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Windows Operating Systems

Windows 10 Now Active on 1.3 Billion Devices, Says Microsoft (extremetech.com) 79

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
It's been just over a year since Microsoft announced it had hit its goal of 1 billion monthly active Windows 10 devices. It took a while to get there, but Microsoft now says Windows 10 is growing even faster, reaching a whopping 1.3 billion active installs in the last quarter. From a report: Like a number of other technology firms, Microsoft has the global pandemic to thank for its windfall. It turns out people buy more computers when they're stuck at home. "Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren't slowing down. They're accelerating, and it's just the beginning," said CEO Satya Nadella. The latest device count comes from Microsoft's earnings report, which featured a stunning $41.7 billion in revenue for the quarter.
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Windows 10 Now Active on 1.3 Billion Devices, Says Microsoft More

Windows 10 Now Active on 1.3 Billion Devices, Says Microsoft

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @03:12PM (#61333358)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I'm still running it, and will continue to do so as long as I can. If push comes to shove it'll be 8.1 not 10.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jonfr ( 888673 )

        You can no longer activate older versions of Windows. I don't know when Windows 7 activation stops working but it is not going to work for many more months. Older Windows versions activation have long stopped working.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          Not sure if this is true, but you can still crack a fresh installation of win7 to work normally.

    • If people really didn't want to use Windows 10, they could use Mac or Linux. It would be a bit of fuss, but in the vast majority of cases, people could do it.

      They just don't want to. Windows is simple and convenient enough to justify all the spying and bullying from Microsoft, so people put up with it.

      And that means more money and power to Microsoft. So, yes, they are proud of that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by maynard ( 3337 )

        Linux works great for Davinci Resolve 17.1, Blender, and a host of other creative tools. Inkscape is remarkably good, for instance. And while I'm not going to defend GIMP as some great FOSS alternative to Ps, you can mostly match Ps if you mix it with Krita. GIMP has good selection tools and fantastic snapping guidelines support. But it's layers panel is a mess and it doesn't support nondestructive adjustment layers. Krita lacks tools but has real nondestructive adjustment layers and nondestructive layersty

        • It's an incredible PITA and I don't doubt Ps and Infinity Photo folks would snort at the hassle of it. But if you want off Windows, it's possible to get image editing work done that way.

          Or, you could switch to a Mac and keep using the same software.

          P.S. it's "Affinity" Photo.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by maynard ( 3337 )

            I switched FROM MacOS. Which I've been using since I switched from Linux to MacOS X in 2003. And yes, it's Affinity Photo. Typo.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        People really don't want to use windows to the point where they now chromebooks where they can get away with it.

        Because OS is irrelevant to most people. It's the software you can run on the machine that matters. It's why we've been having a "year of linux on desktop" for two decades now, and it's still used by almost nobody, whereas apple's machines remain that which apple intends them to be. Cool fashion accessories with limited, strictly apple-curated functionality.

        If people could still run 7, they would.

    • How did they force anyone off of Windows 7? You are free to run it, Win 8.1, Vista, 2000, ME, or even Windows XP or Win 95.

      What they did do was make sure everyone with a valid Win 7 or greater license (OEM or retail, not volume licenses) could upgrade to win 10 for free, those bastards!

      • Re: Forced (Score:5, Informative)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday April 30, 2021 @06:23PM (#61333974) Homepage Journal

        They tricked many people into installing with deceptive dialogs, and while they claimed that they got permission for every install, there are too many claims of coming home to find one's computer installing Windows 10 to simply shrug off.

        I am wholly unsurprised to see you in particular defending Microsoft coercing or defrauding people into running the worst spyware ever created.

    • I finally "upgraded" in the fall. Since then I've had more problems with W10 than I did with W7 in all the years I used it.

      Also, my computer ran like a dog after I "upgraded". I've replaced almost all of my internal hardware in order to have a usable computer.

    • Windows 7 was released in 2009. Final SP1 release 2011. Platform Update with IE10 in 2013. EOL. 2020. Eleven years to EOL doesn't look like a forced upgrade to me.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rhipf ( 525263 )

        Plus you can still run Windows 7 if you so choose. At the very worst if you do get auto-updated to Windows 10 just uninstall to Windows 7 within the next 30 days.

    • Ten years ago, Windows ran on about a billion devices. So it took ten years to grow 30%?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fazig ( 2909523 )
        10 years ago we didn't have Windows 10.

        The 1.3 billion figure claim is only about Windows 10 active installs. It makes no claim about the previous Windows versions that are a still in use.
        Take a look at this older statistic here https://venturebeat.com/2020/0... [venturebeat.com]
        From there we can see that at least a year ago there were still some good numbers going for Windows 7 and Windows 8 usage. Unless those users jumped ship and opted for a different branch of OS, I'd assume that parts of those 800 million users of

    • They are proud of something they forced? It's not like they let people keep Windows 7 or anything.

      I mean there's forcing people to update, and then there's talking about the lack of people jumping ship. The past few years by Slashdot standards should have been the obvious contender for the year of Linux on desktop, or for OSX to become the biggest desktop OS in the world. But instead as it turns out, people just stuck with Windows.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Just like the typical slave-holder is proud of his "possessions", which he is free to mistreat as he likes.

    • bringing backdoors to your house since 1985 , ventilation is good for you.
  • of Malware Distributors every where

  • When... (Score:4)

    by JasterBobaMereel ( 1102861 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @03:19PM (#61333384)

    ...you can't buy a PC or Laptop (or a few other devices) without Windows wether you want it or not, and they nagged or forced everyone who had any other desktop version to upgrade ... why so few !

    • You can buy one. But it won't be the cheapest or thinnest laptop. You'll have to accept some compromises if you buy a non-Windows laptop, for example it might run macOS.

      But seriously there are some Linux laptops out there, not a ton of them but pretty good if Linux is a higher priority than pretty much every other aspect in your laptop choice. Dell has 3 series of laptops that ship with Linux pre-installed. Lenovo also has 3 series of laptops with pre-installed Ubuntu (ThinkPad T, X, X1 and L). System76 fa

      • There really is no Microsoft tax - software companies pay to have their software installed on Win10 machines so the cost of the license is subsidised by bloatware manufacturers.

        Similar spec hardware is cheaper with Win10 than without - it really is a Microsoft subsidy, not a tax.

        • I'd pay quite a bit extra for the convenience of not having a bunch of half-baked demo apps preinstalled on my net computer.

          And I don't think anyone suggested there was a Microsoft "tax". It's always been an Apple tax and the somewhat smaller Linux tax. But comparisons on the Linux side are difficult because similar spec hardware is tough to find on the consumer-grade end.

          Of course Chromebooks are Linux and they are often very cheap when compared to a Win10, but again exact specs are unlikely to be found fo

    • ...you can't buy a PC or Laptop (or a few other devices) without Windows wether you want it or not

      Except for the hundreds of millions of Chromebooks, MacBooks, and convertible tablets.

    • why so few !

      The answer you seek is in the word PC and laptop. The reality is many people have concluded an iPad is good enough for them.

  • Weird, it's still "the year of the Linux desktop"

    • Naww! that was a few years ago. The only Microsoft products I have in the shop today are in the un wiped drive bin

    • Year of the Linux mobile has been every year for the last 10 years. I'm going to chalk it up as a win.

    • Well what would you call the Desktop?

      Android is a Linux Operating System (it just isn't GNU/Linux (lack of a better name)) So it is a different Operating System compared to say Ubuntu, but it is still a Linux Kernel Based OS.
      Phones, Cars infotainment systems, TVs and Streaming devices all seem to run Linux Kernel based OS's.

      Apple Products is based on the BSD Kernel, so in theory Unix is still alive and thriving as well.

      If by Desktop the box on your desk, and Laptops computers where you primarily use a keybo

      • And if you get down to it, Rokus are running on Linux as well as just about every iOT appliance you can think of.

        For most people desktop computers don't matter that much. It's more about the phone/tablet.

        In the server market Microsoft is getting thumped by Linux.

        Pretty much the only place that Microsoft still dominates is desktops/laptops for corporate users and desktop/laptops for home users. And tablets and chromebooks are making inroads for home users. For every other vector they are losing badly.

      • When people generally talk about Linux on the desktop, they generally mean Linux and an open source desktop. The entire point of the original "year of Linux on the desktop" idea of open source software as a replacement for Windows, buying PCs with Linux installed, playing your games on a Linux distribution (which I know is more possible now more than ever thanks to Steam, but still it's not the same), etc. You may say citation needed, but I was there in the original hey day of Linux on the desktop, buying R

    • If we can convince this guy [youtu.be] we'll be in the running.

    • Weird, it's still "the year of the Linux desktop"

      It's always the year of the Linux desktop.

  • I wonder how many devices Linux runs on now?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by btroy ( 4122663 )

      I wonder how many devices Linux runs on now?

      https://www.w3schools.com/brow... [w3schools.com]

    • I've got a dozen Raspberry Pis that sit idle from unfinished projects to inflate those numbers.

    • Re:That's nice (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @03:44PM (#61333484)

      I wonder how many devices Linux runs on now?

      Three billion smartphones are running Android, which is Linux.

      • That's nice, everyone loves free stuff, so what?

      • Android is a not a desktop OS. It defines the app-oriented world of mobile, Chromecast, and the desktop box.

        • You can use phone Android in a desktop-ish way if you want to, and it takes surprisingly little effort to do so. You just connect (USB, bluetooth, etc) some desktop input devices and you use Termux or Linux Deploy (root) to install the usual Linux stuff that you'd expect. Sometimes there is some fiddling to do to get everything working depending on Android version, vendor choices for the build.prop file (if you have root, you can edit this) and so on, but in general it's not a big chore. You might need to u

      • Add to that a couple of 100 million routers, tablets and embedded devices. Wait no, let's not count the IoT stuff with crap security that's all around...
  • “Windows 10 is Active on 1.3 Billion Devices, Says Microsoft”

    Well it would as we the suffering end-user have no choice. Seeing as Microsoft forces upgrades on our computers. I was wondering if anyone here can provide a solution for:

    A two second delay for the characters to appear on the screen, after you pressed some keys. Mouse scrolling randomly pauses on browsing and any other program.

    • Stop trying to run Win10 on a Core2Duo processor with DDR2 RAM and a spinning SATA drive?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        Are you volunteering to pay for his upgrade, or simply doing your best Marie Antoinette expression?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rhipf ( 525263 )

          If he is unwilling to upgrade his/her hardware just "downgrade" back to Windows 7 within 30 days of Windows 10 installation. If you miss that 30 day period you can also do a fresh install of Windows 7.
          At some point you will need to upgrade your hardware to run current programs. Anyone expecting the computer they buy today to last until the turn of the century is in for a shock.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            That loud wooshing sound you're hearing is not your AC. It's the point flying over your head.

            • Oh, I thought it was the fan noise from the aforementioned Core 2 Duo laptop. :)

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                Bad news. Those old CPUs had a very low TDP and lower current higher voltage operation compared to modern ones that operate at high current low voltage and therefore heat far more and need far more heat dissipation. The fan noise is far more likely to be coming from that amazing upgraded laptop than the old one.

        • No, Win10 runs fine on current hardware, and in my experience runs fine on an Intel I3 or better CPU from any generation, going back to the first I3 back in 2010.

            (BTW, just try and run current Mac OS on a 10 year-old mac, Apple won't let it.)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            I would like to congratulate you on your anecdote. Would you like to spend time saved helping people with modern computers who can't get that OS to run even latest and greatest hardware?

            You know, things like that recurring bug where they screw up anyone with high end GPUs by "fixing a part of hardware stack as a part of automated update" which breaks something in the hardware stack related to GPUs? I no longer remember how often this happened with ten, it's too high of a number to remember at this point. La

  • How was this counted ? (Score:3)

    by jmccue ( 834797 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @04:12PM (#61333596) Homepage

    I wonder how this was counted. 99.99% of people who buys non-MAC hardware will get Windows 10

    So, are they counting number of Licences sold or the phone-homes from the spyware ?

  • The exact number, pls (Score:3)

    by mcnster ( 2043720 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @04:19PM (#61333612)

    C'mon microsoft--we know you know... in real-time.... 24/7.

    --
    Show me a secure Windoze box, and I'll show you an ethernet cable that's been dipped in liquid helium then tapped with a chisel.

  • not one of those devices belong to me, Linux all the way

    • same here. Linux on the Servers. MacOS on the Laptop. Proudly MS Software free for 4 years and 8 months.

      After 20+ years of developing for the MS platform, it was a great relief the day that I said 'enough is enough' and quit.

  • Using the percentages of Of Windows 7 reported on various market share sites I estimate 350 million Windows 7 users. There is also around 10-30 million users still using XP and Vista as well.
  • Wow, one might even term that "viral".

  • There's plenty to still dislike about Microsoft and Windows 10, especially from the FOSS perspective but it also has to be acknowledged that as we sit today in 2021 Windows 10 is the "best" Windows we have yet had.

    It's far more stable than previous versions, BSOD's are a thing of the past for many, devices and drivers "just work" for the vast majority of devices on the market. The "Windows cruft" of inevitable slowdowns after a few years of use is mostly gone (although the advent of cheap fast SSD drive ha

    • Re:Joe average doesn't care (Score:4, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday April 30, 2021 @06:24PM (#61333980) Homepage Journal

      Everything you claim is good about Windows 10 was what was good about Win2k.

    • I switched to linux as a full-time daily driver a decade ago, from windows 7. I only touch windows on the work computer. First time I used the win10 computer at work I went "eww windows, where is the desktop?" Since I don't play any modern AAA titles that only work on windows my windows partition for gaming has been collecting dust for years, and will probably be gone when I upgrade my hard drive. Around the time I switched I also put lubuntu on my mom's laptop. She loved it. Much faster than win7 on her

  • 1.3 billion devices?
    Is that all?

    Android devices alone are around the 3.5 billion mark.
    When we get into the server space, Linux wipes the floor - it completely dominates.

    It's odd, how for so many years, we saw computer magazine covers (remember those) "Is this the year for Linux on the Desktop?"
    Year after year, it was hopefully predicted Linux would increase Desktop market share. It never really happened.
    In the meantime, a quiet revolution was happening and Linux now has the kind of adoption Microsoft can on

  • And still crap (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday May 01, 2021 @03:03AM (#61334878)

    So, how do they morally justify pushing something this bad to so many people? Just wasting 1 minute per user is equivalent to killing 32 people. And Win10 wastes much more than that.

    • eating time is not the same as killing people, don't be so dramatic. Very few computer users find their computers to be slowing them down, assuming their computer is less than 10 years old.

  • W10 is evil. :(

  • Testing to see if my comment to a different story will show on my main user page.

    My previous two comments show up on my 'comment' page, the one with Replies and Scores, but not on the main user page that shows all full comments.

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