Windows XP Drops Below 40% Market Share While Windows 8 Passes 1% 310
An anonymous reader writes "Just three months ago, we reported how Windows 7 had finally overtaken Windows XP in terms of market share. Now it's time to see how long it takes Windows 8 to succeed its predecessors. Between October to November, Windows XP fell to 39.82 percent while Windows 8 jumped to 1.09 percent."
Re:I Wonder? (Score:4, Informative)
Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
So use the desktop interface then. It's still there.
WinXP and FLP live on... (Score:4, Informative)
...in virtual machines, because honestly, everything Vista and above is so freakin' huge.
And to what benefit all that resource suckage adds up to, I'm still not sure.
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BMO
You've never tried Windows 8 then (Score:5, Informative)
It works quite well in 512MB in a VM. Try it on a hypervisor that can do dynamic memory some time (Hyper-V and ESX can). Set it to 512MB minimum and a plenty high max. Fire it up, watch it drop to 512MB used.
Also if you are planning on using XP in VMs you'd better either plan on taking them off the net or plan on moving to something else since support for it ends in 2014 and running a networked OS that doesn't get patches is a bad idea.
Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... (Score:5, Informative)
>Let me know when Ubuntu can do something simple like change the amount of lines scrolled with the mouse wheel.
http://i.imgur.com/tfca6.png [imgur.com]
Look how silly you are. Look.
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BMO
wtf (Score:3, Informative)
Where do those stats came from and how old are they?
Latest stats from two well-known sources show quite different numbers:
NetApplications - North America + Europe:
Win7 43%
WinXP 21%
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=10&qpaf=-000%09100%090%0DO000%09100%091%0D [hitslink.com]
Statcounter - WORLDWIDE
Win7 53%
WinXP 26%
Source: http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-201111-201211 [statcounter.com]
Re:You've never tried Windows 8 then (Score:2, Informative)
512MB? Are you fucking kidding me?
A updated XP SP3 with default services running idles at < 100MB...
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Informative)
on this, but Win 8 is probably a better fit for inexperienced users than anything else out there right now.
Please remember that it's for usability it's better to go with testing with multiple users than opinion since what seems to an technology expert to be good for a beginner might not actually be. In this case the testing has been done and a summary is avialable [useit.com].
Read the full report to get the rest. Basically added to an interface which has been designed for graphic effect rather than usability:
this all adds up to a system which will take much longer to learn and have much higher training costs than other UIs which exist currently, including Windows 7.
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Informative)
If we're discussing anecdotes:
I upgraded my gaming rig... Because I figured I might as well get used to using Win 8. My conclusion in using it since the end of August, is that Metro is a glorified start menu. I personally spend less time in the Metro interface than I even spent in the start menu.
Now, in some ways that's good. I'm finally forced to use the search function to find the program I'm looking for. Instead of Start->All Programs->Vendor->Program, I now hit the windows key, and start typing what I'm looking for (which is pretty quick) and I just click that. I feel it's slightly quicker than going through the main start menu. No gain if it was commonly used and I had it it on quick launch. Overall, my keyboard usage in Windows is way up, and I do more switching between keyboard and mouse.
It's also bad because I'm not using Metro Apps at all. I don't use IE. I don't use the "store." If anything, I'm now encouraged to just create desktop shortcuts for the few things I use on a regular basis. I may just be stuck in fallback mode, but that works really well for me. I don't care for the Metro interface on my PC. I don't hate it, I just don't use it. I think the value-add for me was minimal, and in fact I even think Win 8 is a slight loss for me... Not enough to switch back, but on the next rebuild, I might just stick with 7.
Windows 8 on my laptop resulted in formatting and becoming Ubuntu only. I liked it even less, and with the realization that I'm not gaming with that Intel integrated card, I finally felt enough motivation to just abandon Windows on it. I gave it a fair shake... I gave it one month. I'm much happier with Ubuntu.
I get the feeling that most businesses will just stick with 7. I don't think 8 will ever pass 7 in the business environment. The business cost of moving to 8 to gain... Metro?... I don't see it. The costs of doing proper testing vs a benefit I don't see is why I feel this way. If anyone knows of ways that Windows 8 can actually increase productivity vs. Windows 7, I'd love to hear.
Re:I Wonder? (Score:2, Informative)