Usage share of operating systems
The usage share of an operating system is the percentage of computers running that operating system (OS). These statistics are estimates as usage data is difficult to obtain and measure. Reliable primary sources are limited and data collection methodology is not formally agreed upon.
Devices connecting to the World Wide Web log which operating system they are using, and so are an approximate measure of OS usage among consumer devices. As of December 2025, among all devices Android, which uses the Linux kernel, is the world's most common operating system to connect to the web with 34.9% of the global market, followed by Windows with 29.98%, iOS with 16.81%, macOS with 2.03%, and other operating systems with 9.06% total.
Between different classes of devices:
- For smartphones and other mobile devices, Android has 72% share of traffic, and Apple's iOS has 28%.
- For desktop computers and laptops, Microsoft Windows has 62.16%, followed by unknown operating systems at 18.75%, Mac OS at 14.58%, desktop Linux at 3.09%, then Google's ChromeOS at 1.42%, as of June 2026.
- For tablets, Apple's iPadOS (a variant of iOS) has 51.23% share and Android has 48.61% worldwide.
Of the top 500 most powerful supercomputers, all since November 2017 have used Linux.
The global server operating system market share has Linux leading with a 63.1% market share, followed by Windows, Unix and other operating systems.
The most numerous type of device with an operating system are embedded systems. Not all embedded systems have operating systems, instead running their application code on the "bare metal"; of those that do have operating systems, a high percentage are standalone or do not have a web browser, which makes their usage share difficult to measure. Some operating systems used in embedded systems are more widely used than some of those mentioned above. For example, modern Intel microprocessors contain an embedded management processor running a version of the Minix operating system.