Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Losing Share in Servers and Desktops, GNU/Linux and FOSS Gain

Empty servers room



Summary: Very low customer retention at Microsoft as Nginx and Apache grow, Android spreads Linux on the client side

MR. Pogson has been tracking the decline of Microsoft's IIS and the latest report speaks of Microsoft falling to 3rd position in Web servers. To quote the commentary: "Nginx surpassed M$’s IIS as the number two web server on active sites in Netcraft’s estimation. This is only fitting since IIS is burdened by having a bunch of salesmen design it and it being a part of M$’s lock-in. People want lowest cost IT that performs well. Both Apache web server and Nginx web server are better choices, apparently. IIS clung to less than 12% share while Nginx took a bit from Apache and grew a bit. Gone are the “good old days” when M$ paid people to use IIS to boost share. That plan failed."



"Linux is not going away. It's spreading at Microsoft's expense."GNU/Linux market share is a subject that occupied our attention quite a lot a few years ago. One reader sent us some aggregated data [ODF | PDF] that shows growth for Linux on desktops and phone as well. The reader says: "I just finished collating the annual market share statistics from w3schools.com browser OS statistics. It is a comparison between MSFT, Linux, Mac, and mobile OS's. I thought you might appreciate these, you may use these as you wish.

"Note, Linux is on the rise as shown by the numbers. MSFT is now 84.1%, which seems to mirror other info sources, as I informally have seen. I think Linux underrepresentation may simply be due to the fact that these are only on-line statistics. Linux in foreign 3rd world countries and education will under reflected, as Internet service is expensive. Overall, education and businesses for example will rely upon their internal Intranet (server) resources more than on outside. (Reference Eddie Ball's article some time back, that if a person does not need an Internet browser, they don't have access, to cut down company time abuse.)"

Linux is not going away. It's spreading at Microsoft's expense. ⬆

"Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect."

--Linus Torvalds

Recent Techrights' Posts

More Shutdowns at Microsoft, Hundreds of Workers Impacted Shortly
It's not the entire wave, just part of it
The World Needs Activists With Social Skills and Perseverance
An everyday activist makes life better for everybody, everywhere (not for personal gain or even credit)
 
Gemini Links 24/10/2026: Automobile Differential Tire Movement, Samsung Washer Woe, and Slop Scraping
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 23, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, October 23, 2026
As Usual, Late on a Friday XBox (Microsoft) Releases Evidence of Its Demise
We covered several such Friday announcements earlier this year
Gemini Links 24/10/2026: Break/Fix and OpenStreetMap
Links for the day
Links 23/10/2026: Slop "is Scaling Transnational Repression" and Infringement and DMCA Suits Against Suno/Anthropic (Plagiarism Blenders)
Links for the day
The Register MS: About 60 Mentions of "AI" in One Day Are Paid-for Spam (Sponsored Hype, Composed by the Companies Covered)
The Register MS is a dying site
Links 22/10/2026: MElon (Elon Musk) Election Interference and Perl/Raku Foundation by the Numbers
Links for the day
Techrights Audience Grew as a Function of the Intensity of Attacks on Its Existence
We try to publish fewer stories but better (not necessarily long but at least important) stories
TechRepublic is Becoming a Slopfarm
It seems like TechRepublic became LLM slop (maybe all of it, maybe only some of it for now)
Techrights is Not About GNU/Linux, Tux Machines Is
When we say "GNU/Linux" we emphasise the GNU
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XII - Lawfare to Cover Up Microsoft's Restricted Boot Calamity (Microsoft as Authority Over Linux), Garrett Wants to Talk About Penises Instead
When lawsuits become a political weapon
Without Microsoft's Monopoly (and Monopoly Rents) the Inevitable Microsoft Mass Layoffs Carry on Endlessly
Microsoft Windows is not retaining the dominance it once had
IBM's Debt Grew About $2 Billion in 3 Months
The silent layoffs still seem to impact Red Hat
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 22, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, October 22, 2026
Gemini Links 22/10/2026: Solar MiniBBS, Building Major Tom, and Zig
Links for the day
Links 22/10/2026: Busan’s Celebrity Shark in Canal Again
Links for the day
Links 22/10/2026: "Software Developers Have Been Promoted Into Incompetence"
Links for the day
Intercontinental Brigading - Part XI - Losing Over a Million Pounds (Borrowed Money) to Try to Silence Critics of Restricted Boot With Microsoft-Controlled "Certificates"
Garrett is also very jealous of Daniel Pocock
Links 22/10/2026: eBay to Lay Off a Tenth of Staff (Again), Node.js and PHP Security Crises, Climate News
Links for the day
Red Hat Layoffs Still Going on This Week (Whilst IBM's Debt Grows in Spite of Mass Layoffs)
IBM is bluffing/cheating the shareholders again
IBM's Debt Continues to Increase While the Company Rapidly Shrinks
This is what a dying company looks like
Linux Kernel Needs Diversity and Diversity of Good Code, Not LLM Slop
Linux (and Linus) are kicking a can down the road
Microsoft Shrinks Every Year
Microsoft will try to spin or twist this as "efficiency"
Gemini Links 22/10/2026: Holiday Inn and Emacs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 21, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 21, 2026