Internet Explorer Market Share Drops To Almost 15% 423
glitch0 writes "Internet Explorer used to be the most prevalent browser with a market share that peaked at 88% in March of 2003. Now they're down to almost 15% due to stiff competition from Google, Mozilla, and even Apple. What implications does this have for the future of Microsoft?"
us too! (Score:5, Funny)
what about Opera?
*goes back to sit in the corner*
Re:us too! (Score:5, Funny)
Opera is well on its way to replace the x-axis.
Re: (Score:2)
LOL... well played.
For the record, I like Opera. :)
Re: (Score:3)
For the record, I like Opera. :)
But, what about on the stage?
Re: (Score:3)
For the record, I like Opera. :)
I like Opera and I like Ballet.
I'm not posting this using Ballet...
Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, IE is losing marketshare but w3 schools statistics says nothing about the general population. Of course people who are studying web technologies are going to use other browsers. I would have more confidence if a site like Google or Yahoo published statistics.
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:5, Informative)
http://gs.statcounter.com/ [statcounter.com] is my goto site for this. It has IE at 32% http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-daily-20120702-20120708-bar [statcounter.com]
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:4, Informative)
"Browser","Market Share % 8 Jul 2012"
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
People running IE are far less likely to have blocked statcounter.com than those running other browsers.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
That 15% is still kinda scary though, huh?
Every now and then I'm forced to debug something in IE and I have yet to really figure out how to use their debug tools.
To think that 15% of their visits are in IE makes me wonder what the hell that 15% produces for clients.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably eactly what the client deserves; the likelihood is they're internal developers from an organisation that specifies Internet Explorer as part of the standard operating environment and refuses to allow people to use alternatives.
Re: (Score:3)
Considering how many revisions firefox has been through this year, I'm more sympathetic to locking to IE if you have to lock to something. Firefox has been averaging two - three months between major releases, chrome isn't far off.
When you do a contract for someone you don't want to have to go back every 3 months because their browser changed how your page is rendered or how your plugin works or the like.
It would be great if you could do everything as a web service properly, where browser choice doesn't ma
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:4, Interesting)
After building this stuff for about 12 years now I have found that stuff is more likely to break in IE than other browsers. Firefox and Chrome over the last 2 years or so have rarely broken my sites with an update to any new version however IE7,8 and 9 have all had minor patches that broke completely standard behavior.
I know it seems like it should be breaking more often since they update so often but I have not run into that problem. Chrome updates especially I have never encountered something breaking. It updates all the time but since I don't have to care about the version number and it keeps itself, flash and some other stuff patched I recommend it to all my clients. By silently updating you don't have to worry about users updating their systems and you have far fewer security problems.
Re: (Score:3)
Firefox and Chrome updates are supersets, that is they add features and fix bugs, and providing your page complies with standards and didn't depend on those bugs there's no reason it wouldn't render the same in subsequent versions.
IE on the other hand introduces, promotes and then subsequently deprecates all manner of non standard features.. Similarly, their support for standards has traditionally been so poor and buggy that people have resorted to all kinds of kludgy workarounds... Workarounds which then b
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:4, Interesting)
Except for the whole "IE9 doesnt run on XP, and IE10 doesnt run on ANY production Windows", yea, its wonderful. HOORAY for 3 platforms to support!
One of the reasons why I recommend chrome so heavily: Every one of my friends / clients / acquaintences running Chrome is on the same version of Chrome, Flash, and PDF plugins. Makes securing and troubleshooting them a zillion times easier, as well as instructing them to do anything since I dont have to guess what their UI looks like.
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:5, Informative)
i just checked and wikipedia paints a different tale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers [wikipedia.org]
i consider wikipedia as a pretty common denominator of who uses the web, google cheats, and some web based spyware is commonly blocked by advanced users (with ghostery or the like)
android users are 4% of the browser marketshare at wikipedia.
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Really one a sample size of 1 website? (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed. I have access to logs from entirely non-computer or technology related sites, and on average IE is still well above 50%, in many cases closer to 70%.
However, that could be because our sites appeal mostly to older users, and few technically literate people visit them (sort of the inverse of w3schools).
Certainly, if you add in Mobile browsers, IE's market share is probably more realistically in the 30%. However, since Mobile browsers are not really in the same competitive field, that means you need to remove a large percentage of safari and chrome/android browsers from the statistics.. otherwise you're not comparing apples and oranges.
What I want to know is how far IE usage ON PC'S has dropped.
Re: (Score:3)
However, since Mobile browsers are not really in the same competitive field, that means you need to remove a large percentage of safari and chrome/android browsers from the statistics.. otherwise you're not comparing apples and oranges
Chrome is not the default browser on android except in the unreleased 4.1 (jelly bean); it's available as a optional (buggy) beta on 4.0, but since 4.0 is only on 10% of android devices, I imagine it's a pretty small percentage of a small percentage. Ergo the chrome stats are
Re: (Score:3)
Wikipedia quotes from 5 different sources. Most sources have IE at about 30%, w3schools appears to be the most out of line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Summary_table [wikipedia.org]
Oh wow, really? (Score:5, Insightful)
That is statistics FROM THEIR WEBSITE.
Worse, it is statistics from a website that technically literate people visit!
Why this managed to reach the frontpage is beyond me.
This isn't indicative of browser usage in any realistic manner.
Hell, they even said so on the page. It is their own user logs.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a good sign.
Re:Oh wow, really? (Score:5, Informative)
You forgot the timothy factor.
Maybe it'll just mean fading out ActiveX (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
ActiveX was already on the way out for IE users, being replaced by Silverlight. I'm not sure it is really a much better option, but at least there is a Mac plugin. The Linux alternative (Moonlight) is dead, however.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Which was then promptly beaten into submission by Apple not allowing it. So that whole trend is going places.
One site means the whole internet? (Score:4, Insightful)
What implications? (Score:2)
Oh, I mean still accounting for almost three fourths [wikipedia.org] of the OS market share won't save them? Let's remember what OS those browsers run on...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
IE is Windows-only. Users that want IE, must use Windows. Users that prefer Firefox or Chrome can switch OS without switching browsers.
This is just part of the Windows lock-in. Office is another major one. As long as people stick to MS Office, they must stick to Windows. If they start using OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice, they can switch OS without switching word processor.
The list goes on. For now the lock-in to Windows, partly thanks to the large number of software titles that are Windows-only, is strong. But
Re: (Score:3)
Slightly misleading... (Score:5, Informative)
W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to the browser that comes preinstalled with their computer, and do not seek out other browser alternatives.
Re: (Score:2)
Yea its certainly a poor sample to use for drawing conclusions about the browser market as a whole.
Still W3CSchools is mostly reference material. Developers probably do go there using their browser of choice. As a general rule mass market users follow where the developers are after some time to over come inertia. IOS probably being the big exception to that rule in recent times where the massive user base has drawn the developers in.
So this might say something about what the browser market share of the f
No, it's well above 15% (Score:4, Informative)
First of all, it's closer to 17%. With the current rate of decrease we'll hit 15% in something like four months if nothing happens before that. More importantly...
(The statistics above are extracted from W3Schools' log-files, but we are also monitoring other sources around the Internet to assure the quality of these figures)
Audience of W3Schools is people who are trying to learn the basics of certain web-related technologies and don't yet know that W3Schools is hardly the best place for that [w3fools.com]. Whether you like W3Schools or not, it's hardly representative of general population.
Stats from a non-technical website (Score:5, Informative)
In my free time I run a vegetable gardening website - so a very non-technical, home-oriented audience. Looking at the entirety of 2012, Google Analytics reports the following (everything else is at 1% or less):
IE 34.19%
Firefox 22.52%
Safari 21.38%
Chrome 14.80%
Android Browser 4.42%
For OS I see
Windows 65.68%
Macintosh 15.57%
iPad 5.24%
Android 4.53%
iPhone 3.95%
iOS 2.09%
Linux 1.23%
Re:The missing number, (Score:5, Informative)
You haven't told us the number of visitors to your site or its location. No one who posts stats like yours to Slashdot ever does.
If I had posted a link, then I'd be accused of being a shill or trolling for page hits - there's no winning either way. But here's the info from Google Analytics since 1/1/2012:
Visits: 138,719
Unique Visitors: 117,592
Pageviews: 237,555
Traffic sources:
72.08% Search Traffic (99,994 Visits)
16.11% Referral Traffic (22,344 Visits)
11.81% Direct Traffic
URL: http://westsidegardener.com/ [westsidegardener.com] - There, now I'm a shameless shill.
Comment removed (Score:4)
Re: (Score:3)
Hey, it looks like "shameless shill" is an available Slashdot username? Maybe I should change mine...
Implications for Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
What implications does this have for the future of Microsoft?
It means they failed to pwn the internet, thank all the gods
But after Netscape withered it was Apache + BSD servers that kept them from it, not Firefox. If Microsoft had won on that front, they could have easily forced a MSInternet on us.
It was a close thing, but settled quite a few years ago. This story is about a symptom of *that* failure, not a failure in its own right. No need to use Microsoft products, if Microsoft doesn't pwn the infrastructure or file format.
They haven't given up pwning the PC yet, though. (New "secure" boot loader - mostly secure for Microsoft.)
note to self: (Score:2)
In a related story... (Score:5, Funny)
windowsupdate.microsoft.com reports 99.9% IE user agents. IE is on a comeback!
(What? It's just as useful a metric as TFA.)
Submitter fail, again (Score:4, Insightful)
From TFA itself:
W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to the browser that comes preinstalled with their computer, and do not seek out other browser alternatives.
These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other web sites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is a more popular browser.
Glitch0, please submit your résumé to CNN. They greatly value your kind of selective reading skills.
Confirmation bias. (Score:3)
W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to the browser that comes preinstalled with their computer, and do not seek out other browser alternatives.
These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other web sites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is a more popular browser.
Net Applications collects stats for 12,415 clients the size of Disney, Apple, Microsoft, Roche, the Moz Foundation, CNN, the WSJ, the New York Times and so on. The guys paying for these stats don't give a damn about the geek. They do give a damn about what is happening in their core markets.
Desktop Browser Market Share [hitslink.com]
Statcounter exposes more of its stats --- and there can be some big surprises:
Top 12 Browser Versions In China [statcounter.com]
Mobile vs. Desktop in China [statcounter.com]
Article Should Be Modded down As Troll (Score:5, Insightful)
For Microsoft? (Score:4, Interesting)
So why would Microsoft care? I can think of one reason -- as has been pointed out by others [xkcd.com], the more time people spend in a browser, the less they care about the underlying OS. When the user community is not dependent on a browser that's locked to a particular OS, the OS becomes less important, because you can run Chrome or Firefox or Opera on a lot of different platforms. Unlocking the browser from the OS is the first step -- causing a movement en-masse to a different operating system (or systems) is the next logical step. I would argue it is already happening.
So for the long term, if Microsoft isn't scared, they should be. I would expect over the next couple of years many attempts at embrace, extend, extinguish to get ...something... that everyone uses, locked into their one platform. I mean, how else are they going to compete?
Oh, Slashdot (Score:4, Informative)
Bad site to use (Score:3)
It's almost as bad as using MidnightBSD.org. I just checked Google analytics and it's showing 54% use Firefox, 26.59% on chrome, 11.59% on safari, 7.78% on IE and 4.92% on Opera. Any site that caters to technically savvy people is a bad indicator of general population.
If we based this magic percentage on hits to my BSD project site, it would look even worse for Microsoft. It's just not fair to do so.
Interestingly 47% of visitors are using Windows on my site and the second highest number is Linux at 31%. Are we going to assume Linux has 30% marketshare in desktops now too?
Prefetch? (Score:4, Interesting)
Painful summary (Score:3)
Oh, that summary hurts me in so many ways.
- They're at 16%. I know that's "almost 15%", but why not just type 16%? It's not like you saved any time!
- Stiff competition from Apple? Safari is at the same 4% market share it's been at for several years.
- Implications for the Future of Microsoft? I'm sure dropping to third place in the browser market is really going to be the straw that broke Ballmer's back...
Re: (Score:3)
Re:none (Score:5, Interesting)
"I for one don't understand why they would really care that much."
Because it was (and still it can be, since it's bundled on Windows for free) a cornerstone on their lock-in strategy (along with Office and Exchange, and currently Sharepoint too). If they allow "the cloud" to reach the point when vendor lockin is not possible, Microsoft will have a very worrisome future.
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows 8 will be a trainwreck. Too many changes for most users. The issue is windows 9 (whatever that will look like).
Re:none (Score:5, Funny)
Windows 8 will be a trainwreck. Too many changes for most users. The issue is windows 9 (whatever that will look like).
Windows 9 will be called "Windows Classic" after the outcry that people don't like the taste of the New Windows. It will mostly be the same as Windows 8 except it will have a Start menu and people will love it, because they really aren't that smart.
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
If that's what people actually want what's wrong with that?
All the backend stuff in windows, the x86/ARM stuff, processes, multiprocessor features etc. are mostly irrelevant to the day to day user experience of 'how do I start the program I want to run?'. If customers, because of 20 years of practice want a start menu... why not just give it to them.
No one is obliged to buy windows 8, if it's not what you want, don't buy it, and wait till they have a version that is what you want. (Or change OS's, which of course the big risk, as people don't have any desire to tolerate this sort of success-failure-success cycle MS has had going for a while).
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
No one is obliged to buy windows 8
There are "strict" obligations and then there are practical obligations.
MSFT's Windows lock-in with the manufacturers means that you'll buy Windows if you buy a pre-built computer from anyone except tiny Linux shops. Or Apple.
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
How well did that work out for vista?
I suspect that there will be a rush to get computers *without* windows 8 and then a lull until we see windows 9.
Re:none (Score:4, Funny)
Well enough on the home-user front. Not so well in the Enterprise, which is why my 2yo corporate laptop runs XP Pro.
Re:none (Score:5, Informative)
How well did that work out for vista?
In the consumer space? Fine. Consumers bought Vista at a good clip, not a great clip but there was no massive drop off. The resistance was from enterprise and no expects enterprise to like Windows 8.
Re:none (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Vista had two big INITIAL quality issues, and the UI was not one of them. Vista had poor driver quality issues at launch, including NVIDIA driver issues which resulted in over 30 percent of the BSoD problems. Between that, and it being more RAM hungry(2GB being the minimum you SHOULD have had), plus needing a bit of tuning, that is why there were so many performance issues in the first six months after launch.
People who had AMD based machines with AMD/ATI graphics and 2GB or more of RAM had very few pro
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
XP will receive security updates until April 8, 2014.
Windows 7 until January 14, 2020.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/lifecycle [microsoft.com]
Why use XP? Think about the Enterprise, with hundreds or thousands of machines in different departments. Applications that have not been updated to work with later tech, such as JInitiator (requires Jedi hacking to work on x64), websites that may only work with IE 6 or 7, in-house batch files / scripts, compatibility with older servers, and so on.
Training isn't
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
No one is obliged to buy windows 8
There are "strict" obligations and then there are practical obligations.
MSFT's Windows lock-in with the manufacturers means that you'll buy Windows if you buy a pre-built computer from anyone except tiny Linux shops. Or Apple.
Windows is next. These things take time. What do I mean? I'll answer the summary's question.
What implications does this have for the future of Microsoft?
That karma is very, very real and eventually even fat stupid Americans catch on and figure out that you're abusing them. It just takes them a long time. Anyone with a fully developed conscience stopped giving Microsoft money 15 years ago when they realized what they would have been funding. The rest care about only their own convenience and jump ship when an alternative is obviously superior. One way or another the result is inevitable.
So what will these "fat stupid Americans" switch to? Linux? Or will Apple start selling machines at a reasonable price and achieve larger market share? Something else I am not aware of? Curious to know.
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
I am still waiting for all the games I like to run on Apple or Linux. I think I still have to wait a very long time for that.
Re: (Score:3)
As most people, I don't want to have to fiddle with different programs to get something running on my computer. It should just work.
Re: (Score:3)
I wish we could buy machines without a Microsoft tax.
You can, if you buy the parts from some place like newegg. The only hard part is getting the mobo secured in the case and wired correctly. Everything else is child's play.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:none (Score:5, Informative)
It works great. I do have one problem, which may be my fault more than the machines. My older other laptop is an HP that came with Windows XP, was upgraded to Vista, broke horribly crashing and blue screens just about every day, then had Linux Mint installed and it's run with no issues for the last 5 years. It's primarily my MineCraft/Media server now, which seems to absorb all of the memory on the machine. I was able to get some games I had bough from GOG to run on a XP VMware installation on the old machine. The same games will not run on an XP VirtualBox installation on the new machine. I've only had the new laptop for a week, but I suspect it's one of two issues. It could be differences between VirtualBox and VMWare that are causing the issues. Or it could possibly be the cheapy Intel graphics card that came with the new machine. I won't know for sure until I have a chance to install VMWare and try running the same games under that instead of VirtualBox.
Long rambling point short, System76 [system76.com] is a great place to get a Linux pre-installed laptop if you're trying to avoid getting one with Windows preloaded.
Re: (Score:3)
If customers, because of 20 years of practice want a start menu... why not just give it to them.
Because they need to demote Windows 7 / .NET & COM to essentially a hosted operating system to force change. They reason they need to force change is because they want to support much more diverse hardware like phones and tablets. And that means in particular moving to vector not bitmapped based interface standards which effects all windows applications.
Microsoft is fully aware the users don't want to ch
One size does not fit all (Score:5, Insightful)
> Because they need to demote Windows 7 / .NET & COM to essentially a hosted
> operating system to force change. They reason they need to force change is because
> they want to support much more diverse hardware like phones and tablets. And that
> means in particular moving to vector not bitmapped based interface standards
> which effects all windows applications.
WTF??? Look, I agree that the desktop UI paradigm might suck on tablets+smartphones. That does *NOT* justify putting a tablet+smarthphone UI on desktop PCs, where it'll suck just as badly. Different horse for different courses, etc.
Re: (Score:3)
I understand your point. That was Apple's position. It is however not Microsoft's. Microsoft doesn't want there to be desktop PC or smartphones or tablets. They want to move towards a world where these devices blend into one another. All laptops and desktops have high quality touch enabled screens. Companies have docking stations for phones and tablets. The cloud is used to boost the computing and storage powers of phones. And applications are written to use the hardware they are on, and pass seamle
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
"If customers, because of 20 years of practice want a start menu... why not just give it to them."
20 Years? 26 for me. I began with Windows 1.03 and I really don't like new crap.
First thing I always do with a new version is to disable all the visual gimmicks, like aero, menu shadings etc and install the classic scheme. Lately I also had to install utilities to get a decent menu.
Went to LibreOffice because of that damn Ribbon as well.
It's a fucking tool that I used for over a quarter century, I don't have the patience to get slowed down every couple of years because some young moron thinks some new gimmick is 'cool'.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"If customers, because of 20 years of practice want a start menu... why not just give it to them."
20 Years? 26 for me. I began with Windows 1.03 and I really don't like new crap. First thing I always do with a new version is to disable all the visual gimmicks, like aero, menu shadings etc and install the classic scheme. Lately I also had to install utilities to get a decent menu. Went to LibreOffice because of that damn Ribbon as well.
It's a fucking tool that I used for over a quarter century, I don't have the patience to get slowed down every couple of years because some young moron thinks some new gimmick is 'cool'.
aaaaaaaaand.... GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
Re: (Score:3)
"It's a fucking tool that I used for over a quarter century, I don't have the patience to get slowed down every couple of years because some young moron thinks some new gimmick is 'cool'.
aaaaaaaaand.... GET OFF MY LAWN!!!"
Forgot that line.:-) But on a new machine with the latest OS because the old one died, it's frustrating when you have to do a job real quick, let's say straighten something and you reach for your hammer and it has become a fucking nail-gun.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"If customers, because of 20 years of practice want a start menu... why not just give it to them."
20 Years? 26 for me. I began with Windows 1.03 and I really don't like new crap.
First thing I always do with a new version is to disable all the visual gimmicks, like aero, menu shadings etc and install the classic scheme. Lately I also had to install utilities to get a decent menu.
Went to LibreOffice because of that damn Ribbon as well.
It's a fucking tool that I used for over a quarter century, I don't have the patience to get slowed down every couple of years because some young moron thinks some new gimmick is 'cool'.
But the start menu was introduced in Windows 95. (To never ending jokes about "to shut down, press the 'Start' button and...")
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
No one is obliged to buy windows 8, if it's not what you want, don't buy it
Huh? Where have you been for the last 20 years?
Try going into a computer shop this time next year. See if you can buy a new PC/Laptop without Windows 8*. Let us know how you get on.
(*) Unless it's a Mac, obviously...
Re:none (Score:4, Interesting)
Honestly, if someone finds a way to permanently disable Metro, then I'll buy Windows 8. It has some nice new features: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_8 [wikipedia.org]
Re:none (Score:4, Interesting)
Win8 will do well, IMO. It will come out coupled with touchscreens, on which it really does work well - certainly far better than 7. I'm going to get it just for the various improvements such as insanely quick boot times and a huge improvement to the taskbar's multi-screen usage. Do I care about the looks of the new start menu? Yes, but not enough for me to overlook the other improvements. Besides, someone, probably stardock, will modify Win8 to have a classic start menu again. Until then, I'll just use windows key+F.
Re:none (Score:5, Insightful)
> Win8 will do well, IMO. It will come out coupled with touchscreens,
> on which it really does work well - certainly far better than 7.
Oh boy, just what I need. Throw away the mouse. and stretch my arm out 2 feet to drag+drop stuff all the way across my 24 inch LCD screen. No thanks. You think people had carpal tunnel syndrome in the past, wait till this monstrosity takes over.
Re:none (Score:4, Insightful)
Fast but its Bob (Score:5, Insightful)
I stopped using windows years ago because everything was office office office. Most people type, spellcheck, then print/email. Or they make ugly powerpoints and the most advanced feature used is to import a graph from excel. This is not what MS should have based their entire company on; and if it truly was the core of the company they would have put office on Linux long ago.
I don't think MS knows what it is and while that is going on the Office section has mostly dominated.
To contrast it with Apple's success; They know they are iTunes. Google mostly knows it is searching mass amounts of data and ads. And facebook knows it is monkeys standing under the tree looking at the shiny thing.
So I suspect that the new Windows is a good idea at its core but it will end up soaking in a caustic bath of Office until it is brittle and smells funny.
Windows 9 will be an attempt to compensate for the Office induced stink by wrapping it in steel bands to reenforce the structure. I am willing to bet that if the OS programmers at MS were able to tell the Office people to bugger off and even go so far as to sandbox their whole suite that Windows might regain the crown. I was so happy when Firefox walled out crap from MS putting itself into FF. It is this sort of thinking that has dogged MS for over a decade.
I remember when NT was really popular with programmers and I think one of the main reasons was that it wasn't tripping over itself to push other MS products. They had designed it to be a server OS with a thin GUI and the office people left it largely alone.
Re: (Score:3)
If it is a GMA 500/600 part, then you need to use the latest Intel OEM drivers. They enable screen scaling of 1024x768 to a 1024x600 screen. Other than the aspect ratio being silly, Windows 8 actually renders very nicely scaled. Most of the App Store programs run without a hitch, and everything looks perfectly fine.
I have been playing with Windows 8 on an HP Slate 500. Most niggles are from 2-4 year old hardware skus with Windows 7 drivers on an RP version of the OS. Otherwise, it is a pretty smooth ex
Re:none (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Windows 8 will be a trainwreck. Too many changes for most users. The issue is windows 9 (whatever that will look like).
And everyone in Microsoft land will be so delighted that Windows 9 sucks just a bit less than Windows 8, that they won't mind the fact that the "Windows 9 Certified" program will prohibit OEM's from allowing the user to disable UEFI Secure Boot.
That way, when Windows 10 comes along, you won't have a choice.
Re:none (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously I don't have a study to point to, we'll see when it arrives, I'm guessing just as is anyone else here.
Microsoft could pull something truly awesome out of its hat and make windows 8 a must have for a lot of people, rough edges and all.
The thing with tablets, is that microsoft lost that battle already. If you want a consumer tablet you buy an ipad. The great selling point of android was not a walled garden, and runs flash, but now flash is dying. Windows tablets seem more like business devices, but who knows, there's not really anything compelling about them as content consumption devices that you can't do on android or ipad already.
Now again, i admit, I could be completely misreading the market here, but I would expect microsoft to really struggle on tablet traction.
Which takes us back to the desktop, and in that case I don't really see windows 8 taking off. In some ways it's the same problem as vista, but worse. What does windows 8 do for me? I'm not seeing a whole lot I get out of it (and it takes away my ability to watch TV on my PC), it's going to be confusing to use and add very little. So there's no real compelling reason to upgrade unless they pull some new features that are really worth having.
Re:none (Score:5, Informative)
There are a few areas where Microsoft tablets could be compelling.
1) Enterprise tablets. Both Google and Apple don't even really try for enterprise they are gaining traction by accident.
2) Medical tablets. Most of the people who know how to design electronics for medical are windows OEMs. The Android OEMs don't have a clue, yet.
3) Tablets for sales / presentation.
4) Tablets as a way to consumer enterprise content i.e. light editing of office documents, citrix....
5) Educational tablets for schools that are already Windows centric.
etc...
Re: (Score:3)
I usually go by the rule of threes for Microsoft. It's usually their third attempt at things that succeeds. Windows 3.0 was the first one that made traction. NT 4 was the third version of NT (3.1, 3.5x, 4.0) and the first that really got great traction. 98 SE was the third 9x and probably the best. XP SP2 was the third version of XP and where they finally got it right. It breaks down after that, I suppose, though you could sort of go with XP-Vista-7 in NT-based consumer OSes?
Incidentally, sometimes I wonder
Re:none (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:none (Score:5, Funny)
Re:none (Score:5, Funny)
I hope you clean your cache once a day at least, man.
This is like, basic hygiene.
Re: (Score:3)
[...] If they allow "the cloud" to reach the point when vendor lockin is not possible, Microsoft will have a very worrisome future. [...]
"The Cloud" is vendor lock-in. At least when done "right"
Re: (Score:2)
Re:none (Score:5, Informative)
People use IE in the business environment because it's the default and IT departments frown on (and in almost all cases prohibit) individuals from installing FF or Chrome.
Even though, since I telecommute and so have admin rights on my company-provided laptop, I've installed and primarily use FF, sometimes I still must use IE for some stupid intranet app or other that only works with IE.
Re: (Score:3)
How do you figure IE9 fits into that?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't get it either, but I stopped wondering years ago.. I think it has something to do with most people being fucking stupid. While recently Firefox and Chrome have nice things, Opera also was the "underdog" when *no* other browser had *anything* on it. So, yeah. GG, interwebs :P
Re: (Score:3)
I think you can trust the accuracy and honesty of W3Schools. However keep in mind that these are their statistics for visitors, and the vast majority of visitors are those who write HTML. Not the general population. This should be even more disturbing for Microsoft because it tells you what the front line HTML coders are running. W3Schools is therefore a leading indicator. For a long time, their numbers have accurately predicted a year in advance what the general population will be doing.
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Funny)
Do you have some numbers to back that up?
Re: (Score:3)
From the Bill Gates Cyborg, to the inherent bias of the articles published, it's not a fanboi of MS. Let's get over that.
Where do you have to go to find MSFT fanbois these days? Bill Gates' living room?
Oh, it seems I found one right here, with mod points even.