This IDC study examines the operating systems and subsystems market for the 2004–2006 period, and provides marketwide share data as well as vendor share data on a platform-by-platform basis.

"The operating systems and subsystems market in 2006 was flat compared with 2005 due to the tech guarantee program that Microsoft had in place leading up to the Windows Vista launch," said Al Gillen, research vice president, System Software, at IDC. "Other platforms performed as expected, with Unix close to flat and Linux up by 48% compared with 2005."