For the first time ever, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 claims more users than any other browser on the planet, including the dated (but still popular) IE6.

According to browser market research firm Net Applications, IE8 managed to wrangle its way onto 20.86 percent of all desktops and devices using a web browser, while IE6 claimed 20.99 percent. However, since 2.8 percent are using IE8 in compatibility mode, that propels Microsoft's latest version to the top of the charts.

Main rival Firefox 3.5 followed close behind at 16.32 percent, less than a percentage point above IE7 at 15.5 percent. Looking at the overall picture, however, Firefox still has considerable ground to make up, claiming 24.61 percent of the market compared to Internet Explorer's 62.69 percent. Chrome, meanwhile, sits at 4.63 percent, which was enough to push Apple's Safari browser to fourth place with 4.46 percent.

Just nearly a week and a half after the official consumer launch of Windows 7 on October 22nd, research firm Net Applications has tracked the OS over 3.5 percent of the market as of November 1st. Net Applications collects data based on header information reported from web browsers.

Windows 7, having been soft launched to developers and parts of the IT community, had been tracked to 1.89 percent of usage the day before consumer launch (October 21). By the end of launch day, the number managed to climb to 1.99 percent, and finishing the month with 3.67 percent of total market usage.

In the month of October all versions of Windows made up 92.52 percent usage, Mac OS X had 5.27 percent and Linux at 0.96 percent.