Market Shares for OS's, Browsers, Search Engines ...

I found some data on the market share of OS's, browsers, and search engines by the major players. I was particularly interested in the market share of Linux in the OS realm. The data is collected using web hits for the month of June 2008. First the OS data.

Operating Systems

Assuming the data is reliable, it is surprising that Linux's market share is less than 1%. Considering how much more user-friendly Linux has become, the many distros that are available for people's choosing, and the great stability Linux has achieved, it is disappointing to see it failing to make serious inroads. May be vendors need to provide customers the option of buying machines with Linux pre-installed. Better yet, computer vendors should provide the option of buying a computer without an OS.

Search Engines

The other piece of data I was curious about is the search engine market shares. Google is clearly the leader and its dominance will probably continue for some time. I expected MSN and Microsoft Live to have a slightly larger market share. It is obvious Microsoft is unlikely to challenge Google's search engine's dominance without the acquisition of Yahoo!'s.

Browsers

Last but not least, the browser wars. Am I the only one who is shocked by Internet Explorer still having 73% market share? It has been inferior to Firefox, Safari, and Opera for many years, yet people still use it overwhelmingly.

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