back to article Windows internet share drops below 90 per cent

The number of Windows users surfing the web fell below 90 per cent for the first time, making for Microsoft's biggest market share drop in the past two years, according to new statistics. Net Applications, which compiled the November data based on the sites it monitors, reports systems running Windows during the month was 89. …

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  1. Neil Boulton
    Thumb Up

    Wakka Wakka

    I have sucessfully identified the portion of the graph that resembles Pac Man.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I blame Namco...

    ...After all, from your graph it is clear than Pacman is at the root of the problem.

  3. BillyBoy
    Coat

    Pack man anyone?

    ....... yep, that's the one.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pac-Man

    Good to see Pac-Man is still about :)

  5. Wokstation
    Coat

    OoooWakkaWakkaWakkaWakka...

    ...Sorry.

    Mine's the one with the funky pills in the pocket.

  6. Lee T.
    Coat

    Oh come on, the graph's a bit obvious

    I mean really, did you have to? The answer, of course, is yes.

    < . . . . . = pac man

  7. Simpson

    fastest growing

    At this rate, playstation3 will have a 95% market share in just 28 months. Once news of this gets out, I expect shares of Sony stock to quintuple.

    On second thought, it doesn't make sense. For PS3 to reach a 95% market share in just 28 months, we would need to assume that the current trend will continue unchanged into infinity... I'm sure that the people who buy and sell stocks for a living are reasonable people, who would know that past statistical data does not guarantee future performance.

    On third thought, I expect shares of Sony stock to go up 10x.

  8. Charles Manning

    Pacman

    Does that still run on Windows?

  9. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Thumb Up

    Pac Man on Windows?

    Coool !

  10. Joshua Goodall
    Coat

    Pac-man!

    The yellow hunger.

  11. Henry Wertz Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Hey it's Pacman!

    Just saying, that pie chart does have the striking resemblance.

  12. yeah, right.

    obvious

    So long as the sucker doesn't get a powerup, the ghost in the machine should eventually take care of that particular pacman.

  13. DAN*tastik

    Deca based system is a standard

    And, according to some companies standards are dangerous and are made to be broken.

    Will the successor of Vista be the first to try and force us to go octal? That 89 would become a staggering 131(oct)%

  14. Kanhef
    Boffin

    Other interesting statistics

    Firefox market share exceeded 20% for November; Internet Explorer is below 70%. Safari had 7%, and the remainder was mostly Chrome, Opera, and Netscape(!). And usage of the Cuil search engine (remember them?) is at, to two decimal places, 0.00%.

  15. JC

    Demographics

    I don't believe these figures, even in the technologically repressed culture I endure, Linux is over 1%.

  16. Steve Davies Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    And spotted Over Redmond

    No not Black Helicopters but Flying Chairs.

    Air Traffic Control reported several UFO's originating from the Microsoft Campus. They were all tracked south towards Cupertino CA whereupon they disappeared from Radar Screens.

  17. Andy Barber
    Flame

    Where's Firefox?

    ... Or is it in the Mac total, as it has the same core software?

  18. TheThing
    Thumb Up

    Pacman?

    The chart looks like one on purpose?

  19. censored

    How to read statistics...

    Your first line is unjustified from that info. The number of Windows users could have risen, but if the number using a different OS to surf rose faster (iPhone and netbook users?) then the Windows percentage would fall.

    Given net use is still rising, I find it hard to believe actual Windows use fell.

  20. Paul Bottomley
    Happy

    I spy with my little eye...

    PACMAN

  21. Stuart Harrison
    Joke

    Pac Man pie chart?

    OSX gobbling up market share perhaps?

    /Coat

  22. Oliver Mayes
    Joke

    Hmm

    Is this just a ruse so you can show a thinly disguised picture of Pacman?

  23. chuBb.
    Coat

    hmmmmmmmmmm

    microsoft is pacman?

    mines the one with fruit in the pocket and ghosts following

  24. Chris
    Thumb Up

    Retro...

    I like the Pacman you've managed to squeeze into this article. Nice work!

  25. James Woods

    bye bye windows

    I personally refuse to upgrade to windows vista. Microsoft stopped supporting XP or at least my version of XP. I purchased this computer im on right now simply because I didn't want to spend $300 on a new XP cd (because I lost the OS CD for the gateway I purchased and gateway refused to do anything about it). Once I get bored with XP Pro, i'll be going to CentOS linux as my desktop.

    Credit goes to the defunct Packard Bell. When I lost my windows Diskettes (13 or so) they sent me new ones, no questions asked, no warranty contract, it was a Packard Bell and they supported their brand.

    I find all these new windows versions to be nonsense and a ripoff and im also insulted that windows cost less in some areas. It's bad enough we have wealth re-distribution as it is, im not paying 300 for something when someone else is going to pay 150.

    See ya Gates!

  26. Steven
    Jobs Horns

    Awkward in my house

    In the same room, I've got my PC which I use Firefox on, my wife's PC which she uses IE7 for her browsing needs (no matter how much I've tried to get her to change) and the PS3, which obviously uses its own browser.

    Nice round figures, there, but it's not an address you'd try to market to.

    At least none of us use Safari.... *flees*

  27. Jamie Kitson

    Pedant

    > The number of Windows users surfing the web fell below 90 per cent...

    So 10% of Windows users don't surf the web? Surely that should read:

    > The number of web surfers using Windows fell below 90 per cent...

  28. Adam Foxton
    Paris Hilton

    "Thanksgiving Blamed"?

    Surely use of Windows and sales of Vista would rise since everyone's in the market for a turkey...

    Paris because... something to do with birds and stuffing....

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    2009 - The Year of the Linux Desktop (tm)

    If the long term trends continue, then 2009 will be the year that Linux breaks through the 1% mark (and Mac usage will also break through 10%). And it may go quicker than that, even, with the Small, Cheap Computers that are seemingly becoming commonplace.

    No wonder MS are accelerating Windows 7 - I'm sure there'll be a Lite mode to go on those laptops to try to squeeze out Linux, is it all too late?

  30. Watashi

    Credit Crunch

    It would be interesting to see if petrol consumption market share has moved away from family cars and towards executive cars over recent months. In a recession, it's the people with a low amount of disposable income who will cut back first. Just as struggling working class families will try to reduce petrol use where middle-class families will not have to, so owners of cheaper computers (ie Windows computers) will need to cut back on internet costs where wealthier Mac owners can afford to carry on as usual.

    I predict that when the recession ends, there will be a splurge on low end PCs and a big increasing in surfing amongst the working class demographic, leading to a move back towards Windows based surfing in the stats.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Manure stats

    I go round surfing with Konqueror saying its IE6 on XP, don't you just love telling lies to surveys :)

  32. Mark McC
    Linux

    The Thanksgiving angle

    Perhaps during Thanksgiving Windows users are off celebrating with their families, leaving the Internet free for the lonely Linux/OS X nerds to capture a larger share as they tuck into their family-sized bag of turkey-flavoured Doritos.

    I bet a Tux filled with sage stuffing would be mighty tasty.

  33. paul

    More than that

    My linux firefox sometimes identifies itself as a windows xp ie 6 machine - so I can get past some stupid sites with iE only checks. Im not the only one.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Mario

    It's cool that the chart resembles Mario (or was in Luigi? which one was the girl?).

    However the stats are wrong, these are stats about who accessed the INNERNET, not what OS is on the HDD. Only 10% of people with a computer bother connect to the innernet anyway, and even then it's just to check emails, which isn't really the internet at all (different protocol).

    Linux has a much higher share than 1%, but linux users are stealth and cannot be detected using statistics.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ummm what...

    ------

    However the stats are wrong, these are stats about who accessed the INNERNET, not what OS is on the HDD. Only 10% of people with a computer bother connect to the innernet anyway, and even then it's just to check emails, which isn't really the internet at all (different protocol).

    ------

    Yes the stats show what OS people were using when connecting to the Internet - that's what it was about, not OS proliferation in general.

    Email still connects to the Internet - just not the World Wide Web, unless of course it's web-based email (as opposed to POP3)... which for home users is probably the majority of people.

    Hey ho - 78% of statistics are made up on the spot anyway.

  36. Simon
    Coat

    On came on here to post the word "Pacman"

    But so many of you guys beat me too it, awwww.

    Atari controller in pocket.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Linux, BSD and Mac are probably higher

    It's just we understand our machines and how to secure our machines from prying eyes like these, additionally due to the narrow minded, short-sighted developers, we have to constantly mimic a Windows machine's agent signature so we can get onto these wonderful Windows-standards based websites!

  38. Big Bear
    Joke

    @2009 - The Year of the Linux Desktop (tm)

    No no no no no - it's T3h Year of the SolarubuntOS Desktop shurely? Linux was sooooo 2008 and Apple 2007... my astrologer told me and Mystic Meg don't lie.

  39. Dennis
    Coat

    @ DAN*tastik

    'scuse the pedantry Dan, but isn't the use of per-cent based on the fact that we are use a decimal system.

    So your 131 actually becomes roughly 70 over 100 (where 100 = 77+1) (all OCT).

    but it's not per cent, as cent refers to a decimal value.

    I await with glee the etymologists along to tell me what per 100 is called in Octal.

    Mines to one with the TI Graphing calculator in one pocket and tissues for the nose bleeds in another,

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thanksgiving??

    A good proportion of computer users would not be gorging themselves to death during Thanksgiving, since they neither know or care what or when it is.

    Or did this survey only cover the United States of America?

  41. Schultz

    Calls for log scale

    Or is my screen simply to small?

  42. This post has been deleted by its author

  43. david
    Stop

    On the linux question

    How were these stats correlated - I know plenty of linux geek, sorry, guys who have tweeked their browser to look like a windows based system so they can actually be given the html they requested. Linux may well be over 1% or maybe not ..

    also is a windows user who does twice as much surfing as a linux user twice as prominant in the stats??

  44. IGnatius T Foobar
    Linux

    Linux market share is much higher

    Dunno where you're getting your stats from, but actual use of Linux is much higher. Some say that it approaches or even matches Apple's.

  45. Greg

    Surprised to see the PS3 there

    And yet, I'm not. I've had a PS3 for a month or two now and the browser really is absolutely excellent. It's now also the fastest method of getting online for me - including my smartphone. By the time any other device has booted the browser, I'm already checking my e-mails with the PS3. Love it.

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stats are US only then?

    Thanksgiving can't explain loss of share if they are not.

  47. The BigYin

    Weird

    This site http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp shows Linux at 3.8% and Mac at 5.5% (based on browsers alone I believe, not other internet connections). What amazed me was the FF penetration, so I think these results might be skewed towards the more tech-savvy.

    Nice summary of various stats here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_desktop_operating_systems

  48. ray hartman
    Flame

    Fractions count, right .....?

    Woo-Hoo ! As a browser-supported-OS Linux has darted in-five-years from 0.087% to 0.87% of the herbivore population. That means in 100-y Linux will be at 4.4%.

    Debiolians and Slackmolians rejoice. You go, penguin ! QWAKQWAKQWAK

  49. Kanhef
    Boffin

    re: octal

    89/100 (decimal) = 0131/0144 (octal) ~= 00.7075 (octal). So 89% (decimal) is only 70 'percent' in octal; but note that the largest fraction you can have is 0.7777...

    89/100 (decimal) = 0x59/0x64 (hexadecimal) ~= 0x0.E3D7 (hex),

    89/100 (decimal) = 1011001/1100100 (binary) ~= 0.11100001 (binary).

    If current trends continue, a 11.1 'percent' market share sounds about right for Windows 9 (or whatever it gets called). Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need a lie-down after all that long division.

  50. KenBW2
    Stop

    @watashi re: Credit Crunch

    Seriously, wtf?

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    @mark McC

    I bet a Tux filled with sage stuffing would be mighty tasty.

    ewwww...only if you like eating 'possum with feathers

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