Although Windows 7 is about to be replaced at the end of October with Windows 8, it has only now managed to overtake Windows XP as the most utilised desktop operating system (OS).

According to market research firm Net Applications, Windows XP has seen its global usage rate drop from 48.03% during October 2011 to 42.52% for August 2012, whilst Windows 7 went from 34.62% to 42.76% during the same period.  

Microsoft’s other prominent desktop OS, Windows Vista’s user share for August 2012 comes to 6.15%, whilst Apple’s combines Mac OS X share comes to 7.13%, meaning Mac OS X (all versions) has now also overtaken Windows Vista for third spot.

It must be noted though that the most recent versions of Mac OS, namely Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Mac OS X Lion, make up a mere 1.41% and 2.45% worldwide user share respectively.    

The global usage rate for Linux comes to just 1.1%, compared to all versions of Mac OS (7.13%) and all versions of Windows (91.77%).