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The dominance of Microsoft Windows, the centerpiece of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against the company, remains undisputed, according to research released Wednesday by IDC.

Worldwide shipments of Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows Millennium Edition comprised 92 percent of all client operating systems shipped last year, up from 89 percent the year before, says Al Gillen, research manager for IDC's operating environments program.

Windows 98 shipments were up 36 percent over the prior year, while Windows 95 shipments fell off dramatically, Gillen says. Overall, Microsoft's Windows 9x and Windows Millennium Edition operating system shipments were up by 8 percent.

Linux remains a bit player on the desktop with less than 2 percent market share, although that's a 25 percent jump from 1999, IDC's research shows. Linux also continues to garner backing from IT industry leaders, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell, all of which are shipping workstations and low-end servers with the Linux operating environment.

"Critics and nonbelievers can no longer dismiss the Linux market as a fad," Gillen says.

Dominating Servers, Too

Windows also strengthened its position in the server operating system market. The IDC figures show Windows NT and all other versions of Windows for the server have a 41 percent share of shipments worldwide. Not only did Microsoft increase its server operating system shipments, it increased them at a rate significantly faster--20 percent--than the overall market, where growth was less than 13 percent.

With 24 percent growth, Linux is the only other category of operating system to increase its shipments. Linux has 27 percent of the server operating system market, Gillen says. UNIX managed to hold its own in total shipments, but did not grow its market share.

"Microsoft products and Linux products are continuing to squeeze other operating environments out of the market," Gillen says.

As part of its defense in the antitrust trial, Microsoft has said Linux represents a threat to Windows. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard oral arguments on Microsoft's appeal of the case.

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