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Microsoft Operating Systems Windows

Windows 10 Now On 500 Million Devices, Up By 200 Million in a Year (arstechnica.co.uk) 123

Posted by msmash from the growing-dominance dept.
At Build developer conference in Seattle today, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 is now running on 500 million monthly active devices. From a report: Little over a year ago, the company said that the operating system had reached 300 million systems. As the operating system nears the end of its second full year on the market, it's clear that it's going to fall a long way short of the company's original estimates. At launch, the ambition was to reach 1 billion devices over the first two to three years of availability, but this estimate assumed that Windows 10 Mobile would be a going concern, selling something of the order of 50 million or more devices a year.
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Windows 10 Now On 500 Million Devices, Up By 200 Million in a Year More

Windows 10 Now On 500 Million Devices, Up By 200 Million in a Year

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  • Forced upgrades. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gfxguy ( 98788 ) on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @01:23PM (#54393795)
    It's pretty easy to hit that milestone when you force people to upgrade without their consent. Don't get me wrong - I have Windows 10 on both my desktop (dual boot) and personal laptop; I have it on one of my work laptops (the other is Windows 7/Linux dual boot). I'm probably one of the few people who like it, but I don't pretend like what MS didn't wasn't disgraceful.
    • I'd pay $50 for a final "never try upgrading this PC to Anniversary Edition" fix. The forced upgrades when they fail again and again and again and again and again is a huge pain.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by hackel ( 10452 )

        Uh...I can sell you that upgrade for a lot less. In fact, I'll GIVE it to you for nothing. See: https://www.linux.org/ [linux.org]

        When a company repeatedly screws you over and over, it's downright foolish to continue using them. Try to learn from the past!

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 )

          Only if you point me to the Linux version of all my favorite games.

          Oh, you can't? Then you're not offering a solution, you're just a fanboy praising for his team.

          • Run Linux on a CPU that has a built-in GPU (most Intel CPUs, any AMD "APU").
            Also get a real GPU.
            Run Windows in a VM, and pass the real GPU directly to the VM.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Merk42 ( 1906718 )

              Run Windows in a VM, and pass the real GPU directly to the VM.

              and then we're right back where we started

              • No, you get a lot more control, and you only run Windows when needed.

                You can easily firewall off all of the bullshit "telemetry" from the Windows VM, block the forced updates, etc. while still having it function normally online for games and other shit. With an actual Windows 10 install, you need an external firewall to do this. The host OS handles it in this case. (Though you could still use an external firewall if you're already doing that, or you have multiple Windows 10 shits you need to block, etc.)

                • Re: (Score:1)

                  by Anonymous Coward

                  Its called "putting Windows into a straightjacket"... Ghod KNOWS thats where it (and the maroons in Redmond who wrote it) belongs....

          • wine has a rather large list of retail games with a platinum rating....

            • wine has a rather large list of retail games with a platinum rating....

              I've lost track of the number of times a game has performed well below its wine rating. Enough times to where I stopped trying, and just accepted that I would have a Windows PC. But it's running Windows 7, and I'm not planning to upgrade, so I'm also not planning to buy any games which won't run on Windows 7... or Linux.

              • I haven't had a linux desktop as my default for probably 15 years so I couldn't tell you how well wine works now... but I used it for a lot of games back then.

      • "The contract states that the show will cost $500 with rehearsal."

        "How much without the rehearsal?"

        "You can't afford it."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kjella ( 173770 )

        I'd pay $50 for a final "never try upgrading this PC to Anniversary Edition" fix. The forced upgrades when they fail again and again and again and again and again is a huge pain.

        I got that for free last July when the free "upgrade" program ended. Sounds like Win10 got a -$50 value right there. Sadly despite the occasional good news on Linux games, it looks like Linux gaming is going nowhere with 0.76% market share on latest Steam survey. Some games are now starting to come out as DX12 exclusives while the list of Vulkan games remain very, very short and usually in beta as an alternative rendering path.

    • I used to dual boot Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Xubuntu. I run OpenSUSE now and love it. It's sooooo much faster than Ubuntu based systems, except for maybe WattOS.

    • Oh, so that is only 499,999,999 devices too many.

      Windows 10 is the worst OS MS every released. I'm so happy that I no longer have to use it at all.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      It's pretty easy to hit that milestone when you force people to upgrade without their consent. Don't get me wrong - I have Windows 10 on both my desktop (dual boot) and personal laptop; I have it on one of my work laptops (the other is Windows 7/Linux dual boot). I'm probably one of the few people who like it, but I don't pretend like what MS didn't wasn't disgraceful.

      It is funny how Microsoft announces the Windows 10 adoption when other sites [netmarketshare.com] state that Windows 10 is still around 26% with Windows 7 (48.5%) and other versions of Windows including "XP", 8.0 and 8.1 taking 15.58%. It appears Microsoft only give out figures if it suits them.

      The information I have given was in April 2017.

      BTW. All my computing devices have a Linux kernel. I don't run Microsoft anything although to be fair I have Windows 10 in a virtual machine and all up I have run that operating system

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by maugle ( 1369813 )
      I voluntarily upgraded from 7. And I regret it.

  • Statistics on VOLUNTARY installations? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @01:30PM (#54393875) Journal
    Sorry but I can't take this seriously considering the source; anyone have a link to statistics concerning voluntary installation of Windows 10? From a credible non-Miscreant-o-soft source only, please.

    • Do you count all those computers that came with it pre-installed? After all, it was installed by the OEM...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 0123456 ( 636235 )

        And does it count all the ones where users never actually ran Windows 10 and just installed a different OS?

        My current laptop came with Windows 10 installed, and a Windows 7 DVD if you wanted to upgrade... but I just pulled the hard drive out and plugged in an SSD with Linux installed on it.

        All that said, we finally replaced our old XP iTunes machine with a Windows 10 machine at the weekend, and it didn't suck as bad as Windows 8. So there does seem to be some progress in Redmond.

      • Do you count all those computers that came with it pre-installed? After all, it was installed by the OEM...

        An offer they can't refuse, so yes.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Who cares? Voluntary or not doesn't come into it if they actively have a Windows 10 machine and have chosen not to throw it into the bottom of the ocean.

      • How about statistics concerning how many Windows 10 users, who bought a computer with it pre-installed, are too technologically uninformed/uneducated/flat-out-ignorant to know there's anything else they could have running their computer, or for that matter even know an 'operating system' from a hole in the wall? It's hard to have a choice when you don't even know there is a choice.

        • And it's still irrelevant. Using Windows 10 out of ignorance is still using Windows 10. Advertisers and investors don't care why you're using it.

          Personally I like it, but I also understand many people don't and that it's rollout could only be desribed a "dick move" but that doesn't change the numbers that MS reports to the people who give them money. ... Sadly .

          • Are you one of those people who aren't bothered by how much you're being surveilled in public places, or how much your ISP and other 'organizations' are logging and analyzing your Internet usage? One of those people who always say "I'm not doing anything wrong, so I have nothing to fear"? If you are then that explains a lot about your attitude on this subject. Or are you just a shareholder of Microsoft stock, and anything that makes them money is a good thing so far as you're concerned?

            • Are you one of those people who aren't bothered by how much you're being surveilled in public places

              You're reading things that I didn't say and didn't imply. This is a story about MS talking about how awesome they are. This is a thread about the relevance of MS's forcing actions. My entire point is and was that whether or not the user chose to install something or not is irrelevant to MS advertising it's figures.

              I've said nothing about privacy. I've said nothing about the impact to end users. I've said nothing about how I feel about the situation at all and only explained from a neutral point that the sta

              • Microsoft claiming huge numbers of installed Windows 10 is disingenuous when it includes forced installations and 'stealth' installations on computers of people who don't even understand what's happening or what they're being unilaterally signed up for. It's about as legitimate as some authoritarian dictatorship claiming 'crime free streets' when the mechanism behind that is total marshall law and threat of being shot dead if you're out on the street after curfew.

                As to your last poke at me: Shove it up y

                • Disingenuous to who? Not to investors, not to partners, not to developers, and not to shareholders. These 4 groups are the only reason you would make a statement on your install base. They don't care if customers love your stuff, or customers use it because there's a gun to their head. They don't care if it's legitimate, they only care if its correct.

                  As to your last poke at me

                  I merely poked back. Doesn't feel good does it.

  • Yay! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by thegreatbob ( 693104 ) on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @01:34PM (#54393921) Journal
    It's absolutely amazing what you can accomplish when you could not care less about people's choice in the matter.

  • and a testament to the effectiveness of the automatic / forced update system.

  • I just can't believe Windows is still a thing in 2017. At least Linux still has them beat, thanks to Android!

    • I would use linux for everything but the problem is that wine can't run the "Hackshield/Gameguard" protected games and i mainly play MMOs and i don't want the hassle of changing OSs everytime i need to change between gaming and browsing the web or something else...

  • Oh fuck off (Score:4, Informative)

    by ilsaloving ( 1534307 ) on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @01:46PM (#54394045)

    It is now virtually impossible to get anything *other* than Windows 10 on computers. Newer machines with Kaby Lake or Ryzen processors effectively *force* you to get Windows 10. Microsoft is figuratively holding a gun to people's heads and saying, "You use Windows 10, or nothing at all."

    In other news, taco sales are through the roof! The fact that it's now mandatory for people to eat Tacos for dinner every day has *nothing* to do with it.

    Assholes.

    • I guess that depends on your definition of computers. I haven't used a laptop or desktop or mobile device running Windows since around the turn of the century.

      • I'm ignoring Macs, Linux and Android for simplicity.

        Like it or not, Windows is still the 100lbs gorilla in the computer world.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 0123456 ( 636235 )

          "Windows is still the 100lbs gorilla in the computer world."

          Windows is a tiny niche product in the computer world.

          Most phones and tablets run BSD or Linux. Most servers run Linux. Only the legacy desktop market is still a big win for Microsoft.

        • Wait... what? There are far more computers running a variant of Unix (Linux, Android, iOS, MacOs, and all the other Unix distros) than running Windows. Just the install base for Android outstrips Windows.

          • That is true, but the key factor is, "What's it used for?"

            The overwhelming majority of those unix variant system are used for playing Candy Crush Saga and Flappy Bird, or browsing Facebook. They are primarily consumption devices. While there have some inroads towards empowering those devices to do more (eg: Office 365, google apps, etc), they are still overwhelmingly used for consumption.

            I'm willing to bet that there are more computerized temperature control systems are at least equal to the number of des

  • In all but an official announcement, Microsoft is telgraphing that Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 are completely dead. They want nothing to do with supporting downlevel operating systems at this point (because Windows as a Service) and anyone who wants to remain on Windows 7 is just not going to be tolerated for much longer. I'm getting the impression that the farthest back Microsoft is going to go in terms of support is the last LTSB release, and even then grudgingly so.

    Holdouts on the business side of things don't

  • I guess it's about 1/14 if there are 7 billion people with 500 million systems. Though, it's not really their fault when you force updates to a system that spies on you 24/7 and limits what you can do with it, claiming it's for your "safety." No, you have a "store" you want all of us to use. Ever heard of FOSS or Linux? Micro$oft payed their way into the Linux Foundation and partnered with Canonical (Ubuntu) and have been trying their damnedest for decades now to destroy Linux and FOSS software so that we all end up under their control. We've got cloud computing for that now. You'd be amazed at how many people never even heard of Firefox or LibreOffice and you can thank Google and M$ for that. And now, you've got idiot millennials on FOSS related forums trying to get developers to make cloud app versions just so they can use it on their tablets. News flash, those tablets are throttled on purpose just to get you to suggest such a thing. Cloud computing is not for your benefit, only the developers and the company making money off of open source server software, basically using open source to destroy open source. If they wanted to put 4GB+ RAM and x86 in tablets they really could. I have a decade old laptop with 4GB of RAM. The iPad is 7 years old and was actually in development before the iPhone but didn't get released until later. So, how does selling new 2017 laptops with the same 64-bit version of the 32-bit specs but with only about 1.2 Gz at such high prices make any sense? Look how thin laptops are now. There's no reason not to make a tablet, or are they terrified people will just wipe it and put another OS on it?
  • I'm running, I and will only ever run, Win10 into a bunch of virtual machines on a solid Linux DEVICE. They are certainly not running on their own DEVICE. I have enough security concerns as it goes, thank you.

  • Comment (Score:5, Funny)

    by WallyL ( 4154209 ) on Wednesday May 10, 2017 @02:35PM (#54394499)

    Cheap grab for attention/points/karma/laughs:

    Hello, Windows developer. Please select one of the following options for the new Windows "Free" Initiative:
    ( . ) Free as in freedom
    ( . ) Free as in beer
    ( X ) Free as in herpes

    ^ Thank you for your selection. Have a nice day!

  • Especially considering Microsoft's monopoly power over OEMs, you would think it would be four or five times this number. After all, Android arrives on over a billion new devices a year these days. Seems inescapable to conclude that Microsoft is now firmly second-rate.

    • Especially considering Microsoft's monopoly power over OEMs,...

      That and business licenses. I'm wondering if my business' 5000 seats are listed in there as technically we're buying that many Windows 10 installs*

      *With the right to downgrade to something else because our software requires it, but that probably isn't recorded anywhere.

  • In the past year, OEM's have shipped around 200 million Windows based PC's, I'm guessing.
  • Big companies like Microsoft are always over stating these sorts of things. How many of these windows 10 machines get used daily by people is a more important statistic imo.
  • Then again, maybe it's because people don't have an choice. I was handed a hybrid HP laptop with Win10 and locked-down Insyde UEFI firmware. Haven't been able to install Linux on it yet, so I'm essentially using it as an offline PDF reader for now...

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