Windows 8 finally passes Vista in OS market share

Microsoft’s Windows 8 is now a more popular operating system than the reviled Windows Vista, eliminating a source of embarrassment as Microsoft’s latest OS slowly continues to gather steam.

According to Net Applications’ NetMarketshare tracker, Windows 8 captured 5.10 percent of all desktop systems the firm tracks for the month of June. Vista’s market share now stands at 4.62 percent. Of course, both will need a few months (or years) before they pass Windows XP and Windows 7, both of which dipped about half a percentage point’s worth of share to finish the month with 44.37 percent and 37.17 percent, respectively.

There was good news on the browser front as well: Net Applications also reported that Internet Explorer 10 surged 4.26 percentage points to finish with 13.52 percent of the desktop market.

That marked the first time that IE10, which shipped with Windows 8 (but is also available for Windows 7), passed Internet Explorer 9.0, which fell 3.68 points to 11.71 percent of the desktop market.

Both numbers continue to verify the momentum for Windows 8, which has struggled to lift its head above both third-party operating systems, as well as its own rivals in the Microsoft nest.

:story: PCWorld