Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows may have many fans on Earth, but it appears there may be fewer of them in the rest of the universe.

The International Space Station has dropped Windows XP technology for Linux because it needed “improved reliability,” news reports said.

The decision was made by the United Space Alliance and NASA.

“We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable,” according to an official statement quoted by the Linux Foundation (News - Alert).

“As far as we know, after this transition, there won’t be a single computer aboard the ISS that runs Windows,” Extreme Tech also reported.

In addition, Keith Chuvala of the United Space Alliance says the Linux operating system provides “in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust or adapt, we could.”

The laptops that will be converted to Linux are part of the station’s “OpsLAN” network, Digital Trends reported. They are used in day-to-day operations. These tasks include tracking astronauts’ locations and controlling on-board cameras, the report says.

In 2008, a Russian cosmonaut brought a laptop on the ISS which had the W32.Gammima.AG worm, which spread to the other laptops on the space station which ran Windows.

Also, astronauts are getting training on Linux by the Linux Foundation. The Linux Foundation’s training staff provided two courses for the space crew: Introduction to Linux for Developers and Developing Applications for Linux.

It comes as no surprise to Extreme Tech that the space station chose Linux.

“Linux is the scientific community’s operating system of choice. CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is controlled by Linux. NASA and SpaceX (News - Alert) ground stations use Linux. DNA-sequencing lab technicians use Linux. Really, for applications that require absolute stability, which most scientific experiments are, Linux is the obvious choice,” Extreme Tech reported.

Still, the decision to drop Windows was found to be amusing to SciGuy, a science blog written for the Houston Chronicle by Eric Berger.

“Insert your own Windows joke here,” he wrote after summarizing what had happened to Windows.

There was no immediate comment from Microsoft.