Windows 8 Even Less Popular Than Vista 791
New submitter NettiWelho writes with even more bad news for Microsoft. From the article: "Windows 8 uptake has slipped behind Vista's at the same point after its release. Windows 8 online usage share is around 1.6% of all Windows PCs, which is less than the 2.2% share that Windows Vista commanded at the same two-month mark after release. Net Applications monitors operating system usage by recording OS version for around 40,000 sites it monitors for clients. The slowdown for Windows 8 adoption is a bad sign for Microsoft, who experienced great success with the release of Windows 7. Data was measured up to the 22nd of December, so there is still time by the end of the month for Windows 8 to claim a higher percentage of the user base."
Re:A couple things that kept me from upgrading... (Score:4, Informative)
the metro-first push is the deal-breaker for me... along with everything that's being used to force metro, microsoft's app store and microsoft accounts on people..
they even went so far as to FORCE PEOPLE TO SIGN UP FOR AN APP STORE ACCOUNT (microsoft), which includes providing personal information, JUST TO DOWNLOAD THE FUCKING GAMES (which are metro now, btw) that have always been a part of windows previously... and that most people play at least a little (i know some that basically use their computers just for spider or free cell and nothing else)
the big winner for windows 8 is that fucking nuisance, wild tangent, which has distribution deals with all the large pc makers... their trials and drm/game engine are now the only games that are preinstalled on the majority of windows 8 computers sold at retail.... the average /. reader will know how and where to get games from other sources, but the masses aren't that bright.. they'll see the preloaded trials and think "that's just how it is now" and buy from those scumbags.. not even realizing there are alternatives.
/. editors that dunno html ... (Score:5, Informative)
What can I say?
This ain't the first time the /. editors fscked up.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Informative)
I imagine Microsoft may just release a patch that fixes everything into a "classic" view to gain more sales.
Indeed. Every day I spend with Win 8, I dislike it more. Tried to add a network printer, but it was not auto-detected in the new metro interface. However when I went the old route in the control panel to add a new printer, it was auto-detected immediately.
When such basic functionality is not working in the new interface (which one would assume is actually backed by the same underlying OS components), there's a real problem. This is aside from the unpleasantness of the interface itself, at least when using non-touch or wanting to actually multitask.
The only things going for it so far are the improvements to file transfer and the task manager program.
Re:It's not dead. (Score:5, Informative)
it quite probably will, people buy a Windows 8 tablet and then find they cannot run Windows apps on it (as they bought the ARM version, 99% of consumers won't know the difference beyond the price, battery life, and the considerable weight of the Pro version).
BBC Click did a review of Win8 [youtube.com], and you can expect them to be as impartial as you're going to get - certainly compared to the other reviews on sites that also have "sponsored by Microsoft" articles. They weren't too complimentary whilst still being polite (its at the start of the programme, first 7 minutes).
They also did a review of Surface [youtube.com] - they did not like it, basically. (14 minutes in, 4 minutes long, just past the nice bit with the raspberry pi and Mike Powell at 9:30). they really showed how useless the keyboard is too - see 15:20 in for the demo....
Re:It's not dead. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's 2013, and you STILL don't grasp Linux at a (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Microsoft - the company with two left feet (Score:3, Informative)
MS had some awesome projects on the way when Bill left the helm.
WinCE was picking up steam and they were on the cusp of the smartphone era. Tablets were being flirted with on and off again. Netbook-like solid-state machines in the Jupiter-class notebooks were coming out. They were also looking towards advanced filesystems in new versions of Windows. They had the Terraserver project for a Google-maps, before Google had a name. They also acquired Hotmail and were developing the MSN portal before Google existed.
A lot can be said that Microsoft's success was in part due to acquisitions and slimy business tactics, and it's true. But Ballmer SHIT on Microsoft, wiped his ass with the stock and, flushed every edge they had down the toilet.
The best innovations of the last decade at MS are of dubious value. Sharepoint? the ribbon? Vista? Metro? Kinect? Zune?
Windows 8 and Windows phone are possibly okay, but they should have been released in 2002, not 2012.
Ballmer's an idiot who doesn't deserve to work in a shoestore.
Re:It's just a big scam to make Windows 9 look goo (Score:2, Informative)
Really? Lets take that for a test run shall we?
Standard 27" iMac is $1800, has 2.9Ghz i5, 8GB, 1TB, 512MB Video.
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD095LL/A [apple.com]?
Dell's closest I could find was one XPS One 27 Touch. $1600, 2.7Ghz i5, 6GB, 1TB, Intel Integrated Graphics.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=fxdwvx25h&model_id=xps-one-27-2710-aio&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19 [dell.com]
HP's closest I could find was the HP Z1 Workstation, $2150, Xeon E3 3.3Ghz, 4GB, 500GB, Intel Integrated Graphics.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Desktops/Desktops?SearchParameter=%26%40QueryTerm%3D*%26categoryusagedesktops_dte2%3DAll-in-One%26CategoryUUIDLevelX%3DOp0QxXjbaUcAAAE0eehcZzOt%26Processor_facet_DTE2%3DIntel%26TieredPricing2%3D%255B1200.0%2BTO%2B9999.99%255D%26%40Sort.TieredPricing%3D0&PageSize=15 [hp.com]
From this simple search, it can be seen that you are full of shit. Even getting a more expensive iMac with a 3.4Ghz i7 is only $2200, and it includes a 1GB Nvidia Graphics instead of the Intel Integrated Graphics.
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD096LL/A [apple.com]?