Windows 8 and 8.1 Pass 15% Market Share, Windows XP Drops Below 20% Mark 192
An anonymous reader writes Everyone is well-aware by now that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have not seen the impressive adoption rate of their predecessor. Yet the duo had a particularly good run last month, finally passing 15 percent market share together. Together, they owned 16.80 percent of the market at the end of October, up from 12.26 percent at the end of September. Windows XP meanwhile dropped a whopping 6.69 points to 17.18 percent. The biggest catalyst for these changes was most likely back to school sales in September, which are better reflected in the data after students use their new machines for a full month.
Time To Change That Windows Icon (Score:3, Insightful)
Come on, it's 2014, and slashdot is still using that broken windows avatar for Windows stories.
Not only it that "joke" not funny anymore, it's not even true. Windows might not be great, but its hardly broken like in the days of 95 or 98.
It is long past time you grow up and use the correct logo.
Re: Time To Change That Windows Icon (Score:5, Informative)
It's not supposed to be funny. Windows 8 is broken, and consumers have been very vocal about that.
Re: Time To Change That Windows Icon (Score:5, Informative)
I rarely talk bad about Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 because it's nigh on impossible to lament its failures without people popping out of the woodwork to detract from conversation. I bet this post will be marked "troll", but I'm not pretending, I'm not trying to elicit a negative emotional response, I don't want to start an argument, and I'm not just bashing Microsoft. MS has done many great things as well, since Windows 8 was released. Accessibility to assistance in learning Windows programming is better than ever before, as one example, and their support and development communities have grown in quality by leaps and bounds.
Now let's mention the one and only discussion we've seen about Windows 10 having a keylogger embedded in it while overlooking that random forum posters have said that it's because the OS is in beta but Microsoft has never confirmed that the keylogger would be removed.
Windows 7 is still the best operating system for consumers. Linux suffers from inaccessibility to software, though steps are being taken to correct that now. Apple OS represents a culture and not a technical solution. Windows still reigns as king, but Windows 8 and onward thus far remain to potentially dethrone it.
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We're bashing GNOME 3 and Firefox in this thread of discussion. Please leave Windows out of it.
You may redeem yourself by saying something negative about GNOME 3, Firefox, or even systemd.
Re: Time To Change That Windows Icon (Score:5, Funny)
Gnome3 is almost as bad as Win8!
Sorry, best I can do.
Re: Time To Change That Windows Icon (Score:5, Funny)
Honestly, I sometimes think the Gnome team must have paid Microsoft to release Window 8, just so they could point at a UI that's worse than theirs.
Re: Time To Change That Windows Icon (Score:4, Informative)
Windows 8.1 sends my every search query to Microsoft if I don't block them by IP at the DNS, router, and hosts file levels.
Gosh...if you search for something, and it looks on the web, it gets sent to the web search engine. Those bastards.
Oh wait... well, suppose you don't WANT it to search the web, just the local computer? And Microsoft forces every search to go the web? Those bastards!
Oh wait... you can turn that 'feature' off? Let me guess -- its a registry hack or some obscure command line thing right? Its actually simpler to block them at the DNS, router, and hosts level... Those bastards.
Oh wait... its a simple gui accessible option in search. The section is called "Use Bing to search online" and the option is called "Get search suggestions and web results from Bing", and its a simple on or off.
Well... other operating systems don't pull this shit... uhoh... OSX Spotlight has this option too? And Ubuntu does too?
Overreact much? Did you even think to look whether you could simply turn it off before you ran to your firewall configuration in your router?
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"Windows asks me on first boot whether or not to send my searches to Microsoft so that Bing is integrated in the OS" doesn't have the same ring as "OMG! M$ IS CAPTURING EVERYTHING I SEARCH UNLESS I BLOCK IT AT MY FIREWALL!"
Mac won the desktop Unix battle (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple OS represents a culture and not a technical solution.
The popularity of MacBooks at Linux and Unix conferences indicate you are wrong. Mac won the desktop Unix battle. Consumer friendly GUI on top, with a lot of off-the-shelf commercial support. BSD Unix underneath, most FOSS applications run just fine on Mac OS X. Very few apps are Linux specific.
Personally most *nix things that I need to do can be accomplished on a Mac quite nicely. I mainly use Linux for embedded devices and headless servers sitting in the closet. I have a dual-boot PC with Windows for gaming but I rarely boot into Linux.
Re:Mac won the desktop Unix battle (Score:4, Insightful)
Mac didn't win the "desktop Unix" battle. It won the non-Windows desktop manager battle. It's not really a Unix desktop, it just sits on top of a Unix subsystem, much like how Android sits on top of Linux. The only difference is that it more of the userland apps, which are rarely ever used by anyone who isn't a developer. But it doesn't adhere to a Unix philosophy at the high level, so it's not a proper Unix desktop. Try running Unix apps, and it has to start a proper Unix desktop to do so.
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You contradict yourself regarding Unix philosophy. In Unix philosophy users often string together those userland apps together to accomplish some task.
You grossly misrepresent Android. Android is not based on Linux, it is hosted on Linux. Android is more of its own operating system. Android users can not access Linux. Android developers do not n
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It's not really a Unix desktop, it just sits on top of a Unix subsystem, much like how Android sits on top of Linux.
What made the desktop of the old UNIX workstations different in this regard?
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It's not really a Unix desktop, it just sits on top of a Unix subsystem, much like how Android sits on top of Linux.
It's true that, say, the package-management isn't very Unix-ey, but there really is a Unix OS under the hood. It's right there in Terminal.app
Try running Unix apps, and it has to start a proper Unix desktop to do so.
Your argument is it doesn't use X11, therefore it's not Unix?
Both GTK and Qt support Mac without use of X11, so practically speaking it matters very little. Anyway, X11 does not define Unix.
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Apple OS represents a culture and not a technical solution.
WTF does that even mean. Throwing a flashy UI on top of Unix seems like a decent technical decision to me.
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It means that the printer needs more legal size paper.
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And they simply threw away the best part of NeXTStep's GUI, resolution independence.
Uh, Quartz is just as independent as Next was, the change was moving from something like postscript underneath to Quartz, which is more like PDF, which is fairly similar
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Windows 8.1 sends my every search query to Microsoft if I don't block them by IP at the DNS, router, and hosts file levels.
To configure Smart Search, you need to visit PC Settings, the new Metro-based replacement for Control Panel, and navigate to Search and Apps, and then Search.
Use Bing to Search Online. Enabled by default, this option determines whether Bing-driven web results appear in the Search results page. If you set this to Off, you will no longer see these results (and will only see Everywhere, Settings, and Files as options in the Search pane).
Your Search Experience. This option---available only when Use Bing to Search Online is set to On---determines whether Bing personalizes its search results for you and for your location. If you're going to leave Bing searching enabled, I recommend leaving this on its default: Get Personalized Results From Bing That Use My Location.
My advice? Leave it alone and give it a shot. But if you do end up wanting to turn off the Bing web integration, that's how you do so.
Windows 8.1 Tip: Configure Smart Search [winsupersite.com]
It regularly disables my wireless card so that it can reset it and verify my connection by reestablishing the link with Microsoft's privacy-invading servers.
On occasions, the system is programmed to turn off the Wi-Fi adapter, when idle. This might be the reason for your spoiled Wireless connection. Troubleshoot the situation by deactivating this feature of Windows 8.1 and see if it works out.
Press Windows key + W on your keyboard to initiate Start search.
Type Network and Sharing Center in the search box and hit Enter to open its window.
In this window, choose your Wi-Fi network and the Wi-Fi Status screen will appear.
Click the Properties button near the lower left corner to open another window.
In Wi-Fi Properties window, click on the button titled Configure. Go to the Power Management tab; uncheck the following option and click OK button.
Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
If the problem persists, replace the adapter.
Windows 8.1 has a kind of crash I've never seen in any Windows version until this one: memory management.
The reason you've never seen this crash before is because it is also most likely a hardware error. MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error in Windows 8.1 [tomshardware.com]
In twenty years as a Windows home user, truly bizarre and outrageous behavior has always come down to a hardware problem --- sometimes an easy fix like resetting a chip or board, sometimes a warning that the system is EOL Time to pull the plug.
Now let's mention the one and only discussion we've seen about Windows 10 having a keylogger embedded in it while overlooking that random forum posters have said that it's because the OS is in beta but Microsoft has never confirmed that the keylogger would be removed.
There is no need to read the random forum
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I strongly disagree(actually by definition this is false). Linux never suffered from inaccessibility, you *ALWAYS* had your repositories full of software. On top of that you had several solutions to pick from. I'd I agree with you *if* you mentioned poor quality software(e.g. feature incomplete, or difficult to use)
Actually, MS and Apple copied the way *BSD and Linux distribute their software/packages,simply via repositories... Yes the Apple Store the A
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Yeah, well... I'm gonna go build my own operating system. With blackjack and hookers.
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so what if GNOME is broken, we've moved on to better Linux UI.
The slashdot windows icon should stay, Windows 8.x is an embarassment. Even the hoopla about 9 suddenly being replaced with "we're skipping to 10 next year" is a farce.
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I'll politely disagree. I've been using Linux Mint Mate for a number of years with great satisfaction, doing anything from writing novels to hacking Lisp code to maintaining my websites. I don't mind the Chrome UI, but if I did, there would be other choices, such as Pale Moon.
I watch people struggle with Windows 8 and I'm glad I'm not there.
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Firefox is for the most part outpacing Chrome in terms of performance and sta
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Ah yes, but Firefox has one great thing going for it, which is that it doesn't come with Flash pre-installed. So I use the chromebox hooked up to my TV to watch the latest Sia video, and I use my lappy with Firefox to surf blogs. Life is good.
I like it. feature of the ghetto. (Score:4, Informative)
and I swore a lot less at Win98 than I did at 8.0. Win8.1 is useable, but still bites at your fingers now and again.
Re:Time To Change That Windows Icon (Score:5, Funny)
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Its slashdot not backslash .
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Does /. still use Borg Bill Gates icon too? I turned off most of the images on /. in my account for speed and infor(mation).
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Come on, it's 2014, and slashdot is still using that broken windows avatar for Windows stories.
Not only it that "joke" not funny anymore, it's not even true. Windows might not be great, but its hardly broken like in the days of 95 or 98.
It is long past time you grow up and use the correct logo.
Hey I like the /. windows logo looks neat.
Much nicer looking than ultra-spartan metro-ized CGA cyan version passing as a logo these days.
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There's a very large road between "Broken like in the days of 95 or 98" and "Not broken".
They're meandering closer every other version, but not nearly there yet.
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Why? is the site not giving your favorite OS a favorable image? Go post at neowin or something..
Windows 7 (Score:5, Interesting)
FTA: "These gains did not come at the expense of Windows 7, which still managed to grow 0.34 points to 53.05 percent."
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FTA: "These gains did not come at the expense of Windows 7, which still managed to grow 0.34 points to 53.05 percent."
Its not surprising really, if you have 7 there's really no compelling reason to upgrade to 8.1. Note that I like 8.1 just fine, its not worth the trouble of upgrading from 7. Especially not at the prices Microsoft is charging for it. I've got 3 Win7 laptop/PCs and even 2 older laptops the kids now use that still have Vista... I'd put 8.1 on all of them... but not at $120 for 8.1 or $200 fo
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Well, if it's an old Windows 7 machine it's probably a non-touch, non-convertible regular laptop/desktop. Any 2009+ hardware is still good for most people so you won't throw it out and why on earth would you upgrade it to Windows 8? While we might argue the finer points of whether it's ever a good idea, it certainly doesn't make sense without hardware to support the most essential new features. It still has 5-6 years of support left, no hurry to avoid end of support either.
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8 is at least as good as 7. I got over the "missing" start button long ago.
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Is that as much detail as you're prepared to go into? You'd struggle to get me back to 7 now. And no, I don't use a start menu addon.
There are reasons Windows 8 isn't popular (Score:2)
You'd struggle to get me back to 7 now. And no, I don't use a start menu addon.
Well that puts you firmly in the minority then. I have a Windows 8 machine at work and I absolutely hate the interface. Clumsy, non-intuitive, and obviously designed for a tablet rather than a keyboard and mouse. Hides stuff off screen when it isn't necessary and provides no hints that it is there. I'm perfectly happy trying something different so long as it is an improvement. Windows 8 most definitely is not an improvement. Microsoft is trying to mash together tablet and PC interfaces which in princi
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I don't really see any difference between the Windows 8 desktop and the Windows 7 desktop - other than the Start button. Do you mean the OPTIONAL Windows Metro UI? No need to ever use that, you know...
Unless you need to create a new user or any of the myriad other things that require you to use it...
Windows 8 Fans must just hand their machines over to their betters when they need something other than starting up IE or Word. Wait until you need to clean up a few trojans or viruses and see if you still think the start button is the only thing we "haters" are complaining about.
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Right click on the "Windows" logo in the lower left corner. Select Control Panel. You get exactly the same control panel as you had in Windows 7 - and it's trivial to create users, add/remove programs, change hardware settings, etc. Try it - it's pretty darn simple!
As far as starting stuff up, I have several of my more oft-used programs pinned to my taskbar, and several links on the desktop. Compilers, CAD packages, MATLAB, all pretty easy to get to, and simple to run. Seriously, there is VERY little
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C:\> shutdown /t 1
Just like before
Re:Windows 7 (Score:5, Informative)
I'm curious - do you use a touch-screen system? Because obviously the OS is designed primarily for that form factor. I'd imagine it would be a pretty good experience there. If not, congratulations... you're a very tolerant person who can adapt well to less-than-optimal UI experiences.
A few of the annoyances, since you asked: Unnecessarily hidden-by-default UI is very sensible on small or touch form factors, but unfortunately, utterly retarded on giant screens with plenty of real estate and using a mouse and keyboard, which represents about 99% of the market (I'd guess). How about the idiocy of putting popup menus in the corners of the screen - right in the place where your mouse happens to land to close a window? Full screen metro apps that can't be resized? On a 27" high-resolution monitor... seriously? The start button was just a convenient focus for consumer annoyance, but yeah, normal people actually still use that button, even if the cool kids don't. How brilliant was it for them to completely remove a convenient, functional, and well-known design element that people have literally been using for a good portion of their entire lives? No, Windows 8 was a mountain of fail from a design and usability standpoint. There's absolutely no getting around this.
Yes, you can get used to just about anything if you use it long enough, of course. It's not like Windows 8 is unusable, but frankly, it's just more annoying to use (and uglier) than Windows 7, and as such, why the heck would I "upgrade"? There are obviously a lot of folks who feel the same way too. There are some nice new features, but none of them are really compelling enough to get past the annoyances.
Windows 10 looks to fix just about all the major complaints people currently have with 8 (except for the ugly visual theme). Really, they should have fixed all this stuff with Windows 8 - they had to have gotten a crapload of early feedback that users were not happy with it, but they arrogantly decided that they knew better, I guess. Microsoft is looking a lot more humble these days, and that's a good thing for users.
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Windows 8 is pretty good once you install something like Start8. They really have improved a lot of things. Aside from the Metro UI, use of which can be reduced over 95%, by using Start8 and setting your file associations right, what is so bad about Windows 8? It is a little bit less shiny, more boxy, but it runs fantastic.
Have you actually given it an honest try? Use it every day for two months, with a start menu replacement, and you will have enough time to realize all the good stuff.
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Windows 8 is pretty good once you install something like Start8. They really have improved a lot of things. Aside from the Metro UI, use of which can be reduced over 95%, by using Start8 and setting your file associations right, what is so bad about Windows 8? It is a little bit less shiny, more boxy, but it runs fantastic.
Have you actually given it an honest try? Use it every day for two months, with a start menu replacement, and you will have enough time to realize all the good stuff.
I used Windows 8 for maybe 2 years; Windows 8.1 since I could install it. Then a few weeks ago wiped my machine and put Windows 7 back on. Much nicer. Windows 8 is a fine OS crippled by the UI.
But Windows 8 / 8.1 has at least one glaring fault: the remote desktop client.
If you have your screen set to anything other that 100%, the RD client screws up badly when connecting to another machine: it seems to miscalculate the font size for some Windows controls. The classic example is connecting to a terminal
Re:Windows 7 (Score:4, Insightful)
People who think before they purchase the next new thing? People who are not so tied to others opinions that they still use stuff that works? Like their legs and brains. People who recognize not all change is for the better.
People smarter than you.
You forgot one:
People who tried Windows 8, and discovered that is indeed a steaming pile of pig shit.
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That's a funny reason to want Windows 8 on their PC.
It's a masochistic Microsoft fanboi thing.
But seriously, I tried W8 and 8.1 for the better part of a year. That should have given me a chance to get used to it.
Nope, still a steaming pile of pig shit. The touchscreen laptop now runs mint 17, and the wife is happily using it.
Wondering about those numbers. (Score:3)
Re:Wondering about those numbers. (Score:5, Funny)
It's interesting that while 8.1 is around 10%-ish, 8 is still about 5%. Considering 8.1 is a free update for registered copies of 8, how many of the un-updated copies of 8 are pirated versions?
What would be the point of pirating Windows 8?
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It's interesting that while 8.1 is around 10%-ish, 8 is still about 5%.
Perhaps 8.1 is the one that comes with downgrade to Windows7 option. I wonder if they counted how many licenses are downgraded after purchase.
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It's interesting that while 8.1 is around 10%-ish, 8 is still about 5%.
Perhaps 8.1 is the one that comes with downgrade to Windows7 option. I wonder if they counted how many licenses are downgraded after purchase.
This is measuring actual usage, not what people bought.
Re:Wondering about those numbers. (Score:5, Interesting)
That's pretty much the one and only reason why most of these users have not upgraded on their own. 95% of those windows 8.0 users are simply not clued in to the fact an upgrade should be done. 4% likely had problems getting the upgrade to install or download so just stick with 8.0 rather than troubleshoot the issue. Lets peg 1% or less are those choosing to stick with 8.0 (good enough for them, corporate standard, too much trouble, not enough bandwidth to download, etc etc)
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I disagree with the numbers. Most computers and nearly all tablets are much more of an appliance. People may have been told about an upgrade, but didn't care enough to even remember it.
The conscious choice was to ignore all information. If it didn't work adequately, they would not have made the same choice.
Specifically, I disagree here: " they simply didn't bother to even find out."
To most people, that's not even a thing. Not bothering means they are aware an option exists. I don't know what prompts a user
Re: Wondering about those numbers. (Score:2)
Not a single person I have talked to still running 8.0 was even aware of the upgrade. It's not like they made a conscious choice to stick with 8.0, they simply didn't bother to even find out.
Guess you don't actually run 8.0 anymore (or you are domain joined) because on my 8.0 system a pop-up asking me to upgrade to 8.1 shows up every 2 hours after an Windows update a couple months ago.
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Guess you don't actually run 8.0 anymore (or you are domain joined) because on my 8.0 system a pop-up asking me to upgrade to 8.1 shows up every 2 hours after an Windows update a couple months ago.
People are probably so pissed off with Windows 8 that this is just another annoyance to them that they ignore.
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Also 8.1 asks if you want to send search queries to Bing during the setup wizard. It is also easy to turn the option on or off at any time in t
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It's interesting that while 8.1 is around 10%-ish, 8 is still about 5%. Considering 8.1 is a free update for registered copies of 8, how many of the un-updated copies of 8 are pirated versions?
I wonder about the Windows 8 being so high, too, especially considering the many issues (and complaints) there were fixed or improved with 8.1 and Update 1. I doubt it has anything to do with piracy, though, certainly not with those numbers. Are there some Surface and other tablet devices that are either difficult to update or will not accept 8.1?
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Most likely those people who just bought the computer and were utterly clueless that they can update.
I'm surprised it's not more really. Essentially anyone with meaningful know how got 7 instead of 8.
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Probably none of them. 8's hack is key server emulation which gets all the updates, and if you pirate it, you probably have the know-how to upgrade to 8.1.
Average user who was shoved 8 down his threat because he just didn't know any better would not on the other hand, and the poor bastards have to suffer.
That is of course, if anyone was stupid enough to pirate 8 when 7 is freely available
Re: Wondering about those numbers. (Score:2)
Retail Windows 8 is allowed to be upgraded to 8.1 for free - it slips in as a Windows Update. Volume License installs of Windows 8 need to be re-installed to upgrade to Windows 8.1 - they do not have an automatic upgrade path.
Bought Win8 retail? The Win8.1 update is free.
Bought a computer with Win8 pre-installed? The Win8. update is free.
Have a corporate/school-issued (volume license) computer with Win8 installed? Your IT folks will have to re-image it for Win8.1.
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Except that it doesn't "slip in as Windows Update" but requires significant user interaction to install. Which means ignorant user trained to say "no" to every prompt he didn't click something to create says "no" and doesn't install it.
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Have a corporate/school-issued (volume license) computer with Win8 installed? Your IT folks will have to re-image it for Win8.1.
You don't have to go as far as re-imaging you can upgrade in place but it isn't automatic, you will need the media and activation related steps will also need to be taken (AIUI if you are using KMS the KMS server needs to be updated, if using MAK you will need to install a new key on the individual machine)
And yes I do think producing something that was support/updates wise (and I think but i'm not positive licensing wise) treated as a service pack but activation wise treated as a new version was a mean thi
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What would be more interesting would be (Score:3)
What percentage windows has captured of the overall device market, instead of just the desktop market.
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I dont know the answer right now but it sounds like the future could be quite strong as more people drop their current tablets for something a bit more productive like surface 3 or similar from other oems, especially in the corporate world. Laptop sales are still heavily weighted to Microsoft, regardless of what the iFanboys tell you and Chromebooks are soon to be dead now that windows based alternatives are available at the same price point running a real OS on comparatively decent hardware.
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Chromebooks are soon to be dead now that windows based alternatives are available at the same price point running a real OS on comparatively decent hardware.
You know what we used to call cheap, small laptops with limited storage running Windows or Linux? Netbooks.
They were great, until everyone started shouting that tablets were The New Shiny, and suddenly they disappeared. Now, cheap, small laptops are supposed to be The New Shiny, except we're not allowed to call them netbooks any more.
Which is good, because we need to replace our old netbook, so now I'll be able to buy a new one and install a real OS on it instead of that Windows crap.
Re: What would be more interesting would be (Score:4, Informative)
HP is offering an 11" windows 8 notebook w/ 2 meg RAM and 32 Gig SSD for $199. Oh, and it comes with 12 months of Office 365 AND 12 months of 1 TB OneDrive cloud storage... And it can run any any Windows application... The appeal of the Chromebook is what, exactly?
For $50 more, HP will sell you a similar laptop with a 13" touch screen and a slightly larger form-factor.
Re: What would be more interesting would be (Score:5, Informative)
The appeal of the Chromebook is what, exactly?
It doesn't run Window 8.
how many sales are forced? (Score:3)
I wonder how many of Windows 8.X's sales are "forced", IE, preinstalled on a PC that a consumer bought because they needed a PC, not because they wanted Windows 8? Stipulating that the consumer is not a geek, and not aware that they might be able to ask for Windows 7 preinstalled instead?
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Most of them. Windows 7 is no longer offered for retail sale, but big companies with bulk deals can get a downgrade option.
Little squares. That's the future of computing.
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Little squares. That's the future of computing.
Now that's a pretty dystopian world. Worse than Blade Runner.
Re:how many sales are forced? (Score:4, Funny)
If you prefer little squares with rounded corners, you can buy a Mac.
Re: how many sales are forced? (Score:2)
Windows 7 is still available, just not the Home, Starter, or Ultimate versions - Windows 7 Pro is still available for sale.
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Machines with windows 7 (usually 7 pro installed as a downgrade from 8 pro) are still available at the moment if you plan ahead know what to look for.
OTOH if you don't plan ahead and just go to the shops and buy a computer then things are far less rosy. The non-pro editions (what you will likely get retail) don't come with downgrade rights and AIUI neither do the retail/retail upgrade versions of the pro editions.
So if you get a machine with non-pro windows 8 and want to downgrade then AIUI your only option
Almost all (Score:2)
I wonder how many of Windows 8.X's sales are "forced", IE, preinstalled on a PC that a consumer bought because they needed a PC, not because the
Pretty much any purchase that isn't a Mac or a chromebook. Yeah there are few linux folks out there but they are pretty much a rounding error in the pre-install desktop market which accounts for the vast majority of machines sold.
Re: Almost all (Score:2)
There is Windows 8.1 with Bing, a completely free full OEM version of Windows 8.1, with the only requirement that the system builder may not reset the default browser to anything other then IE or the default serch engine to anything other than Bing - the consumer is free to change either at will with no repurcussions...
Putting a MS OS on the system allows the vendo to collect MS advertising revenue AND pre-install all that bloatware with their install fee for putting them on the machines. Choosing to instal
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Speaking for workstations/desktops: Every business I know or dealt with has no plans to go to Windows 8.x, ever. They all buy desktops that might come with Windows 8 but they just get imaged to Windows 7. Most of them lagged getting away from XP and they just now got to 7. My best guess is Windows 10 will be the successor after it comes out and proves to be stable and usable as a desktop OS.
I heard one tech recently say something about how we should upgrade to Window 8 and it pretty much made me laugh. Why
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I think because Windows 10 defaults to the Desktop UI on laptop and desktop computers, it is the true successor to Windows 7 in the corporate world. Indeed, I expect Windows 10 to cause a major uptick in PC sales because people familiar with Windows 7 and earlier could pick up Windows 10 a lot faster.
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It's an instrumented build that's only been released to the wild for the purpose of testing and improving the OS itself. There's nothing shady about a piece of beta software reporting on what the user was doing shortly before a crash or other bug causes it to phone home. This is how they fix bugs and make improvements. There's won't be a real "keylogger" in Windows 10, per se.
That being said, from a privacy standpoint, I'd be much more concerned about how OSes are now sending local search data out to the
Windows 8.1 is an improvement over 8.0 (Score:3)
I have to say... I have three Windows 8.0 Pro licences that I purchased at launch when they were cheap... I've tried it several times, never could stand it, just wasn't finished...
Recently I bought a new Dell laptop that came with Windows 8.1 and was pleasantly surprised at the improvements.
While my main machine will probably run Windows 7 until Windows 10 comes out, I've upgraded several other machines from 7 to 8.1 now using my existing licenses.
I have to say, had Windows 8 launched as 8.1 stands today, I think most of the hate would have been gone, it is "cleaned up" and an improvement in many ways over 8.0.
Looking forward to 10...
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I have also switched from Win 7 to 8.1 and it really is better. Many things are better streamlined and faster. And small features here and there that just make life easier. Like native iso mounting. Start screen does not bother me much because I used to use search anyway in Win 7 also. I just press the Win button and start searching. Startup and sleep times are way better, and in-built Skydrive and skype are good. I also like some Metro apps like calculator because I can fix it in the side and it's nice to
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I will say that if I didn't already own Win8 licenses, I sure wouldn't pay to upgrade from 7 to 8. :)
Windows 10? Will I pay for that? Yea, I'm sure I will, but to move all the computers to Windows 10 will require a good price.
$30 strikes me as the right upgrade price.
It's going to probably get higher with pipo w4's (Score:2)
and other sub $150 windows 8.1 tablets.
XP is better (Score:5, Insightful)
Not sure where those numbers come from (Score:3, Insightful)
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The venturebeat article links to netmarketshare as the source of the statistics. The numbers are apparently world-wide. Your own experience is unlikely to be a reliable barometer of what's happening in Munich, Shanghai or Addis Ababa ...
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Your own experience is unlikely to be a reliable barometer of what's happening in Munich, Shanghai or Addis Ababa ...
True but I wouldn't take their numbers as reliable either. The honest truth is that noone has a real picture of usage share.
From their FAQ (emphasis mine)
"Net Market Share data is an aggregation the traffic of all of our HitsLink clients, but instead of counting pageviews we count daily unique visitors. A daily unique visitor is counted only once per day per website we track"
So it seems machines that are used to view a wide range of different websites get counted many times. Machines that are only used to v
No mistake (Score:4, Interesting)
I thought linux is like 20%. One percent is sort of like "other" in my book.
Linux's market share in desktop PCs is pretty much a rounding error. Always has been and that isn't likely to change soon. You'll find plenty of linux in mobile and servers but not in desktop or laptop PCs.
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Its worse than that, Gnome3/Unity/etc are actively pushing users either back to Windows or to Macs with their terrible designs.
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Some, perhaps. The smart folks just install Mint's MATE edition.
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Its worse than that, Gnome3/Unity/etc are actively pushing users either back to Windows or to Macs with their terrible designs.
On the other hand the ugly flat look of Windows and Mac is pushing people back to Gnome3 and Unity, which are the remaining cool-looking desktops. Besides, Unity is actually very close to the Windows 7 UI.
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Linux still lags behind MS Vista, by a 2:1 margin (Vista enjoys about a 2.5% total market share, Linux about 1.4%), but still Linux advocates declare Linux is poinsed to take over the desktop market any day now!
I'm a fan of Linux, but have to agree. It's like we're going to have practical nuclear fusion in 40 years....
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Since this is usage stats. Lets looks at client usage stats on internet:
Windows 57.12%
Linux 20.12%
Apple 18.04%
Other 4.74%
Stats are from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems [wikipedia.org]
So yes Linux has come a long way. Windows may still own the desktop. Market share in what is though of as the PC-market (desktop/laptop/nettbook) its only 1.64% today. But in market share of the computers that are used to surf on the net, supercomputers, servers real time system there Linux are thriving.
Linux i
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Since this is usage stats. Lets looks at client usage stats on internet:
Windows 57.12%
Linux 20.12%
Apple 18.04%
Other 4.74%
Stats are from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems [wikipedia.org]
So yes Linux has come a long way. Windows may still own the desktop. Market share in what is though of as the PC-market (desktop/laptop/nettbook) its only 1.64% today. But in market share of the computers that are used to surf on the net, supercomputers, servers real time system there Linux are thriving.
Linux is in second place and increasing in the IT that folks use today
Right, but doesn't that include the server market? Linux is doing very well there. But I think the OP was specifically speaking of desktop.
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That's a good point. A good observation might also be that Linux is strong in the server market. But I believe OP was specifically talking about desktop.
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Re: XP Stats probably bogus (Score:2)
You understand you could click on the hyperlink and see where the stats came from...
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nice fallacies. Did you try?
The last one depends on what software and how you defined 'faster' and 'better.' A lot of software that ran fine on 7 will not start at all on 8 because of the new dwm, and that is even with ACT shims.
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I'll keep my PS/2 peripherals and sound card thanks, and I like my RAM on DIMMs / So-DIMMs.
I will consider an AIO if it meets these requirements, else regular PC hardware does, even if you want the latest 10 watt CPU.