Over the past three months, Linux's share of the desktop operating system market has risen by 0.35% from 1.65% to 2%. This comes nine months after it initially beat out Windows Vista in September 2015 when it reached 1.74%, decreasing back to 1.57% shortly thereafter. If Linux market share continues to increase at this rate, it could reach Windows 8's 2.45% in a matter of months.
Linux itself is composed of numerous distributions, the most popular of which was once Ubuntu which, as of 2010, had as much of Linux's market share as Windows 7 does the whole operating system market's (about 50%).
While there aren't any current graphs showing individual distribution market shares (most likely due to the sheer number of them), DistroWatch tracks the popularity of Linux distributions based on the number of page views they each receive on their website. From this, it appears Ubuntu seems to have lost some popularity and is now being overtaken by Linux Mint.
| Ranking | Distribution |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mint |
| 2 | Debian |
| 3 | Ubuntu |
| 4 | Fedora |
| 5 | Manjaro |
Windows 10 use has continued to steadily rise since its release in August 2015 and is currently at 19.14%. This corresponds to the gradual decrease in the market shares of Windows 7 and Windows XP.
Windows 10 Market Share
Windows XP Market Share
Windows 7 Market Share
Sources:
Overall OS Market Share Graphs
Linux Distribution Market Share Pie Chart
DistroWatch Linux Page View Rankings