Microsoft's Internet Explorer, while remaining overwhelmingly the most-used browser on the market, lost 5.6% from a year ago (84.7% in March 2006 to 79.1% in Feb. 07). Gainers in the browser wars were the Mozilla Foundation's open-source, customizable (and free for download) Firefox browser, which increased from 10.1% to 14.2% over the same period, in a large part by not being a Microsoft product and therefore explicitly targeted by the hacking community.
It wasn't all doom and gloom for Bill Gates, however, as Microsoft's Windows XP operating system (OS) continued to dominate the market (growing from 80.0% to 84.3% in the past year) while the much-heralded Vista OS, only recently released, approached a percentage point of its own (.93%).