'm not seeing much of an increase there for Mac or Linux. I'm not sure how you drew those conclusions from this graph.
This is a zero sum graph, as market share must add to 100%. You may observe that the one large decrease in Windows market share occurs at the same time as three small increases for Mac OS, Linux, and "unknown".
Nothing else increased. The three small increases must be equal to the Windows decrease.
Hell yeah! bots polluting web traffic in a way that reaffirms my biases! 🥳
Most bots pretend to be Windows/Chrome or iOS/Safari.. just sayin'.
The increase is likely bots that don't even want to pretend to be Windows anymore.
More likely new bots are all being vibecoded and aren't pretending to be anything because everything is stupid now.
STOP POLLUTING MY WEB TRAFFIC YOU FUCKING BOT!
Idk why everyone is always looking at statcounter. I still feel like Cloudflare probably has better data.
It feels like macOS is somehow over represented there. Specially for a global statistic. In many countries macs are completely residual, where I live I almost know more people using linux than mac.
Anecdotally, I'm seeing a lot of bot traffic masquerading with a macOS user agent
Makes sense, no commercial site wants to block rich people
MacOS at 20% globally does seem to be extremely high. I would have expected something like 15 at most.
These are http requests, so it could be inflated from the larger proportion of software engineers using macOS, who also make significantly more requests than average, including in their usage of ai...
Maybe countries where macs are more popular throw it off. But I'd be surprised if even the US was over 20% for Mac (but not iOS).
Yep, seems about right.
The only thing this does not count are the offline devices. But in todays day and age, how many don't connect to the internet in some way or form?
Offline devices would be either air gapped old windows or stability Linux, probably Debian.
Whats up with android and iOS? They are counted, since they have their own colors, but shouldnt they be quite visible? I have a hard time believing there is more linux/macOS than android/iOS out there
Device type of Desktop answers that I think...
Whoopsiedoodles, my bad
This graph is like trumps approval rating
“better than eating broken glass”
Oh, you mean better than Windows Vista Aero.
I'm not sure they've even cleared that bar, to be honest
You say that but did you know that our new bowl of broken glass now come with the new groovy lemon© * topping?
*** : the "groovy lemon" topping is not to be legally considered as lemon and may induce in some people nausea, headaches, cramps or digesting issues, the final user waive any legal rights or reclamation while using our products.
I think Microsoft understands that and thats why their product is in the state it is.
@Fizz @pennomi
Microsoft is going down.
Microsoft desktop share is sure but its still the default and they dont care about non business uses
@Fizz
Even they switch. Look at France, Germany, Europe.
Ok its still dominated by windows. I'm hoping the trend of switching to linux continues but I'm still realistic about the situation. Which is that windows is not losing a huge marketshare. They are still comfortably in the lead and growing in the areas they actually care about.
That, plus in the past there have been places in Europe switching to Linux and then switching back. It seems like many learned from that experience and they are following better plans to switch software over time (rather than replacing everything at once), but we'll see
I'm hoping euOS can come out with a full desktop, MDM and idp stack and give businesses an easy way into the enterprise linux environment.
Well I can't speak for the whole world but by my Windows usage dropped 100% from 2025 to 2026.
Quick add more dogshit unwanted features and spyware to extract the maximum value out of customers over the short term!
I hope they never recover.
"Unknown" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
It looks like Windows computers is going to unknown. So they are just bad at detecting OS.
I'm not surprised. Between privacy concerns, forced features, and Linux becoming easier to use, the barrier to switching is lower than it used to be.
I just Minted my old laptop that I last used like.. 2-3 years ago to try out Ubuntu (which didn't go well.) The progress is huge and I'm really very confused on how well things work now, even all my games on Steam?? When did this all happen?? Gonna make the switch on my main PC in few weeks.
Proton has been a huge game changer tho
Incoming rename to Copilot OS.
I dual boot my AsshairTrimmer with CopilotOS and Arsch btw.
Aren't they making a CopilotOS?
That number seems rather low. I can see that number for overall OS share, including mobile devices, but for desktop I'd expect Windows to be a lot higher.
EDIT: Thinking about it further, if you included mobile devices, then Android would have to be even higher than Windows is here. Either way, these numbers look off.
Even if the numbers are a little off, that's a wonderful sight. Those of us using Linux for decades it feels like the early days of the internet when AOL users came flooding in.
I'd take that with a big pinch of salt since the shortfall is "unknown". Probably means they're picking up a fuck ton of bot traffic and there's nobody at the wheel over at StatCounter...
What?
Wow, breaking 15%. :blinking-guy:
I will switch to a computer for work with Linux or MacOS. The current situation with Windows is not OK. You need to get your shit together again basically.
Oh no... anyways.
Now I run windows on my surfing machine and my gaming machine. Otherwise I have no use for it, and what a boondoggle 11 was
Browsers and most games run on linux. Why keep using an OS with a profit motive behind it that's often against your best interests as a user?
Mostly laziness. Moving all my links/games is a time sink I will eventually have to do. But that time I just don't have atm.
If I were to build a new machine there is no way I'm buying a windows license. I doubt I'll ever buy or need on personally.
Work is another nightmare, but I think many of us know that pain.
Hope you can find the time. Not sure why you're getting downvoted. These are reasonable reasons.
I'll do my best, I think this winter will be when I can make time.
Bookmarks can easily be transferred and for games... well, just install a new boot drive and mount the drive with the games and call it a day.