Windows 8 is not off to a good start, but it is slowly climbing the ladder. In the thick of things, Windows 8 managed to overtake Mac OS X 10.8, making it the fourth most popular operating system behind Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.

The information was provided by Net Applications. It all suggest that Microsoft's new operating system is increasing its market share on a daily basis, which is good news. At this rate, Windows 8 will not overtake the other three Windows operating systems anytime soon unless consumers find a reason to give Windows 8 a shot. At the moment, devices with Windows 8 installed are uninspiring and expensive.

According to the charts, Windows 7 stands tall with 45.77 percent shares, Windows XP 38.18 percent, Windows Vista way behind on 5.01 percent, and Windows 8 with 2.45 percent. As it stands, Windows 8 is far behind and has not even managed to overtake Vista. No doubt Microsoft is not happy about this, however, the company should be pleased about Windows 8's slow and steady growth, though a faster growth would have been preferable.

Despite the slow start of Windows 8, Microsoft still managed to gain over $6 billion in profit for the final quarter of 2012. We doubt the giant from Redmond will accumulate that much if the adoption and sales of Windows 8 continues to struggle.

Microsoft's best bet is its Surface line of devices, the army of Ultrabooks, and most importantly, cheap Windows 8-based tablets.