Microsoft's kind of make or break Windows 7 launch pushed the OS to a stonking 3.48 per cent market share by the end of last month, figures from tracker firm Net Applications show.

The firm's figures showed Windows 7 popping up on 3.67 per cent of PCs it encountered on the 31st.

While the figure might appear minuscule, it represents more than a doubling of the OS's 1.73 per cent market share at the beginning of the month. And remember, some customers are still having a little bit of trouble installing the software they pre-ordered.

Windows 7 has been showing up in Net Applications' market share figures for some time, due to the vendor's extremely loose beta strategy.

By October 21, the day before the official launch, it was at 1.89 per cent. The next day it had ticked up to 1.99 per cent, before tracking up more or less consistently, hitting 2.85 per cent on October 30, 3.48 per cent on Halloween, and 3.67 per cent yesterday.

Overall, Windows OS's took 92.52 per cent of the market for October, with the Mac taking 5.27 per cent, and Linux on 0.96 per cent.

The firm bases its figures on data from the browsers of site visitors to live stats customers. Back in January, Windows stood at 93.66 per cent, with Mac at 4.71 per cent and Linux at 0.9 per cent. Over the same period, iPhone has jumped from 0.18 per cent to 0.96 per cent. ®

Bootnote

So, as readers have been pointing out in comments, that does indeed mean Microsoft's total share has dropped over the course of this year, with the Mac OS the biggest gainer. And, at this rate, Jobs' baby will take its rightful place at the top of the chart in a mere century or two.