page_title: Usage share of operating systems
section_title: Mainframes
hierarchical_section_title: Usage share of operating systems / Mainframes
caption_attribution_description: IBM Z10. Gigante mesmo.
context_page_description: The usage share of operating systems is the percentage of computing devices that run each operating system at any particular time. All such figures are necessarily estimates because data about operating system share is difficult to obtain; there are few reliable primary sources – and no agreed methodologies for its collection.
  Operating systems can be defined a software platform installed upon a computing device such as: desktop and notebook computers, smartphones, and in many other forms, serving varied purposes and roles.
  In the area of desktop and laptop computers, Microsoft Windows is the most commonly installed OS, at approximately between 77-87.8% globally. Apple's macOS accounts for approximately 9.6-13%, Google's Chrome OS is up to 6% and other Linux distributions are at around 2%. All these figures vary somewhat in different markets, and depending on how they are gathered.
  In the personal computing platform area of smartphones and watches Google's Android dominates with over 2.5 billion users. Other mobile phone operating systems include Apple's iOS, KaiOS and Series 30+.
context_section_description: Mainframes are larger and more powerful than servers, but not supercomputers. They are used to process large sets of data, for example enterprise resource planning or credit card transactions.
  The most common operating system for mainframes is IBM's z/OS. Operating systems for IBM Z generation hardware include IBM's proprietary z/OS, Linux on IBM Z, z/TPF, z/VSE and z/VM.
  Gartner reported on 23 December 2008, that Linux on System z was used on approximately 28% of the "customer z base" and that they expected this to increase to over 50% in the following five years. Of Linux on IBM Z, Red Hat and Micro Focus compete to sell RHEL and SLES respectively:
  Prior to 2006, Novell claimed a market share of 85% or more.
  Red Hat has since claimed 18.4% in 2007 and 37% in 2008.
  Gartner reported at the end of 2008 that Novell had an 80% share of mainframe Linux.
caption: IBM's System z10
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