The PC market is dominated by the Windows operating system. There are alternatives, but most commercial applications run Windows OS, and the usage for the average user makes sense. However, Linux users often dream of the "year of Linux on desktop," where Linux starts dominating the PC market and mass adoption starts. In reality, this isn't the case as most people use the default or install the Windows OS. Today, we learn that Linux broke the 3% market share number after 30 years of presence. Being the highest market share it ever recorded, the OSes based on the Linux kernel now represent 3.07% of the entire market.

The survey data conducted by StatCounter shows that Windows holds 68.23%, OS X for macOS holds 21.32, ChromeOS has a 4.13% share, while unknown OSes hold 3.24%. This includes BSD-based alternatives and others. It is worth noting that Linux adoption could be a part of Steam Deck, which runs on a SteamOS 3.0 distribution based on Arch Linux. It also includes a Proton compatibility layer, which helps Windows games run on Linux, so users have an easier time running their favorite applications.

According to web analytics company StatCounter, January 2018 was the year of the OS world's "flippening" - where Windows 10 finally surpassed the old, trusty Windows 7 in users' systems. According to the firm, Windows 10 in January was present in 42.78% of the worldwide desktop market share, just a hair above Windows 7's 41.86%. Windows 8.1 stands as the ugly duckling, with only 8.72 percent of the market still holding on to that OS.

Now, granted, one analytics company does not a trend make; there are a myriad of factors that might explain discrepancies between different companies' estimates. however, the fact remains that this is the first time Windows 10 is reported to have surpassed Windows 7 in terms of pure number of live systems. Also to take into account is that even in analytics firms that don't display these results, Windows 10 is clearly gaining traction against Windows 7 - one needs only look at the trendlines for both OSes on NetMarketShare, for instance, to see that there's a clear, positive momentum for WIndows 10 when compared to Windows 7. It's only a matter of time until all firms report the same, really. Still, this news comes years later than what Microsoft had hoped for with Windows 10; adoption of the OS hasn't been quite as predicted by the company. Still, Microsoft's ongoing work on the software, clear roadmap and support efforts seem to be paying off.