this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
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Windows Drops Under 60% in Global Desktop OS Share for the First Time in Years (lemmy.nz)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by beep@piefed.world to c/linux@programming.dev
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cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1250407/windows-drops-under-60-in-global-desktop-os-share-for-the-first-time-in-years

Desktop Operating System Market Share Worldwide - June 2026

Desktop Operating Systems Percentage Market Share
Windows 56.61%
Unknown 21.45%
OS X 11.89%
macOS 4.48%
Linux 4.36%
Chrome OS 1.21%

Source: Statcounter.

all 21 comments
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[–] ryper@lemmy.ca 51 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I don't think something that lists 21% as "Unknown" should be taken seriously.

[–] flameleaf@programming.dev 12 points 3 weeks ago

Year of the unknown desktop?

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 47 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

[–] mereo@piefed.ca 12 points 3 weeks ago

With such high number of unknowns, I don't think we can trust the stats.

[–] popcar2@programming.dev 34 points 3 weeks ago

Eh, it sounds like a statistics error. "Unknown" jumped up as soon as Windows went down, and I don't think they lost 15% market share in only one year.

[–] MangoPenguin@piefed.social 16 points 3 weeks ago

Since this is based on web analytics, I suspect most of the 'Uknown' traffic is AI bots and other scanners, so I'm not sure how that really affects the data.

I guess technically they are generally linux based, but not a desktop OS.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago

They really should try harder to ID the unknown(s).

[–] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 14 points 3 weeks ago

1/5th of the entire survey is unknown. That's an awful lot of grey area to be making such a claim. We have no idea how many of those are using windows.

I'd be more inclined to trust the Steam hardware survey over this.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 12 points 3 weeks ago

Statcounter, huh. I'm guessing "unknown" means Windows 11 but they haven't updated their software to recognise it yet.

[–] Zangoose@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

The fact that the macOS usage is still only half as much as OS X after ~6 years is pretty incredible to me, especially since Intel macs have still been supported until the end of this release cycle

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 7 points 3 weeks ago

Unknown OS growing massively.

[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 6 points 3 weeks ago

...on the notoriously unreliable Statcounter.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

My wife has been eyeing a new laptop and sick of the constant copilot Microsoft garbage, looked at the entry level MacBooks for the first time.

[–] Krusty@quokk.au 0 points 3 weeks ago

I mean... There's gnome. It's awful. But still better than Mac. :)

[–] Krusty@quokk.au 4 points 3 weeks ago

Wonder what percent is bots.

[–] jaschen@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

This "study" is awful. Wtf is Unknown? I run multiple websites. It's consistently at 75% Windows. My website is globally. The % is lower in the US.

[–] bad1080@piefed.social 4 points 3 weeks ago

over a fifth of all os' are unknown?

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 2 points 3 weeks ago

Perhaps Windows users are finally learning about privacy and hiding their identity.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

We are seeing a general decline thats for sure.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 weeks ago

why would one even bother publishing data where a fifth of it is "unknown"