I have always claimed that the widely used Operating System market share statistics from Net applications were not really accurate when it comes to MacOS and Linux market share. In my opinion there were two factors that prevented an accurate Worldwide market share to be produced: Linux browsers potentially ignoring the counter and improper geographical distribution.

Desktop Linux market share had a growth of about 50% last year according to the recent data by NetMarketShare. If we look at the data for year 2010, there was no growth at all. However, in 2011, starting from 0.96% market share in February, desktop Linux market share ended at 1.41%.

As I recently reported, there is an order of magnitude difference between the market share of Linux "out there" in the world, and the market share of LInux on Scienceblogs.com and on this very blog. Subsequently, I was trolled by my very own brother "...

We're told Linux is the only OS with a growing market share: Windows and Mac OS X actually shrank. The Net Applications report also shows Windows 7 already dwarfing all versions of Mac OS combined.

NetApplications is out with a couple of new metrics of market share for operating systems and browsers, and the news is good for open source. Topping their findings, Microsoft Windows' market share has dropped below 90 percent for the first time in its measurements. The share erosion is largely attributed to increased interest in the Mac platform, but Linux is cited as on the rise as well.

I consistently find myself looking up statistics for OS market share around this time every year. Every year numbers change. Every website reports different numbers from the last, and the only thing that one can assuredly deduce is that it is impossible to accurately gauge how many systems are running a specific OS. With that said, market share does matter.

Linux has failed to win either mind share or market share on the desktop. Google’s Chrome OS will do little to change that. Learn why

The market share of an OS is important. The larger the market share the more companies take notice and create software and hardware compatible for it.

Windows 7 might not be officially available until October 22, but the latest numbers from W3C show it's rapidly closing on the combined market share of every flavor of Linux.