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."
I Wonder? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if win8 will ever pass the xp market share
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
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.
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Funny)
but the problem is you get Metro going MEESA IMPORTANT LOOK AT MEES NOWZ!!! every five minutes or so
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Then you clutter up your panel with icons... that's valuable space that tasks could be using.
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
No point. I'll stick with Windows 7 myself. It works just great, no point in upgrading.
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You mean downgrading.
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That will all change when your new computer that you will eventually have to buy won't run Windows 7. And if everything goes according to plan [slashdot.org], Microsoft is going to speed things up a bit [youtube.com]
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Interesting)
So use the desktop interface then. It's still there.
You should have a look at this usability report [useit.com] which will help you understand it better. Basic summary: applications are written for either the desktop or the Metro interface. Where the apps are written for a particular interface you have to use that interface to use the app. There are some places where two different apps have the same name on both sides (for example "Internet Explorer" exists as both a Metro and a Desktop app) but you can see that they are separate from the way that they don't show the same Window list. Imagine the confusion which can happen if you use "Metro Internet Explorer" started from another metro app and then a desktop app also opens "Classic Internet Explorer".
All this confusiion adds up to an interface which very much slows down and confuses the user.
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Start8 is the only one worth installing, and it's not free. But then it's, what, $5?
I wonder how much Stardock makes off it, though. It could well become their most purchased app.
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Its a huge pain to deal with Metro constantly lurking in the shadows, only to pounce on me when I least expect it.
Incidentally, I still cant figure out where Im supposed to go to launch non-pinned non-metro apps. Hooray for useability!
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Just what I always wanted. An OS with a mandatory ad browser attached.
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:5, Insightful)
other than the *many* shills, most people seem to be saying Win8 is fine if:
1) you ignore "Metro/Modern/whatever UI and the associated apps and only use the desktop
2) you install a start menu replacement
In other words, if you change Win8 to work the same way as XP/Win7 it is ok. So why again do I want Win8 on my desktop?
(Of course this is ignoring touch, which is a whole other conversation)
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because you have to search through too much clutter and crap to find what you want. I have said for years that Microsoft's start menu needs work, filing programs by manufacturer just doesn't make sense, but you could always reorganize it (Most Linux distributions have a more sane organization, filing graphic programs under graphic programs, for example) Now the MS "menu" is an even worse clusterfuck. Nothing is organized, too many programs are listed, while the one you want doesn't seem to be there at all.
Re:I Wonder? (Score:4, Insightful)
The start screen is just like a start menu, but instead of it taking up a very small part of your screen, it now expands to fill your entire screen, which makes sense.
That's precisely the part that doesn't make sense. It's very distracting to have your entire screen flash in front of you and be obscured by something else.
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I've switched to win 8 on my gaming PC because it boots much faster with my uefi board and ssd - about 20 seconds to desktop. That, and the much improved copy progress status dialogue are the main reasons I've not used the 7 install on the same box for a bit now. Metro is irritating, but after getting rid of all the metro apps and putting my game shortcuts and common apps, its bearable. There's still pointless irritations, like not being able to pin certain shortcuts, and not being to launch the desktop ver
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Funny)
That way there's no cognitive effort when switching between your phone and your desktop.
I'm looking forward to the Microsoft car, which will have a bicycle seat and controls.
Re:I Wonder? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
Don't forget that it is a phone OS from a company that nobody buys phones from.
CAPTCHA: horrible
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Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
That's what I said too. But as a technologist I need to keep my hand in with operating systems so I installed Win 8 on my mac through bootcamp.
It's kind of rough around the edges, but it's still better than most Linux desktops, and better in many ways.
I'm not convinced that the general public will pick up on this, but Win 8 is probably a better fit for inexperienced users than anything else out there right now.
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:4, Interesting)
Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
Of course it makes sense . . . for Microsoft. You see, you're not supposed to use a keyboard or mouse to interface with your Windows 8 desktop/laptop. You're supposed to use your Windows 8 Phone, connected to your desktop/laptop, as your interface. Your Windows 8 Phone is the keyboard and mouse. This means that every Windows 8 desktop/laptop user will need to buy a Windows 8 Phone, as well. Microsoft is doing this because their Nokia subsidiary is not doing so well, because Nokia is selling Windows 8 Phones, instead of iPhones or Androids. Or Blackberries.
So you don't need to worry about installing a phone interface on your desktop/laptop. You will be using your Windows 8 Phone to interface with it anyway.
Does that sound bizarre enough for a Sunday morning?
Re:I Wonder? (Score:4, Insightful)
1) Nokia is not a subsidiary of Microsoft yet.
FTFY.
Current strategy seems to be to make Nokia as a company lose a lot of value so they're easier to buy out later.
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People are actually getting dumber. The accumulated traditions are becoming a problem. Computer literacy has been declining for a decade.
And you don't keep your arms stretched out all the time. You lift your hand from the keyboard to hit the screen once in a while, the same way you lift your hands to hit the mouse.
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Good advice.
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It certainly cut down on the crapware. Not as much as is needed, but the Android market has some real gems. (I'm an Android user.)
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My mum has a Mac, and I have to say that, on the few occasions I have attempted to use OSX, ido feel like I am fighting the OS.
Sure its better than DOS 3.1, but I prefer fvwm95. I think I will go on using KDE on OpenBSD, and keep my Geek card, thanx.
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I know of systems that are making $1500 an hour that still run Windows 2000. OS Vendor Tech support means nothing to most companies.
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As opposed to one WHICH NEEDS THEM? (Score:2, Insightful)
As opposed to running the latest OS with all the holes waiting to be discovered? All that new code, yet to be field tested, all those new holes to be tested out in the wild LIVE, with YOUR production system?
Patches are failure you know. They have unwanted side effects that break production systems. The best thing you can get is a system so thoroughly attacked that it no longer has new vulnerabilities against it that are viable. Then don't upgrade.
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Patches are failure you know. They have unwanted side effects that break production systems. The best thing you can get is a system so thoroughly attacked that it no longer has new vulnerabilities against it that are viable. Then don't upgrade.
While this theory has some merit, in the context of Windows 2000 it is not applicable. There is at least one known vulnerability in Windows 2000 that was not patched: http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/top-threat/284393-microsoft-not-patching-tcp-ip-vulnerabilities-on-windows-2000-and-xp [pcmag.com] and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/MS09-048#section3 [microsoft.com]
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Volume licensing is only an upgrade
Or downgrade.
If you have active SA on machine that has pro/ultimate sticker, it gives you permission to run W8, W7, Vista, XP, Windows 2000, NT4 or DOS6.22 & W3.11.
Yes there's also 2 and 1 but all applications on them run on W3.11 anyway.
Re:I Wonder? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft's biggest competitor has always been itself. This is an effect of having the software pre-installed and aiming for the unwashed masses who don't go beyond what they got with the machines.
As a side note, for shits and giggles I just ran the Windows 8 upgrade assistant and it informs me I will have to dump almost a quarter of the applications I use daily and that my screen resolution was too low for snap (whatever that is). It also informs me the touchscreen I have (HP Tx2Z) isn't compatible and that gestures won't work right. Now the question is why I should update and lose perfectly good software I purchased and is working right now as well as system functionality that is working right now just to have the "latest" version of an OS? Why should I go through the pain of the update when I don't need to? That will always be the Microsoft fight and why XP is hanging in there for so long.
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Incidentally fooling around with OS upgrades is nearly exclusively a hobbyist pastime neither the typical home nor corporate users ever upgrades their OS
That is only true with Windows. Apple users seem eager to update the OS on their various devices.
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That's not even true with Windows. Many many users, particularly gamers, update their OS regularly. You need to do so to keep up with the newest cutting-edge games and their frilly-but-unnecessary features(ahem, DX11). It also helps with things like hardware management(a-la >2-3 GB ram requiring a 64-bit capable OS, disk size, etc).
Windows 8 might be the exception, though. It really offers nothing over Windows 7 besides the Metro UI, which many capable users are going to find is more of a hindrance than
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My Macbook Pro is still running Snow Leopard for the same reason I'm disinterested in Windows 8 - later releases of OSX seemed to revolve around cellphone integration and fullscreen apps, i.e. serving Apple's interests in ecosystem lock-in. Pass.
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Who said I skipped 7? That is what I am running. 64 bit to be exact. The thing came with Vista and I upgraded to 7 for stability issues. Besides, 7 handles multi-gesture better than Vista.
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I wonder if win8 will ever pass the xp market share
I wonder if Linux will ever pass Win 8's market share.
---- and by "Linux" I mean the traditional community oriented Linux distribution, not Android.
Android is defined by Google and the manufacturer or distributor of the Android based device. The FOSS oriented geek may hack the device and side-load apps. But the FOSS oeienred geek is not by any stretch of the imagination a significant force in this market.
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Translation: I need to make an ad hoc rhetorical barrier to win this argument.
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It is "present". So is a whole separate interface, and the two are mostly unaware of one another. It's like a free virtualized tablet stapled to Windows 7, which would be forgivable if you weren't forced to switch to the virtualized tablet to launch applications.
Photoshop angry birds (Score:4, Funny)
Finally!
I can Photoshop Angry Birds! You don't know how I've been missing the feature to be able to run Angry Birds AND full blown photoshop, and all for the bargain price of $999.99!
Plus I get to use Active Directory, letting me leverage my work network for printing out all those Word documents on the exciting ribbon interface.
Sometimes on a cold morning, I miss the warmth of a Pentium, I'd sacrifice some of my battery to make, say, some sort of leg warmer, maybe even with a fan to blow the warm air! If only somebody would make me one of those tablet thingies with a lap warmer, I'd be happy!
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.
--
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:You've never tried Windows 8 then (Score:5, Funny)
Well, that's the advantage of virtual machines.
Severe bondage and discipline for Windows OSes with no safeword.
--
BMO
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512MB? Are you fucking kidding me?
A updated XP SP3 with default services running idles at < 100MB...
Re:You've never tried Windows 8 then (Score:5, Interesting)
If it runs so well, how do you explain that those metro programs are total pigs in terms of running them? I have a fairly fast computer with SSD and even microsoft's metro apps take 10 seconds to open. On the same computer, photoshop takes 3.5 seconds to open. It just painful to watch those those full screen loading screens for applications which are gui-wise not much complex than win3.1 programs.
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Off the net is perfectly fine for some of us.
I run Win2K in a VM to run those rare MSWindows-only applications. They may dial up to get updates, but they're effectively behind a couple NATs so I'm not expecting them to get infected.
And if they do get infected, just reimage it.
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So what you're saying is that it does not work with 512MB?
Re:You've never tried Windows 8 then (Score:4, Insightful)
Set it to 512MB minimum and a plenty high max. Fire it up, watch it drop to 512MB used.
I did try Win8 on a VM. The simple fact is, it's slow as shit. I did as you said, and tried setting it to a 512MB minimum. The only time it ran at 512MB was when I wasn't using it, when I had switched to something outside the VM with nothing running under 8. As soon as I even moused over something in the Win 8 VM the RAM usage skyrocketed to about 800MB. Then, when I launched Notepad, it went over a gig.
Not sure how that is as efficient, considering on XP I can open a web browser and still sit under 400MB while using it.
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And to what benefit all that resource suckage adds up to, I'm still not sure.
-- BMO
I like to believe it benefits storage vendors...
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And RAM vendors, and Intel/AMD...though not as much AMD lately.
Our way or the FLOSS way (Score:5, Interesting)
I support a lot of XP machines and in general the owners still love the OS because they are familiar with it. It's going to be around for a long, long time. I predict marketshare will continue dropping as it has until it reaches about 10% where it'll stabilize for a couple years despite being completely unsupported, losing perhaps 1-2% per year after that until completely dropping off the radar.
MS is in a unique position with their OS because in general all new PCs ship with the newest version of Windows. So they can force Windows 8 into the market just by refusing to license it to OEMs for default installs and then waiting long enough for consumers to upgrade their hardware. That takes years, but as we saw with Windows 7 it's a predictable and regular process.
The only question is, will MS stick to their guns and force this paradigm shift, or will they relent like they did with Vista and make Windows 8 a short-lived intermediate OS for whatever comes next? Maybe the next version of Windows will see a return to a more classic desktop paradigm similar to Windows 7, with metro being entirely optional. Maybe the next version will split into two, metro being aimed at consumer and tablet hardware and a Windows 7 style OS to keep corporate users happy. Sadly, I think the most likely outcome will be the first one. MS isn't going to relent. This is what they want their OS to be and that's the last word. "Corporate world, you better get used to it. You know you can't ditch Windows, Office, and Exchange." They're betting on the pain of switching to Linux or OS X (which strangely could now provide a more familiar experience to Windows users than MS's newest offering) being worse than the pain of learning this new family of software. And I think they'll get away with it just by shear momentum. To hurry adoption along even more I expect them to be more aggressive with Windows 7's EOL schedule than they were with XP, which was generous to start and then extended.
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Here's what they'll do:
Announce a critical "newly discovered" bug in Windows XP whose only remedy is one of the following: -
(1) Upgrade to the newest and greatest OS,
(2) Take the system offline, or
(3) Run an update, which degrades previously running applications.
They will add that option 1 is the safest. When this happens, all those 10% rem
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Never going to happen. I have a copy of XP that I have been using for nigh a decade, and I don't plan to stop over some bogus 'gotcha' bug. I might be one of the few people who actually reads the hotfix and patch/upgrade notes before just blindly accepting Windows Updates suggestions, but I can tell when it's a nonsense update and I have rejected quite a few in the last 8-10 years because they didn't seem necessary.
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I'm betting a fad wad of cash that very few of them are rooted in the grand scheme of things. I had an XP machine that couldn't update to SP1 (installer always crashed, as did windows update for some reason) so no updates, not even critical ones.
I ran that machine for over two years. Sane software firewall with tight rule set and constant updates, antivirus, browser, mail client, irc client, games, office suite, etc and user that doesn't download porn as executables. Apparently it didn't matter one bit that
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Going from a hard drive made in 2006 to a SSD may have made up for any annoyance about differences
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The only question is, will MS stick to their guns and force this paradigm shift, or will they relent like they did with Vista and make Windows 8 a short-lived intermediate OS for whatever comes next?
How did Microsoft in any way "relent" with Vista? It was their leading platform for 2.5 years and people were refusing to upgrade from 5+ year old XP installs. If people act in the same way towards Win8 their sales will be weak for many years until they can finally push Win7 so 2015-2020 or so.
To hurry adoption along even more I expect them to be more aggressive with Windows 7's EOL schedule than they were with XP, which was generous to start and then extended.
The end of sales date is not set, but the EOL dates for Win7 are:
Mainstream support: January 12, 2015
Extended support: January 14, 2020
Anyway, their extension was actually pretty much according to their stated support
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I don't think they will relent. They absolutely positively must have a system capable of operating in the new form factors like tablets and phones. If they didn't sell a single license during all of 2013 it would be worth it to force the paradigm shift.
Further Windows 8 on Windows 8 hardware is good and people like it. So there is no reason to relent. The pain so far is:
a) You have to (really should) replace your hardware
b) You have to change multiple application workflows.
For Small Business / consum
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You're asking the wrong question.
MS has already announced plans to merge the desktop and phone SDKs (with little detail on exactly what that means). And, plans to do yearly releases like Apple does, for a minor upgrade fee.
If developers refuse to make Metro versions of their apps, the desktop will stay around.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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He's right. Computer literacy has been dropping for about a decade now among kids. The accumulated historical traditions is getting too much for kids to adapt to.
Take your filesystem. The application / open / use / save / close motif is great for dual floppy. It is a terrible paradigm for single SSD. The majority of people don't understand that filesystem is a "where" type question. I can't understand how that's possible but yes the poster is right, people suck at traditional desktops and the problem
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The reason for this is exceptionally small screens on these devices, that do not allow for efficient multitasking.
Re:Our way or the FLOSS way (Score:4, Funny)
The Linux desktop beating Windows... (Score:4, Funny)
8?
Truly, 2013 will be the year of the Linux desktop!
Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... (Score:4, Funny)
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.
--
BMO
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Let me know when Ubuntu can do something simple like change the amount of lines scrolled with the mouse wheel.
KDE allows configuring this.
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Let me know when windows can do the same. Because under windows 8 that behavior is NOT consistant.
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Let me know when zoom using the scroll wheel can be made to work in Autocad on Winodws 7 Dell laptops, without (regularly) disabling the scroll-bars.
Assuming you're trying to zoom/scroll using the touchpad, this is a problem I've fought with the Synaptics driver for years. I came across this solution:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1524405 [mozillazine.org]
Where using
taskkill /im SynTPEnh.exe
added to startup fixes the problem.
Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... (Score:4, Funny)
Disclaimer: I am a Red Hat Certified consultant with 20 years UNIX experience looking on in terror as Microsoft renders my life obsolete.
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Why would you want to use a desktop? You either use a tablet or a workstation. the desktop is dead.
Probably Never (Score:3)
Vista never got close, and it was because corporate users ignored it en-masse. Microsoft still counted sales because new PCs came with it, but they were immediately reimaged back to XP so never showed up in the usage stats. 7 is now passing XP because companies are now shifting to 7 (gradually). Few of them have any interest in switching to 8 due to the expense, retraining, and general lack of things making it worth doing for a large company.
On top of that, with Microsoft's new plan to go to more frequent, smaller OS updates, "8" will only be on sale for a comparatively short period of time before the next update. Are they going to call that update Windows 8? Probably not. 8's reputation isn't exactly stellar in many circles, and they can polish up the rough edges and use the update for a rebrand.
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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:wtf (Score:4)
RTFA. It is from NetApplications, no location filters:
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 [netmarketshare.com]
Win7 = 44.71%
WinXP = 39.82%
Win Vista = 5.70%
Win8 =1.11%
What? XP still near 40%? (Score:3)
After Microsoft stopped to sell it four years ago? With that-what-must-not-be-named, which was intended to widely replace it, having become available nearly five years ago from now? And with even Windows 7 now being around for more than three years?
I'd say, that's the important message behind the headline, and it's a good one, because it's continued proof that even Microsoft users, even when "the company is doing everything it can to get its users off Windows XP", as TFA says, don't eat every shit they're getting served. And, with Windows 8, there's good hope that Microsoft will be the ones who are going to choke on a new version of Windows, again.
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I still use windows XP to control some legacy hardware. However that old computer is not ever connected to the Internet, so it is not going to show up on surveys of net connections. It is likely that there are still quite a few computers using XP that are used to control specialized hardware which the manufacturers thereof have never updated to a more recent version of Windows or who have long gone out of business. Therefore, the number of copies of Windows XP in use could still be considerably higher than stated in the article.
Then there's XP Embedded. XP Embedded installations are all over the place. ATMs, Ticket Kiosks, time display screens at airports, train, and subway stations, animated ad / menu screens at fast food restaurants, and point of sale machines.
A little piece of me died at work because the migration path to replace some horribly obsolete machine control panels at work is an XP embedded machine which can run these screens using software designed for NT4, though the software is mostly 16 bit. The vendor is expectin
Huh? (Score:2)
Now it's time to see how long it takes Windows 8 to succeed its predecessors.
You really need to get a life....
Arbitrary statistics FTW (Score:2)
Old news (Score:2)
The report is from September of the August results - last I looked it is now December.
Also, why wasn't Linux even given passing mention? Has it's market share been reduced to a mere rounding error?
Re:I really don't like Windows 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
There are few advantages, such as minor performance improvements and some of the Metro apps are actually quite nice for a notebook or tablet: IE10, Windows Mail, the 3rd party Wikipedia and Khan Academy apps. That being said, I felt that the constant flicking through Start screen, Desktop and Metro apps was ultimately rather painful. They really are like two worlds that don't integrate at all. Also, the graphics are crappy. You could say it is minimalism, but I see it just as having no style at all. Just look at the startup logo or the volume indicator popup as examples. As a little side issue, I experienced audio buffer underruns which does not happen under Win7 with the same laptop.
For a Joe Sixpack machine, I suppose Win8 is just fine. For a power user desktop, it's a turd.
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For a Joe Sixpack machine, I suppose Win8 is just fine. For a power user desktop, it's a turd.
I wouldn't say a turd, but it's certainly not aimed at power users. If Joe Sixpack and his woman spend all their time in Facebook and Hotmail it might just be the best thing since Spiced Ham.
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Then why buy an overpriced turd machine with Win8? A $199 Chromebook will be better for them.
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No, not quite.
A turd implies some sort of cohesion. This is more like pure liquid diarrhea.
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so as a power user you actually navigate to what you want to run instead of just hitting the windows key types the first few letters of the app and hitting enter?
Re:I really don't like Windows 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:I really don't like Windows 8 (Score:5, Interesting)
It was an example. What happens when you want to run a program and it is only available in metro? Drag and drop to Word? Nope.
Here's another example. I often have documentation opened up in a PDF reader while I program. I alt-tab back and forth. Windows comes with a PDF reader, but it runs in Metro-land. Metro land automatically closes applications when it decides you are done with them, including my documentation. Oh, well, back to a Desktop-land PDF app.
It's just a pain in the ass for no good reason.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not 1% of sales, it's 1% of traffic. Considering how massive the installed base is, 1% in a short period of time isn't bad at all.
Nobody's going to say that Windows 8 is burning up the charts at all, but it was never going to get to 10% in two months.
Re: (Score:2)
1% in well over a month - and pretty much all new systems come with it (MS probably made that mandatory).
At that rate it's going to take well over three years to reach the 40% mark. Mmm... Hard to believe that over a three year period only 40% of the world's computers are being replaced. Oh well, time will tell.
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It's not 1% of sales, it's 1% of traffic. Considering how massive the installed base is, 1% in a short period of time isn't bad at all.
But the fanboys keep telling us what a success Windows 8 is because it sold 40 MIlLLION COPIES IN A MONTH! Either there are four billion Windows PCs in the world (possible, but seems unlikely), or few of those copies are actually installed on a real computer that people use.
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they found the windowsXP "gold key" that gave them till 2-3 years ago to use the update service without installing virus infrested 40 day crack resetting tools. Well Microsoft closed that golden oportunity for a reason, to make it easier to kill windowsXP.
XP is still a breeze to install illegitimate versions:
-Many volume keys were blacklisted, but that is easy to fix. Considering for the past 10 years almost every workplace, school, university, and public library has been running a VL version of XP, it's easy to obtain genuine VL keys.
-A tool, AntiWPA, makes it easy to install an OEM version, use an OEM-SLP key (which will never be blacklisted), and then disable activation check. Reports as genuine.
Re: (Score:2)
10 minutes, msconfig, and task manager, and you will be back to a non-bloated 12-year-old powerhouse.