Although the use of Windows XP is shrinking, other operating systems being flogged by Redmond are gathering steam. A few months ago Windows’ monopoly was shrinking. XP use had fallen below 40 percent market share, Windows 8 had managed to grab 1 percent of the pie. The tame Apple Press talked about it as proof that Windows was slowly dying and the company might as well sign over its assets to Apple and Google as the future was underpowered, toys which can connect to the internet. But the latest figures show that Microsoft is back in charge.

After six months of losing market share, Windows 7 and Windows 8 managed to give it a big enough boost to see a gain. The latest market share data from Net Applications shows that December 2012 shows that Windows 8 has gained 0.55 percentage points, Windows 7 gained 0.40 percentage points. The figures are expected to grow in January when all those new PCs bought over Christmas go online. It is the first time Windows 7 has passed the 45 percent mark. XP and Vista use is continuing to fall.

Over all it gained 0.29 percentage points, from 91.45 percent to 91.74 percent. This was at the expense of both OS X, which lost 0.23 percentage points, and Linux which fell 0.06 percentage points. So it looks like Apple is starting to lose market share rather than gain it, and any hope that Linux might make an appearance on the desktop are completely unlikely.