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LOL, an Apple shill refers to an Apple shill site.

Here's the real info

91.06% to Windows. I know you want to believe that your shit choice in OS is popular and that people like it, but they don't. Sorry to shatter your delusion.

Look: I work in and Admin Windows all day at work. I develop Windows Application software for a living., yadda, yadda. I KNOW the Difference.

Every day, and in every way, I am reminded about how much more well thought out and just plain more pleasant to use OS X is over any version of Windows that I have had the displeasure to use (3.10 to 8, and NT 3.51 to Server 2014). Windows 7 (which I have on my work laptop), is only JUST tolerable, and the way they are going these days...

LOL, an Apple shill refers to an Apple shill site.

Here's the real info

91.06% to Windows. I know you want to believe that your shit choice in OS is popular and that people like it, but they don't. Sorry to shatter your delusion.

I don't know if I'd call it "desperation" so much as "recognizing a changing landscape." Its hard to compete with free (Linux) and Apple's essentially giving away OSX with their hardware as well. Windows is the only major OS you still pay for these days.

And really, its not all that much skin off their backs. Probably 90+% of people who already have Windows will never upgrade it until/unless they upgrade the entire computer with a preinstalled OEM version. Not that I have any insider info, but I would guess that off-the-shelf sales of Windows are miniscule compared to the OEM and other commercial contracts. Hell the second most common version of Windows is still XP http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0, 14 years later and long after support was cut off!

Plus, they're still pushing their mobile-integrated (and now XBox-integrated) unified platform idea, so the more people they get on the new Windows (even with Metro being less obnoxious,) the more people they might convince to buy mobile Windows products (and more to the point, start buying stuff from the Windows store which is near-free money once they convince developers enough to put stuff up there and get enough users to buy stuff that the store can become self-sustaining.)

More and more people are choosing to dump the traditional desktop and go with mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

No they are augmenting their desktop/laptop with tablets and/or smartphones. There is no significant shrinking of the desktop/laptop market.

Windows 8 was a flop and by extension Windows 10 will be a flop because nobody wants a Microsoft anything these days.

You say that but the evidence demonstrates the contrary. Windows 8, and its free update 8.1, even taken separately both have more marketshare than desktop Linux has ever even come close to. Every year there are pronouncements by people like you and the "year of the linux desktop" people that Microsoft is dying and will be gone soon and every single year you are proven wrong again. People said it with ME and they were wrong, people said it with Vista and they were wrong, people said it with 8 and they were wrong and now you are saying it with 10 and you are wrong because you have the same nonsensical reasoning all the other naysayers have.

Windows might have a couple of years left but unless they release source code under an open/free license there's no way it will continue to be an option.

The Anonymous Coward also said there was no future for MS Office 365.
LibreOffice for the win.

Linux holds a 1.5% share of the desktop in the Net Applications stats, little changed since the dawn of time.
Win 8/Win 8.1,14%
Desktop Operating System Market Share

Thanks for proving the article, as he points out a specific issue with a piece of software fricking notorious for being brittle and buggy and you start throwing insults. Its because of guys like you that Linux usage has dropped soooo damned low its now listed as "other" and are still behind both Vista and Windows 8, the two most hated MSFT OSes since MSBob.

This is what happens when the users have NO WAY to influence direction, you get shit like Pulse and Systemd rammed down your throats. Metro showed that voting with your wallets does work as the users were able to force MSFT to not only get away from the "supergigantic smartphone" mentality that was ruining the desktop but even to go so far as for the first time in their history actually give away the flagship product to keep from risking Win 10 becoming another sub 5% Windows 8.

But without the power of the wallet users are helpless against corporate interests which is why even though a quite large section of the Linux userbase, from home users all the way to admins of large Linux server farms have said loud and clear SYSTEMD IS NOT WANTED and too damned buggy and brittle all they have gotten in response from the devs is this level of reply with devs even going so far as to copy verbatim Metro fanboys memes like "embrace the innovation" and "you're a luddite" and so the users have no other choice but to leave. If anybody thinks the woefully underfunded Devuan has a snowballs chance in hell with Poettering grabbing more and more shit for systemd at an ever faster pace? Then I have a bridge you may be interested in, hell even longtime apologist of all things FOSS Robert Pogson likens Poettering to Putin in that no matter what he gets he's not appeased and his ego has grown so much he's now blogging about how Torvalds is a bad role model and needs to behave and you think a practically broke group of devs is gonna be able to compete with THAT ego who is backed by Red Hat's big pile o' cash? Not happening.

With zero influence or control the users only choice is what they are doing now....leaving. I don't know how many server devs I've talked to that are leaving Linux over mission critical bugs in systemd, one long time Linux admin I talked to was royally pissed as he had a huge Linux farm and the order just came down from the top to switch it all to Server 2K12 because of systemd,while others are desperately trying to bone up on the BSD way of doing things and trying to make sure their critical apps work so they can jump ship. THIS is what happens when the users have no voice, THIS is what happens when their responses are like TFA nothing but insults and attacks, you become "other" as your share drops, the devs move to greener pastures, and your support structure withers. I hope everybody enjoys "Linux, a subdivision of Red Hat" because RH has made it clear that's the goal, make Linux a VM running atop systemd to support their cloud computing initiative, because without any measure of affecting development? You really have no choice other than "their way or the highway".

Sorry, but depending on whose statistics you're looking at, you have it completely backwards. Most of the world still uses IE, and a Firefox is a distant 3rd.

https://www.netmarketshare.com...

It doesn't seem fishy to me at all. I am sure Microsoft is tired of the stories about how their old operating systems are more popular than their current one. Their last two releases (8.0 & 8.1) have flopped. Windows XP is still more popular than both of them combined! A fair amount of this stems from people running old operating systems on old hardware and they hope a free upgrade on the software side will create the appearance of a win.

Wrong, there's more Linux users than Mac users. Your numbers are faulty because they're based on purchased computers. No one buys a computer running Linux, they repurpose other computers.

Firstly he didnt post any numbers, how can you say his numbers are faulty when you dont know what they are?

So we can take a look at NetMarketShare and see usage share numbers which desktop Linux at 1.34%, you can also see a history on statista which shows desktop Linux usage share at between ~0.8% and ~1.6%. Compare those numbers to the OSX numbers on those sites. I cant find anything to suggest that there are more Linux users than Mac users, could you please point me to the information that you are using to come to your conclusion?

Are you REALLY buying your own BS, or are you just trolling? As one Linux friendly site easily defines "a year of the desktop where Linux desktop market share suddenly rises in relatively dramatic fashion."

And NO Virginia that does NOT mean going from the current lousy 1.34% which just FYI is sooo low that they officially now lump Linux in the "other" category to a 2%, that means a real significant rise as in double digits?

But lets face reality, its been...what? 24 years now? And you've NEVER even cracked 2%? I'm sorry but you have less of a chance at having a year of the Linux desktop than RMS has of becoming the POTUS. Its not gonna happen, it didn't happen when Shuttleworth was blowing millions plugging Ubuntu, didn't happen when Wally World was trying to hawk gOS desktops for $199, and its certainly not gonna happen now that Ballmer has been replaced by a guy with a functional brain, its just not gonna happen. We have already seen the future, and its a proprietary Android, a proprietary OSX/iOS, and a proprietary Windows....THAT is the future. Pretending the "year of a Linux desktop" is anything but a punchline? I'm sorry but you really shouldn't be hitting the pipe THAT hard buddy.

Next we should go after Apple and Microsoft. It's well established that 98.28% of all electronic stalkers, harassers, and domestic abusers used either Windows or osx to do it.

What the fuck is wrong with the world that the seller of a tool can be arrested because some customer chooses to use it for nefarious purposes. I sure hope people don't start using cars to commit crimes because I like having a car. Oh wait...

I can't imagine how your post could get insightful. I guess, so many people do not read TFA but rather throw in their opinion.

Your analogy fails. Now let me give you another one. Let say someone is selling bombs (not kits or tools, but ready-to-use bomb). Do you think it is wrong to arrest the person because his/her customer chooses to use it for nefarious purposes? My example is a bit extreme but you should get the picture why this software, which could do harm more than good, would get you arrested.

There are several legitimate places to buy dynamite (assuming you live in the US).

Next we should go after Apple and Microsoft. It's well established that 98.28% of all electronic stalkers, harassers, and domestic abusers used either Windows or osx to do it.

What the fuck is wrong with the world that the seller of a tool can be arrested because some customer chooses to use it for nefarious purposes. I sure hope people don't start using cars to commit crimes because I like having a car. Oh wait...

I can't imagine how your post could get insightful. I guess, so many people do not read TFA but rather throw in their opinion.

Your analogy fails. Now let me give you another one. Let say someone is selling bombs (not kits or tools, but ready-to-use bomb). Do you think it is wrong to arrest the person because his/her customer chooses to use it for nefarious purposes? My example is a bit extreme but you should get the picture why this software, which could do harm more than good, would get you arrested.

If I remember correctly, a similar app was offered in a show "Shark Tank" called "Cate apps" or something similar. The apps has very similar functionality in the sense that it can intercept the incoming message or phone call on your own phone, so that others but you would not see. They gave a new name as "Cheater" apps. However, this app goes even further than that. It can intercept both incoming and outgoing (see quote below) many things: Call Recording, Call Interception, Recorded Surroundings, Electronic Mail, SMS, Voicemail, Contacts, Photos, Videos, Appointments. Once the phone has been installed with the app, you can monitor all of those without having the phone!

The app was designed with numerous functionalities that permitted it to intercept a variety of both outgoing and incoming wire and electronic transmissions to and from the smartphone on which it was installed.

I understand that many people (including myself) want "freedom," but the real "freedom" does not come with privacy and/or security. Unless you live alone in the middle of no where and completely no interaction with others in anyway, you have to pick the scale between freedom and privacy/security.

No one is saying that. We are saying that there is commericial software that is basicly an invitation for abuse, that for a couple bucks lets anyone play NSA, law enforcement at their most depraved and stalk, harrass and intimidate people by hi-jacking their devices. somehow its about feminism. are you fucking daft?

Next we should go after Apple and Microsoft. It's well established that 98.28% of all electronic stalkers, harassers, and domestic abusers used either Windows or osx to do it.

What the fuck is wrong with the world that the seller of a tool can be arrested because some customer chooses to use it for nefarious purposes. I sure hope people don't start using cars to commit crimes because I like having a car. Oh wait...

I don't think there are accurate market share numbers available, and most of what you see are educated guesses. Here's a link to mobile usage which shows Android at 45.01%, iOS at 44.34%, Java ME (!!!!) at 3.77%, and Windows Phone at 2.69%. BlackBerry at 1.18% comes in behind Symbian at 2.61%.

As I can't think of a good reason why Windows would be disproportionately undercounted compared to iOS (unlike Android which is widely available on dirt cheap phones in developing nations), I'd say Windows Phone is a whole hell of a lot very far behind iOS.

Internet Explorer didn't gain support for SNI until Windows Vista.

You are confusing with Windows XP with "IE on Windows XP". SNI works fine as long as you use other browser on Windows XP.

Other Trident-based browsers for Windows XP have the same problem as Internet Explorer for Windows XP, as does Safari for Windows XP. Besides, how are users of Internet Explorer, other Trident-based browsers, or Safari going to see the notice that viewing a site on Windows XP requires a Gecko- or Blink-based browser? All they'll get is a certificate error.

Seriously, who cares about ancient Android or Windows XP + IE?

People who don't want to have to spend time (which is money) handling support calls from users of "ancient Android or Windows XP + IE", or people who are trying to build a user base and who believe that certificate error messages delivered to the many remaining users of "ancient Android or Windows XP + IE" could ruin word of mouth. Now let me back up "many remaining users" with numbers: More than one out of five Android devices in operation as of January still ran Gingerbread because Google largely ignored phones during the Honeycomb era. And among the market as a whole, Net Applications.com shows more than one out of five running IE 8 or earlier. (I use IE 8 as a proxy for IE on XP because Windows Vista is eligible for upgrade to IE 9, and Windows 7 is eligible for upgrade to IE 11.)

Why not make a simple redirect to HTTP for those special cases

Because users will see a certificate error before they see the "simple redirect to HTTP".

Maybe it's not a large proportion, but I'm sure it will be a factor there.

There are far bigger flaws to their stats than that. According to Net Applications, Android has 44.62% of the mobile market while iOS has 44.19%.
http://www.netmarketshare.com/...

Why on earth would youtake thse guys seriously?

Yeah, "Safari" and "Opera" are such more functional names for a Web browser than "Konqueror".

They aren't better names

If you seriously think I was suggesting that they were better names, you really need to go get your sarcasm detector re-calibrated.

and that is reflected in the fact that nobody uses them.

Presumably by "nobody uses them" you mean "nobody uses those browsers", and by "nobody uses" you mean "most people don't use".

However, you have not demonstrated that there is any connection between the lower market share for those browsers and their choice of name.

Much of Safari's lower market share may be due to its low market share on Windows, an OS to which it was a latecomer and may never have had a chance to be a contender.

You've just weakened your own argument with that statement.

You've just demonstrated that you don't even understand the argument by everything you've said here.

The number one web browser is still Internet Explorer.

According to NetMarketShare, but not according to StatCounter or W3Counter.

(And the statistics for mobile browsers are a bit different.)

http://www.netmarketshare.com/...

Shows WinXP currently at 25% which looks more like reality than the w3schools 8%ish figure which appears to be unrepresentative as it relates only to *one* web site's logs.

Search engines like Google have to remove links to certain articles, but newspapers and journalists are explicitly protected when publishing said articles.

Libraries keep decades of old newspaper articles on microfiche, but searching through it for someone by name is an extremely labour intensive and slow process so no-one does it. Google has indexed all these old articles (the ones that are on the web) and lets you search them by name. The ruling is an attempt to limit this power while balancing the public interest in having archives of news reports and being able to find relevant information.

This is completely consistent, workable and reasonable. 70% of searches are via Google, and I imagine other big search providers operating in Europe will be obliged to acknowledge the ruling as well. Newspapers, bloggers and random forum posters have nothing to worry about. This only affects historic information that is no longer accurate or relevant, and where the public interest isn't as strong to the individual's right to privacy.

I wrote by most measures... this one like shows 1.47% share world-wide... 8x higher than your number. http://www.netmarketshare.com/... You accuse someone of pulling numbers out of a body cavity, then do exactly the same thing? When presented with some kind of data you just disparage it... How about some data that backs up your claim?

So what does the international market for desktop operating systems look like these days? Still 90% Windows, right?

http://www.netmarketshare.com/...

Not sure what your point is.

So why does NetApplications have all versions of IE at 57.64% ? Link.

There are apparently extreme and profound disagreements about how to measure this.

The statistics are "collected from W3Schools' log-files..." So an English-language site for people interested in web development is now considered an accurate proxy for browser usage? I think not. Predictably, the results are way out of line with, well, pretty much everyone:

http://www.netmarketshare.com/...
http://gs.statcounter.com/
http://www.w3counter.com/globa...
http://browsermarketshare.com/
http://clicky.com/marketshare/...

I guess they figure with Chrome being the most popular browser there's just a slight chance and at least in the meantime the other browsers can still execute code written in it using Javascript.

Chrome is actually the third most popular browser.

The main reason Linux doesn't catch on more is because its got a piss poor marketing department.

Aside from that, a well-setup Windows machine is nearly as secure as a well-setup Linux machine these days. The main difference being that Windows generally doesn't come well setup out of the box.

Of course that gap is closing. Mostly because Linux distros are becoming easier to use and well.. decent security isn't easy, so there's some tradeoff happening.

If Linux ever gets to whatever critical mass of desktop users (ie: the type of users who will blindly click untrusted email links and other stupidity) then we'll start seeing uncaring companies releasing insecure software, virus writers targeting the platform, etc just like we see in Windows.

A quick Google shows Windows at somewhere around 90% market share http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0. Even Macs with their cultural popularity haven't reached any useful critical point to be a major target by either companies or virus writers.

I would suggest holding on to those claims of security prowess until such time that there's a real justifiable security threat on the scale of botnets. A company's server center locked down by a security expert is not a valid comparison to old Aunt Marge who thinks Uncle Jim could use some of them there V1aGr4 pills.

But Windows 8 does have more marketshare than OSX.

Not by choice. I read once where the reason Windows owns the desktop is because Windows is good enough, not because it excels. However, where people have a real choice, i.e., mobile computing, they picked other operating systems. I think that's one failure of MS's Surface is that they push the "one experience" thing and people don't really like Windows. I don't particularly like working on Windows myself; I do it because my job pays for the computer. Given a choice I pick something else. Up until recently, most users didn't have that choice and, up until now, they've stuck with Windows.

But Windows 8 does have more marketshare than OSX.

Huh? Windows 8 is 2.64%, and Mac OS X is 4.27%, so how is that less?

What? The links splits OSX between 10.9 and 10.8 and Windows 8 between 8 and 8.1, if you want to be terrible a reading a graph and lump them together without being bias then Windows 8 has over 8% between 8 and 8.1 (dont say they are not the same you already grouped the 2 OSX's and the 2 8's arent that different) so try to swing bs somewhere else or learn to read.

But Windows 8 does have more marketshare than OSX.

Huh? Windows 8 is 2.64%, and Mac OS X is 4.27%, so how is that less?

But Windows 8 does have more marketshare than OSX.

And it only took Munich ten years to upgrade - at that rate Linux will bury Microsoft in just a few years...

This is an interesting "glass is half-empty or half-full" issue:

Linux "advocates" will focus on the "switch completed" part of the story, MS advocates will focus on the TEN YEARS and their "need" to create their own distribution.

No CIO in any organization of any serious size will look at this ten year effort as anything other than justification for their decision to remain on MS software.

This is declaring our dependence on gasoline is almost upon us because one fellow in town just converted his diesel VW Rabbit to run on used cooking oil.

Linux is 20 years old and has less than half the market share of Microsoft Vista... (3.57% v. 1.56%)

Maybe it will cease to be a fraction of the installed Vista user-base... Maybe.

[......] there is no way to make something pixel perfect in Chome as well as IE 6.

Nobody in their right mind bothers with IE6 any more. What's the point? Market share is now under 5%, stop wasting your time!

Not an option on Win8.x tablets, unfortunately

What, all three of them?

We joke about "all three of them" when it comes to both Windows Phone and Win8 tablet market share and user base around here, but both of them have at least twice the end-user market share of Linux/GNU OS ("all 1.5 of them"?).

Source 1, 2, 3.

Compare and contrast with the netmarketshare figures.

http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=1&qpcustomb=1

iOS 60%
Android 26%.

The difference? Statcounter is pageviews. Netmarketshare is unique visitors.

iOS certainly has more users browsing the web. It seems Android either has more people hitting refresh, or has poor caching.

Linux what has hovered around 1% ?

I see many, many more Linux boxes in my day-to-day work than I see windows boxes. I'd say the split at the last 3 places I've worked has been around 60/40 in favour of Linux. And that's across thousands (and in one case tens of thousands) of hosts.

I should have been more precise that I was talking about desktop Linux share, which I think is relevant when talking about (laughing about) number of end-users being supported/ignored.

That is the funny thing. Mac market share is closer to Linux desktop market share than it is to Windows. Heck, it is only slightly ahead of Vista. It looks the 10%-15% is an inflated number. The numbers I usually see tend to put it in the 7%-8%.

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qpcustomd=0
http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-201206-201306

Now, there is no doubt that hey are making money on that 7%-8% market share, but claiming that everyone is now buying Macs is pure fantasy.

The link that ought to have been in the summary:
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=11&qpcustomb=0

That's nice, but none of those site address any of the issues. kernel.org doesn't have all the latest security patches with backports to linux 1.0. Firefox and Chrome don't install on Windows 2000. And Windows XP doesn't represent 20% of the computers.

Sorry I didn't realise you were trying to be deliberately obtuse. I find it hilarious that your response to Microsoft not supporting its customers on XP (which is still on 20% of 220,000,000 of it)s Desktops since IE9, is *third party* Web Browsers don't support Windows 2000. The answer is simply money. The cost of supporting a Windows 2000 which according to NetMarketshare currently has https://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpaf=&qpcustom=Windows+2000&qpcustomb=0 0.07% of the market. Is the cost of supporting the platform outweight the benefits. Microsoft on the other hand Deliberately don't support its users!!

The Kernel 1.0 patches are included on Kernel.org sorry the fact that they are not wrapped up in backports for a (open) *source code* project, is somewhat lost on you, because most people don't go "I don't want better support, I want worse support" (Ironically something Microsoft actually delivers), and the Kernel works by input from companies many of them, and if it was needed someone wanted it, it would have done it, but for the Desktop unlike Windows which is slow moving. Linux is every evolving released for free to the OS, and everybody gets a new version every 6Months. While Windows is tied to a machine users are pushed to paying for a new version (essentially a new computer) to get a new browser.

If you really didn't know this from my initial response I suggest a college course.

That links to Desktop Browser Market Share. He said "iPhones and iPads", i.e. not desktop: Mobile/Tablet Browser Market Share.

Browser market share

Compare and contrast with:

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qpcustomd=1

One of these companies has got it very wrong.

I have yet to meet a single person with an Android phone that doesn't use it as a personal computer.

Anecdotes are not data. If they were I'd point out that I don't know a single person who uses one of the phone based office suites. Though obviously some people do. Quite possibly some people that I know. I just don't know the detail of their phone usage. And neither do you.

Web usage on the other hand is data. And it shows Android web browsing as a fraction of iOS browsing. Despite the fact there are more Android handsets out there.
http://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=1&qpcustomb=1
That's why I point out most Android handsets are not being used for anything much more than dumb handsets. And that's because the market is flooded by cheap (free with a contract) phones, many of which happen to run Android.

Thinking that OSX market share is larger than Android market share is just silly.

That's not what I said. I simply made the point that having an Android phone does not make someone a potential person to replace Windows with Desktop Android.

Java may have made minimal impact on the desktop, but how many Android phones are out there? How many "dumb phones" running JME*? How many set top boxes running OCAP? How many Blu-ray players running BD-J? How many devices (ATMs, printers, cash registers, kiosks) running Java? How many web applications backed by server-side Java?

Java runs on billions of devices, all the way from embedded devices too massive distributed applications. It's fairly safe to say that everyone in the developed world unwittingly relies on Java applications every day of their lives.

That isn't to say there aren't disadvantages to the platform, or that Oracle has been an exemplary steward of the technology, but to argue that it has not been a dramatic success and a transformative force in the industry is just ignorant.

* Quite a few: http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=1

I just googled "browser market share" and took the first link, which happened to be this one. It lists FF at 20.3%, Chrome at 16.35% and Safari at 5.38%. That seems to correspond to the "NetApplications" row on the wiki page, which, admittedly, has the least favorable estimate for Chrome.

They may have sold 100M licenses to manufacturers, but adoption is still under 4%: http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

Yet when superior browsers rose up, not even the inclusion of IE as the default and unremovable browser (in the US at least) stopped customers from ultimately picking Chrome in higher numbers than IE.

Who told you Chrome was doing better than IE? It's not even close yet.
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=1&qpcustomb=0

And as a point of interest, unrelated to your post, but since I'm referencing browser stats: The big player in mobile browsers is Safari. It's about 3 times as big as all the Android browsers added together. (Guess why.)
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=1

Yet when superior browsers rose up, not even the inclusion of IE as the default and unremovable browser (in the US at least) stopped customers from ultimately picking Chrome in higher numbers than IE.

Who told you Chrome was doing better than IE? It's not even close yet.
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=1&qpcustomb=0

And as a point of interest, unrelated to your post, but since I'm referencing browser stats: The big player in mobile browsers is Safari. It's about 3 times as big as all the Android browsers added together. (Guess why.)
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=1

Opera's shift to WebKit should concern everyone. It's likely a good decision for them, but it consolidates WebKit's position as the dominant rendering engine

What on earth are you talking about, IE still has 55% of the marketshare

Unless you consult any other statistic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
Netmarketshare (aka NetApplications) is the only one putting IE at above 50%. All others show Chrome as the dominant browser.
And that's overall, including desktops. For mobile, Webkit has an even bigger share and now with Opera (which has a significant mobile presence) it will have a de facto monopoly there.

Opera's shift to WebKit should concern everyone. It's likely a good decision for them, but it consolidates WebKit's position as the dominant rendering engine

What on earth are you talking about, IE still has 55% of the marketshare how on earth is webkit the dominant rendering engine at 17%-25% ? and how would a 2-3% market share that opera has make any difference?

having any dominant engine is bad, as you go from standards directing engines to the dominant engine imposing "standards".

There will always be one engine that has the biggest market share, what, you want them to be split evenly? There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. And it is very nice if the dominant engine was open source and anybody could use it for their own browser, because that will significantly lower the barrier to entry for making new browsers.

The reason webkit is gaining market share is because it is an excellent piece of software. It is gaining marketshare because it is benefiting people (otherwise people would simply choose something else). What is wrong with this? What would you have them do different? would you like for them to intentionally cripple their engine so that other engines can catch up?

Webkit is only dominant in mobile. Desktop is still heavily dominated by IE. The reason it dominates in mobile is because at the moment it is the best html engine browser makers can get for mobile, and the price is right. You want more competition, sure, all you have to do is come up with a better html engine.

Market Share - MS operating systems run on over 90%+ of personal computers, OS X on about 5% and Linux on about 1%.