In spite of the heavy and widespread criticism, Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista, managed to once again increase its popularity in August, leaving behind not only outdated Windows 2000, but also outstripping Apple’s Mac OS!

In August the share of Windows Vista-based computers used to browse the Internet was 6.26%, up considerably from June and July, according to data collected by Net Applications, a provider of Web tools. The shares of Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems decreased slightly to 3.66% and 80.48%, respectively, which is quite natural as old computers are replaced with new ones and a lot of systems nowadays come with Windows Vista operating system.

It is interesting to note that currently the share of Windows Vista-based personal computers is even higher than that of Mac OS-based systems, which are used by 6.15% of users. Still, Apple is also gaining popularity slowly but surely, something which cannot be said about “other” operating systems, namely outdated Windows versions, Linux OSes and so on, which have been losing market share for many months now and are used in 3.44% of systems that are used for Internet browsing.

In late July Microsoft said it had managed to sell 60 millionth copy of Windows Vista operating system (OS) late in June and that the install base of Vista eclipsed the whole install base of Apple computers in the first five weeks of sales.

It was unclear at press time how many computer systems Net Applications tracked in August, 2007.