Windows 8.1 Finally Passes Windows 8 In Market Share 187
An anonymous reader writes "May was the seventh full month of availability for Microsoft's latest operating system version: Windows 8.1 continues to grow slowly while Windows 8 remains largely flat, allowing the former to finally pass the latter in market share. At the same time, Windows 7 has managed to climb back over the 50 percent mark, while Windows XP still has more than 25 percent of the pie, despite support for the ancient OS finally ending in April."
12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:4, Interesting)
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FTFY
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:4, Insightful)
will take more than a start button to fix windows 8.x
that's like putting parsley garnish on a dish full of shit
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, from a structural standing, Windows 8 is fine, even better than the ones that came before.
It's the UI they changed.
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:5, Insightful)
For the majority of users the OS is the UI.
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Thankfully these aren't mine, just test machines; but it hasn't endeared the system to me so far, even if I did like the UI changes.
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I went through that with a rather expensive Samsung. They finally rolled out a bios update that let me apply 8.1 but getting out of that loop was a real pain.
This is my biggest issue with Windows now. Not the OS itself but the lack of decent hardware vendors.
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Shipping a Windows image too broken to take Microsoft's own updates, though, seems like something that Microsoft would want to discourage, whether by bullying vendors during pricing negotiations, having 'Windows Defender', um, actually defend Windows, or by threat
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Late 2012 I bought a laptop... I almost always use Linux, but decided to try Windows 8.0 and see what all the hub-bub was about, so I went ahead and got one with Windows 8.0 (and then configured dual boot to Linux). Now, I admit that one of the first things I did was install "Classic Shell" and delete a bunch of preinstalled crap that Toshiba installed (like any Windows box/laptop that comes preinstalled). After doing that, I'm at a loss, as a personal box, why people think it's so much worse than Windows
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I have been telling my clients this for a while now. If you just add a start menu replacement (the start button of Windows 8.1 was a missed opportunity for Microsoft) and set it to boot directly to the desktop there isn't much difference between 8 and 7.
One thing that I would like to see back is the Aero theme. The current Windows 8 style is to flat and retro for me (reminds me more of Windows 3 era).
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I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Windows kernel, UI, and default browser all share essential low-level processes, and therefore could never ever possibly be decoupled.
That is incorrect. The kernel can happily work without the UI, and you get the choice for this when installing Windows Server. It has two modes: Server Core Installation and Server with a GUI. With Server Core Installation, the server is configured be either a Powershell command prompt or using administration tools from a Windows computer. This is the default installation option.
The links to Internet Explorer were removed after they copped so much flak for it. This is why you can no longer customise the HTM
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Server core still has the GUI, it does not have Windows Explorer and many of the GUI applications, but the kernel level basics are still there. Try typing "notepad" in your powershell window - up it comes. You can have multiple powershell sessions open, in windows, on you console. You can even RDP the console once configured.
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Re: 12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:2)
Since 2008/Vista and 2012/Win8 share kernels I suspect this is no longer the case.
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I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Windows kernel, UI, and default browser all share essential low-level processes, and therefore could never ever possibly be decoupled.
However, that is wrong.
Windows kernel is an incredibly modular piece of work, much more so that Unix/Linux. In fact, the "Win32 subsystem" is just *one* possible subsystem mapped onto a very generic kernel. From the start, the core was designed with WIn32 subsystem as just one of a number of subsystems and originally also included a POSIX subsystem and an OS/2 subsystem. Note, that these were NOT emulation layers, but full blown "peers" of the Win32 subsystem, That design is still very much alive within the
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That's nice and all. But so is MacOS and 'nix, so your point again being what?
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I have yet to experience a Windows release where the majority of the chant was exactly this, until the HUGE, OBVIOUS, AND UNMISTAKABLE structural issues come to light after a few major security breaches. Not even Windows 8 has failed this test, and it is already getting owned in the wild with little abandon.
I'm waiting. Meanwhile, can you tell what these structural issues are in Vista and 7? There are still various security vulnerabilities found, but in general the NT 6.x stuff is quite solid. There are no more big disasters like the Mydoom or Blaster worms, which I would count as "huge, obvious and unmistakable" security issues. John Doe will still catch malware for installing shady software, but if you are a geek with a clue, there should be no problems.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:5, Insightful)
It is a shame the next update still won't have the promised start menu.
Yeah, but funny as hell that, combined, Windows 8.x (all versions) is only ~25% after three years (a complete tech cycle in the consumer realm). It's doubly funny that this is in spite of every bix-box OEM pimping 8.x as hard as they friggin' can (go ahead and try to buy a laptop in BestBuy or Wal-Mart with something other than Windows 8 in it...)
Now compare that crappy growth curve to XP, 98, 95...
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If the OEMs were pimping Windows 8 they wouldn't be selling non touchscreen laptops without complex hinges. The OEMs have been "pimping" Windows 7 hardware with Windows 8 installed.
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:5, Insightful)
And who, exactly, wants a touchscreen on a laptop? Touchscreens are a crappy interface for devices too crappy to include a keyboard and mouse.
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I don't mean to make a pun here when I say you're out of touch.
People have nearly always put their damned fingers on the screen when they wanted things to happen. Children were doing that before touchscreens got big.
The big problem is this slashdot idea that if you have a touchscreen then you can't have a keyboard and mouse.
A mouse (and especially a touchpad) -- that's a crappy interface device for a civilization that can't manufacture good touch devices and program good touch software.
And yes, I prefer us
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:4, Informative)
People have nearly always put their damned fingers on the screen when they wanted things to happen.
Since when? I've never seen anyone put their damned fingers on a PC screen and expect it to do something.
A mouse (and especially a touchpad) -- that's a crappy interface device for a civilization that can't manufacture good touch devices and program good touch software.
About the only things a touchsceen is better at than a keyboard and mouse are finger painting, or clicking huge icons in a fast food store. For anything that requires any kind of precision, a touchscreen is an appallingly bad interface.
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They're giving into the hype, and catering to people's impressions, not necessarily "admitting" 8.x is worse than 7.0. 8.0 came out, and people just whined and complained, so OEMs jumped on the bandwagon to offer 7.0 instead. Frankly, I've only seen one valid complaint (after installing "Classic Shell"), and not a single valid complaint for a typical home user. It's another case of people not liking it because it's new without taking the time to customize it to their like - which is what I end up doing e
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:5, Informative)
Three years used to be a complete tech cycle in the consumer realm -- back in the 90s and early 2000s -- but the average consumer no longer upgrades their computer nearly that often. Most of my friends are still using 5-7 year old hardware, because the hardware from that era is still perfectly capable of running today's software. Your techie friends may upgrade every three years, but nobody else does.
The vast majority of consumers only upgrade their OS when they buy a new system. The lack of uptake of Windows 8 is simply because not that many people have replaced their computer in the last few years. Unfortunately, a lot of the hardware from the 2004-2005 era (the first generation of systems to take DDR2 RAM) is still floating around. Because these systems shipped with XP, they are still running XP, and we now have a problem on our hands.
Compare the Windows 8 growth curve to XP? That 9-year-old hardware from 2005 is still perfectly adequate for most tasks. On the other hand, using a PC from 1992 when XP came out in 2001 would have been impossible (unless you were rich, that computer would have had a 386 CPU and a hard drive with less than 100MB!)
Unfortunate??? (Score:2)
Neither of these things is "unfortunate". It is not "unfortunate" that hardware from 2005 is still working fine and useful to the user. In fact, it is excellent and what everyone should try to do when they build a piece of kit.
The only "unfortunate" thing about it is the fact that Microsoft stopped applying security fixes to XP.
Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:4, Informative)
Please explain then, how the (according to slashdot, idiot) non-technical Mac userbase has a 51% uptake of Mavericks inside of 12 months? No, it doesn't automatically deploy, and no, 51% of the Mac userbase is not on 12 month old hardware. I'll offer a hypothesis: Mavericks offers things end Mac end-users want. Windows 8 does not offers things Windows users want.
The explanation is that Mavericks is a free upgrade, while Windows 8 is not. A correct analogy with Mavericks would be that the free Window 8.1 update has passed 50% within 3 months of release.
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I swear that if Apple reintroduced the pet rock as the iRock it would sell a few billion units
But would the rock have rounded corners?
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This probably has something to do with the fact that Chromebooks are something like 20% of the new laptop marketshare, Apple commands something like 25 or 30% leaving Windows with 50-60%, whereas Microsoft used to own 90% wholesale of the market. It's a lot harder to replace your old market share with new when you have half of the market presence you did six years ago, and the consumer marketplace is contracting at the same time. Desktop numbers probably look a lot better, but consumers buy laptops 2:1 and
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It is a shame the next update still won't have the promised start menu.
I think it makes complete business sense NOT to give start menu to Windows 8.x users.
If they did give it to a Windows 8.x user like me for free, I would lose a major incentive to buy an upgrade to Windows 9.
Not saying that start menu will be the only change in Win 9 but the start menu guarantees that I will be upgrading.
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Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score:5, Informative)
You mean 40% of servers, 96% of supercomputers, and 80% of smartphones/tablets?
Linux may have started out as a desktop OS, but now it's very much a server/enterprise/workstation (am I allowed to use that word anymore?) OS. Oh, and also embedded devices and phones (really, everything except the desktop). Turns out, the average person who buys a PC is going to use the OS the computer ships with and will never upgrade.
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Embedded devices such as the one that hands you cash through a slit run "Windows XP Embedded"
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Millions of them use a RTOS or no OS at all.
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It started as a "UNIX" server you can run on your home PC and never really left. And the only reason it is popular on anything with a GUI is because Google scrapped everything but the Linux kernel (no GNU/Linux, no X11, no GNOME/KDE/etc.) and built their own, kind of like how Apple took the BSD kernel. Had they picked the BSD kernel then Linux would still not be seen outside of geeks, data centers and touchscreen kiosks. YotLD has become a running joke here like Duke Nukem Forever, except they finally deliv
dont want it (Score:5, Interesting)
i dont want 8.1 if it means signing up with fucking microsoft/windowslive id to get it, fuck off
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You have to click buttons with titles to the effect of "create a new Microsoft account" followed by "continue using my local account" (or whatever; I don't have it in front of me).
Sounds like you're describing setting up a new 8.1 system. If we're talking about updating from 8 RTM to 8.1 I didn't even have to do that. My system was originally configured with a local account and I never use IE, Windows 8 Mail, or Skype. Went into the Store and there was a big tile to upgrade to 8.1. I wasn't logged into the Store at all (have never wanted to use it) and it didn't ask me for anything before downloading the installer.
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It's confusing, but you can upgrade to Windows 8.1 without having to get a Hotm^W Outlook.com account. You have to click buttons with titles to the effect of "create a new Microsoft account" followed by "continue using my local account" (or whatever; I don't have it in front of me).
You can't install anything from the Windows Store without an account, and I think some other functionality is broken too. All in all, it's like using an Android phone without Google account: it's possible but somewhat clunky, and you finally end up saying "fine, fine, I'll create the damn account".
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But if you want stuff from the MS store, then so what if you have to create an account... is that really different than anywhere else?
Not really, but it's still a nasty spying feature. They probably know when you log in on your computer (if you are online), your synchronized settings will reveal data (including your wallpaper), maybe other stuff. It's a convenient slippery slope to a route where Microsoft and NSA governs your whole computer.
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How is that different from Google? Even using a Linux based system, whenever you open your browser to do something, if you have chrome synchronized, if you use gmail or g+, or whatever? And I don't use an Apple, but even on Windows iTunes is constantly checking for updates and wanting to install new stuff (unless you go out of your way to turn it off... but again, how is that different than the others?). I'm asking because people apply different standards to the companies they don't like than they do to
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Mouse Latency Issue? (Score:2)
I read sometime last year that Windows 8.1 introduced a bug related to mouse latency, which was especially noticeable for gamers using high-dpi mice. Apparently, many games became unplayable because of the greatly increased mouse lag. Microsoft issued a temporary "fix" (patch KB2908279), which from what I've read only corrected the issue for a few specific games -- i.e., it was not a true, universal fix. Does anyone know if they have finally fixed this issue? I've been holding off from upgrading to Windows
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all the gamers I know use windows 7, including two in my house.
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all the gamers I know use windows 7, including two in my house.
According to Steam's hardware survey [steampowered.com], Windows 8 accounts for about a quarter of gamers. I think that Valve knows more gamers than you do.
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My 2500DPI mouse(logitec g series) doesn't experience this. And my razer which is 5600dpi doesn't have any problems either and didn't before the patch. What it seemed to apply to is specific games, not the system as a whole.
ME and Vista (Score:2, Interesting)
I like how Windows follows a SIN curve of customer satisfaction, almost flawlessly. My prediction is that Win 9 will be the next XP, loved by all only to be replaced by Win10 which everyone will hate... and so on and so forth, ad nauseam.
This kind of business policy is pretty corrupt and if it's not illegal it really should be.
Each release guarantees problems between users in terms of learning curve. Techsupport bottlenecks each time and they take the brunt of the flak from idealized Microsoft decision ma
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This kind of business policy is pretty corrupt and if it's not illegal it really should be.
I think it's entirely possible that the particular phenomenon that you are describing is a symptom of incompetence and not malice. Don't get me wrong, I am always ready to ascribe malicious intent to Microsoft, but this just smells like incompetence.
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Well, I am really quite happy with Windows 7, which is still supported. My last block fell away when, amazingly, not only did Gateway/Acer finally provide Windows 7 driver support for my LT31-series netbook (Athlon 64 L110 1.2 GHz, whee!) but AMD also decided to start permitting direct downloads of mobility drivers, and even put them into their automatic driver downloader/ad displayer. I was even able to skip installing CCC, glory of glories.
Windows XP still runs nicely under VMware player. Or there's alway
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I run a Linux-only household. I don't have to buy a new computer every two or three years because my OS is too much of a resource hog for what I've got. Don't blame me because you keep on drinking the MS kool aid.
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I run a Linux-only household. I don't have to buy a new computer every two or three years because my OS is too much of a resource hog for what I've got.
A Linux desktop is more resource hog than Windows these days. I'm not joking. You have to step down to minimalistic XFCE/LXDE style desktop environments to get the similar performance to Windows.
Don't blame me because you keep on drinking the MS kool aid.
How do you know that you're not drinking Linux Foundation kool aid?
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I'd rather have love-hate releases than spreading it thin to make everybody half happy, half unhappy. It was 8 years between XP and Win7, if it's another 8 years between Win7 and the next good "classic" version Microsoft has a few more years to pull it off. I didn't use Vista, don't use Win8 and the more Win8 is the New Coke the more they'll need to bring back Coke Classic in Win9 so it works out fine for me. And most businesses who'll skip a release. Consumers that bought it could have read the reviews and
Microsoft learned the system requirements lesson (Score:3)
And let's not forget increasingly high hardware requirements.
Microsoft learned from this mistake when Windows Vista's requirements delayed adoption and caused low-cost Atom subnotebooks to use first GNU/Linux and then Windows XP. That's why the requirements haven't increased much since Windows Vista, except for requiring PAE, NX, and SSE2 starting in Windows 8.1.
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more deck space on the Titanic (Score:3)
The ship is still sinking.
Apple isn't winning the desktop space. But Microsoft is still losing. Linux never really made the field.
I won't go into the mobile space, where desktop is going, but MS is losing badly there.
The only reason (Score:2)
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I've heard this over and over. "you can tweak this and that and install the other thing and it works just like 7." So just use 7.
I always dissuade people from upgrading from Win7 to Win8. It is a half step forward, two steps back. Frankly, I would not even upgrade from Vista to Win8.
highlander ... well any of them after the first.
The producers should have known that there could be only one.
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This is what's getting me... and I use Linux almost exclusively, but it's always been the case that when someone complained, they were jumped on by a bunch of Linux nerds saying stuff like "but you can just disable that, install this, install that, tweak that config file, and you're all set!" Now it's like installing Classic Shell means the OS must be crap... it's not. For my Windows usage, I've experienced both 8.0 and 8.1, and just can't figure out what all the whining is about.
And it's always funny to
8.1 actually isn't bad, BUT (Score:3)
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I do most of my access to our Server 2012 machines via Windows 7 remote admin tools and Powers hell. Why would you even bother logging in?
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Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Under the hood (Score:2)
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There's heaps of us who like Windows 8.x/2012, but Slashdot has its mind made up and every time there's a Windows 8 submission these idiots bring out their pitchforks while people like us just ignore it. So no, you're not the only one.
At this stage it looks like Microsoft could patch in a new Start Menu, throw in the option to use oh I don't know, KDE's menu or whatever your DE of choice is these days, put in a tool that converts fucking lead to gold, and donate 50% of their net profit to NASA, and people h
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There's heaps of us who like Windows 8.x/2012, but Slashdot has its mind made up and every time there's a Windows 8 submission these idiots bring out their pitchforks while people like us just ignore it. So no, you're not the only one.
At this stage it looks like Microsoft could patch in a new Start Menu, throw in the option to use oh I don't know, KDE's menu or whatever your DE of choice is these days, put in a tool that converts fucking lead to gold, and donate 50% of their net profit to NASA, and people here would still hate it.
This.
Dear Microsoft (Score:2)
we just want a computer that works. Perfectly and easily. Hard to do? Well, you CHARGE for your OS, so it's not like you don't have the green. But, no. You dreamed up Win8 and Metro and it sucks balls. No one wants it
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Somebody's panties are in a wad.
It amazes me how Windows is the only operating system on earth that MUST. HAVE. A. START. MENU. or omg I'mma kill someone.
Anyway, didn't Windows 7 work? That's all you guys have been screaming for the past few years. Then when I would come in and say "just use Windows 7"... crickets. So, if you hate Windows 8 so much then 1) Why are you using it? 2) Why not go back to Windows 7? 3) Why not put your money where your mouth is and support an OS with a great Start menu? (Le
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XP... (Score:2)
Because I haven't figured out what platform to migrate my mother to.
Sorry, that's me (Score:5, Funny)
I turn on my Windows XP box every other day just to mess with the statistics.
Actually it's because I still have my homemade porn on it, I haven't moved it to my new computer yet...
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Have you considered a distributed backup via torrent?
Hmmm..... (Score:2)
So, the one's people like are XP and 7. Now, what do those two have in common?
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It's a buggy OS from a thrashing dinosaur of a buggy-whip maker.
Which, at this point, describes the rest of the desktop OS alternatives.
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Please ignore my previous post. I had multiple Slashdot windows open and posted this in the wrong article. (This is what happens when you mix exhaustion and posting.)