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Windows Android Operating Systems Hardware

Android is About To Eclipse Windows as the World's Most-Used Operating System (cnet.com) 169

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
John Falcone, writing for CNET: Android is poised to overtake Windows as the world's most-used operating system. That's the word from web analytics service StatCounter, which monitors worldwide web traffic with an eye towards device operating systems. The firm found that 37.4 percent of devices online were Android -- just a hair behind Windows at 38.6 percent. Perhaps the bigger concern for Microsoft are the trend lines, however: Windows is on a steady march down from 82 percent in 2012, while Android is mirroring it upward from 2.2 percent in the same 5-year period.
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Android is About To Eclipse Windows as the World's Most-Used Operating System More

Android is About To Eclipse Windows as the World's Most-Used Operating System

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  • YEAR OF LINUX ON THE TABLET (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    All hail Linus, creator of Linux! May he live long, and may he father many more kernel releases to come!

  • Dunno (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Artem S. Tashkinov ( 764309 ) on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @02:05PM (#53993675) Homepage
    Comparing apples and oranges makes a whole lot more sense than comparing two distinct OSes which run two distinct classes of devices.

    • One is also free and the other is not. Thus one is still making infinite times more profit through licensing than the other.

      • OS/2 had license fees too... how'd that turn out for 'em? ;)

        I guess the point is, license fees haven't much to do with the future viability of a given OS.

      • You appear to be under the impression that Android is free software, and therefore, the royalty for putting Android on a device is zero. AOSP is free software, but Google Play Store and Google Play Services are not. Furthermore, makers of Android devices with a microSD slot that supports SDXC have to pay an exFAT patent royalty to Microsoft.

    • Only if you think they will stay distinct forever. How low does the Windows share need to go before people start to make the same old argument they always did: Why should I buy this other OS when it doesn't run all of my existing software?

      If Android continues to mature and tablets get more capable, why not expand into PCs? Already you are seeing Chromebooks which can run Android software. Will Windows be forced to adopt an Android environment as well? Will Adobe make a Photoshop for Android laptops? I think

      • Microsoft still has MS Office and the Backoffice software, and this is where its hegemony remains. It long ago showed its willing to bring the software to other platforms with the Mac versions, and it has put its toes in the Android waters, so I think pragmatism is winning the day. I think MS is fully aware that it has not been able to meaningfully challenge Android and iOS in the mobile and smart device markets, and it must surely know that Google certainly has eyes on bumping further into the traditional

        • Nota Bene: Microsoft is making a *Linux* version of MS SQL Server... so yes, you're correct in that Microsoft can adapt as needed.

          That said, it still brings up GP's point: Eventually a tipping point will be reached, where people start asking "why bother buying Windows when all my stuff either runs on a web browser or it runs on {something with a Linux kernel under it}?

          We'll know when that tipping point is reached when OEMs start defaulting their consumer devices to ChromeOS (or whatever), instead of default

        • Yeah, it's 2017. Only two things currently make lots of money for Microsoft: Office and Xbox. I'm not even sure thay actually care anymore about the "OS Wars"

        • It's not really much of a merger anyway - ChromeOS is just Chrome and some glue running on a Linux kernel. Android is a much more full-featured OS also built on Linux that also happens to run a mobile version of Chrome as an app. Port the full version of Chrome and some of the glue over to Android and you have all of the functionality of a Chromebook. I could see them selling two versions of the same machine - a locked-down ChromeOS-branded machine for schools and such and a more open Android version for th

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

        Well, Microsoft is supposedly readying a Chromebook competetor - defined, I guess as a low-cost, stripped down laptop that can only run 'modern' apps. Replacing the Chrome browser (and its apps) with Edge and Android apps with Windows app store apps. I guess if 'app store apps' includes WIN32 stuff that's been made app store ready, they might have something that could sell. But if it's just a stripped down version of Windows, with all the complexity, but none of the 3rd part apps, it's not really a bette

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Comparing apples and oranges makes a whole lot more sense than comparing two distinct OSes which run two distinct classes of devices.

      That sounds like the pathetic excuse of a Windows fanboi who is desperately clinging to the past. Android is usable as both a mobile OS and a desktop OS; something that Windows was never able to accomplish.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        For how long has Android been usable on the desktop? I can see three possibilities; to which are you referring?

        Remix OS
        Remix OS [wikipedia.org] came out 14 months ago but lacks Google Mobile Services. Without access to Google Play Store, where do Remix OS users find apps to install?
        Stock Android 6 "Marshmallow" or earlier
        If you open the calculator app, does it fill the screen? Is there a way to make it not fill the screen?
        Stock Android 7 "Nougat" or later
        Devices still for sale today are unlikely to get an OTA upgrade to N
    • Apples and oranges....I think not. The Average users is not using the desktop as much as tablets and phones due to portability and convenience. Desktop was the old mass market. Now portable/light devices is the new mass market. Certainly MS has bragged being the largest used OS platform worldwide. They knew they would lose that title if the iOS or Android took root. Unfortunately too little to late.

      • Windows is a desktop operating system with its install base there, Android is a tablet/phone OS with all of its install base there. It's like saying coffee makers are about to eclipse ovens as the most used appliance....ok? Still need the oven for its purpose.

        You are right that usage behaviors are shifting but Android is not a desktop operating system so comparing the two is just silly. We know they both are trying to break into the other market but that ship has sailed, so yes the on 15$ tablets at Walm

        • "the *OS* on 15$" is what I meant to say.

        • Linux scales to far larger systems [themerkle.com] than does Windows. Microsoft does not run on the top 500 machines.

          Microsoft has been squarely beaten in mobile and enterprise systems. Microsoft is now the "OS of the gap" and is being crushed in the vice of Linux market share.

          • Great, linux is a big competitor to microsoft. What does it have to do with this article or what I said?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Bert64 ( 520050 )

          But the point is that a desktop was always a toy for geeks and not really a suitable tool for typical users, it just happened to be the only thing available that fulfilled several requirements those users had such as browsing and email. Think of all the unnecessary complexity and knowledge required to keep a typical desktop os working and malware free - not suitable for typical users.

          Now there are more suitable tools available for those average users, so users are moving to them.

    • Yes, this so called news can come back when android surpasses win as a 100% work environment

    • two distinct OSes which run two distinct classes of devices.

      Which both can access... email, social media and messaging services. Which is what most people need anyway.

      Let's face it, Windows is becoming less and less needed, which is good :)

    • Especially if the two OS/devices are used for the same thing... chat, email, web browsing, videos...

    • Apples to something less healthy, like Nougat/Lollipops?

      Seriously, I thought Android had already eclipsed Windows simply on the number of units installed since there are already billions of Android devices out there, while Windows has yet to reach or just gone past the billion dollar mark on the more costly desktop.laptop platforms. In the third world you can buy a cheap smart phone running some old unsupported possibly malware infested version of Android for a fraction the price of the least expensive net

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Yeah one on the archaic desktop that is in and of itself hugely losing market share (the desktop itself) and the other a Linux distribution (so sneaky numbers, seperating one Linux distribution from the other Linux distributions), winning in the expanding markets, phones, TVs, cheap notebooks, tablets and servers, well pretty much the entire rest of the growing computing market. M$ is dying and made a panic grab at future revenues, that panicky grab instead of being a positive step being a hugely negative o

  • Six posts in and still no "netcraft confirms" joke?

  • Data? (Score:5, Funny)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @02:08PM (#53993695)

    They sure seemed to rely on Data much more than their ship's onboard computer. One would think they would either upgrade the ship's computer to how Data was configured or just plug Data into the ship.

    Despite the number of windows on the Enterprise, they still relied on an Android.

  • Bad news (Score:2, Funny)

    by lucasnate1 ( 4682951 )

    So Windows is finally going to be replaced by something much worse? (Both in terms of usability and openness)

    • So Windows is finally going to be replaced by something much worse? (Both in terms of usability and openness)...yeah, right, if it weren't for Windows, the general public would be lost and basicly /. would not exist without people complaining about Windows so it's not going anywhere at least in our timeframe.

  • Two different operating systems that have virtually no overlap. This isn't telling anyone anything.

    • It tells me that handheld portable devices are outnumbering windoz desktops in shear devices shipped and in operation... But we knew that already.

      • Not a particularly good or interesting metric. I have 2 desktop computers as home, but between tablets and phones there is 9 devices (of which probably 5 are on). We are at a stage where portable devices are where desktops were 10-15 years ago where we replace them on such a regular basis that everyone has lots of them. That will change in the coming years as devices reach the point where most people find them powerful enough and don't need to replace which should see a massive consolidation in the industry

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

      They have virtually no overlap in approximately the same sense as land lines and cellphones have no overlap.

      For a long time most people kept their landlines (Windows PC's) and added a cellphone (iOS or Android). Then gradually, as they moved - or their old landline phones broke - or they changed cable providers - or kids got their own homes, they kept their cellphones and gave up the landlines. So, the comparison is pretty apt. Presumably at some point large swaths of the population won't buy a new PC wh

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        But new businesses (parallel = kids moving out of their parents' houses), may well opt for Chromebooks or Macs or 'anything that can run web apps'/.

        Good luck getting through a computer science degree in college, or even just the semester of introductory programming that all freshmen at a particular college take, with just a Chromebook.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

          The vast majority of PC and/or cellphone users is not made up of Computer Science students or power-gamers. Are you so insular that you don't get that?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tepples ( 727027 )

            kids moving out of their parents' houses

            Good luck getting through [...] the semester of introductory programming that all freshmen at a particular college take, with just a Chromebook.

            The vast majority of PC and/or cellphone users is not made up of Computer Science students

            The majority of kids moving out of their parents' houses and into a freshman dorm are computer science students if only because college imposes it as "general education requirement", much like humanities for engineering students. Even some high schools are making programming a required subject. See, for example, Arizona Bill Would Make Students In Grades 4-12 Participate Once In An Hour of Code [slashdot.org].

      • I think you are grossly overestimating the cross functionality between tablets/phones and desktop/laptop devices, sure they kind of both *do* the same things but they are used for very different things. Yes people are using their phones/tablets more but they are using them more for the trivial things like angry birds or facebook. The moment they need to work on something serious like photo editing or an excel sheet etc they realize they need a desktop/laptop computer.

        So yes, if Android OS starts gaining a

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

          Again. What percentage of casual home PC users does photo editing (beyond what they can do on their phones) and/or works on spreadsheets (beyond what they can do in Google Docs or Office 365)? Hint - probably less than 50% these days. And some of that 50% only uses their PC's for that - because they're already there.

          If you're not inclined to believe this (based on your personal sampling), take my word for it - Microsoft knows it. And they're doing their damnedest to make sure there's a place for them in

          • I don't know about photo editing, but I tried editing spreadsheets and/or documents on my phone. Once. I never tried it again, and IIRC that was Google Docs. Android (and iOS) just plain suck for that.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

              But it doesn't suck because of Google Docs - it sucks because it's a small touch-screen device. A Chromebook or an Android laptop would be fine for that.

              • I agree that Google Doc isn't the problem. Android is. It's not the small screen either, as a tablet should be big enough. IMO, it's the touch-screen and the fact that everything is full-screen.

  • First of all Android is based on Linux. Second - if you compare desktop to devices you have skipped all IoT devices that most of the time run Linux. So here we have it - 2017 a year of Linux!
  • All of the people commenting that these 2 operating systems use 2 different types of devices are, of course, correct. The link at the bottom of the article about who is actually making money on mobile operating systems seems particularly relevant also. However, hasn't the idea been endlessly rehashed that the people are changing in the way they use devices and services? What if there are dramatic changes in technology that make mobile devices even more attractive for productivity? Also, are entrepreneurs (w

    • Also as more business apps get ported to android expect to see more and more instant device docks. Where a device gets docked and then powers a full screen keyboard and mouse. This has been tried over and over again however the hardware just wasn't good enough and the software stacks had stupid limitations. Now the hardware is there( se Nintendo switch). But software is still behind.

  • Linux won (Score:3)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @03:58PM (#53994517) Homepage Journal

    Yes, we've won the desktop wars. Even if we had to cheat by slipping into mobile some 10 years ago and waiting for mobile devices to become nearly as capable as desktops.

    PS - My first Linux portable was an Agenda VR3 [wikipedia.org] (a 64-bit MIPS) some 15+ years ago.

  • I'm just amazed this wasn't already the case years ago.
    It seems hard to believe that until now that there really are more PCs running windows out there than all the people with android phones in the world.
    I wonder if they've still been counting windows licences for PCs that have actually been disposed of/recycled years ago, and those running Linux and other OS's just because they actually got sold with a windows licence?

  • Crap headline (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @04:44PM (#53994845)

    The article headline is crap. Android/Linux total users passed Windows in long ago. The article should have said that, those users now create nearly the same amount of web traffic as Windows PCs.

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