Did Hackintosh just beat Linux?

Cleve Nettles
|
February 02, 2009
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Oh, dayum!  We just noticed something peculiar in this week's marketshare numbers from Net Applications.  Sketchy Mac OS's that didn't register version numbers outpaced Linux (and the iPhone) in January.  Those is most likely Hackintoshes.

Can we start talking about a mid-range Mac yet?

 

Operating System      Total Market Share

  Windows XP      63.76%
  Windows Vista      22.48%
  Mac OS X 10.5      5.28%
  Mac OS X 10.4      2.74%
  Windows 2000      1.37%
  Mac OS X (no version reported)      1.00%
  Linux      0.83%
  iPhone      0.48%
  MacIntel      0.47%
  Mac OS X Mach-O      0.29%
  Windows 98      0.23%
  Mac OS      0.14%

Comments (3)

Tom (not verified) | February 02, 2009 - 9:59pm

I think this is wrong - the latest version of Safari reports version numbers, but that only started around Dec 6 2007.

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18295

marked as fixed in firefox on october 30 2007:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=400089

so basically some people just don't upgrade, like those on 10.3, which Apple reports as having an install base about as big as those "unknown versions" right?

austrium (not verified) | February 03, 2009 - 5:35am

How is it that a "sketchy" Mac OS's that doesn't register version numbers is most likely a Hackintosh. As a user posted above it could be a software issue related to browser, or even a customization made by a user on a legitimate Mac OS.
Also, by looking at the graphs provided by Net Applications in detail it appears that for the Mac OS platform, reporting began in December 2008 (this seems to go for Mac OS X 10.5, 10.4, unknown version and Mach-O), while for MacIntel and Mac OS the use share starts earlier 2008 and declined toward the end of the year.
Although it's possible that an obscure OS identification string to be present in hacked version mass distributed over the internet, it can also be a software fault involved

doktor (not verified) | February 04, 2009 - 6:52am

Who cares?

We all know Linux it's shit anyway. Everyone but their rabid delusional fans. Screw 'em.