Microsoft Windows witnessed a slide in share for all operating systems in April, which is the first month of the global lockdown following the surge in coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
While Linux (made up of all distributions) surged by a remarkable 1.5 points to end at 2.9% in April, the highest since October 2017, and Windows accounted for 86.9% of global OS share, a decline of 2.3 percentage points.
As the largest loss by Microsoft Windows since 2017, which according to Net Applications, after major adjustments to its share numbers after purging it of bogus traffic from bots.
How individual Windows editions, such as Windows 10, fared?
Windows overall witnessed a ripple effect, which caused individual editions, such as Windows 10, to have similar losses. But if measured as portion of all Windows, the decline by Windows 10, were much less significant.
And given the so-called zero-sum game, as operating system share is often perceived, if an OS goes down, another must have gone up, so April's share saw major advances by rival operating systems, such as Apple's macOS climbing by eight-tenths of a percentage point to end at 9.8%, its highest mark since 2019.
And the biggest surprise, Linux, including all distributions hit a remarkable 1.5 points to end at 2.9%, the highest mark since 2017 and perhaps, just before the Net Applications data purge.
How the different Linux distros fared?
Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distro, was pegged at a whopping 1.9% or 66% of the Linux overall share, which is a gigantic increase from the three-tenths of a percentage point the previous month.
The fact that there were suddenly more machines running the Canonical distro in April is a bit of puzzle, though people are more likely using personal Macs while working from home, as corporate-owned Windows machine remained at the office, but the big uptick in Linux is still a puzzle.
Albeit, Windows' overall share did slid, but the impact on individual editions was pretty minor. And for Windows 10, it actually climbed in April, ending at 64.5% share, which is two-tenths of a percentage point.
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