More bad news for Microsoft as their newest OS continues to lose market share to the previous version. This month sees the total share drop slightly to 12.48% while Windows 7 grew a similar amount and now represents 51.22% of the market. The recently deceased WinXP holds a 24.82% share, also much to Microsoft's dismay. As for Apple and Linux, they hold 6.64% and 1.68% respectively. The numbers that The Inquirer posted came from Net Applications and are comprised of all unique visitors to our network sites; they track browser and OS shares as well as other data points via this methodology.
"MICROSOFT HAS REASON to cringe again this month as the July figures from Net Applications reveal that there has been a further drop in the use of Windows 8.x"
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Researchers achieve 5TB fibre-optic broadband @ The Inquirer
- An Excel Based High Frequency Transistor Amplifier Calculator @ Hack a Day
- PEAK LANDFILL: Why tablet gloom is good news for Windows users @ The Register
- Diamond Dual-Band 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wireless 802.11n Range Extender Review @ OCC
hmmm win8.1 faster more
hmmm win8.1 faster more efficient. Peoples learning curve and adoption rate should be the focus.
Win 8’s got a trashcan date,
Win 8’s got a trashcan date, but the Attempted closed ecosystem, as well as the Beyond crappy UI, is what got M$ in trouble. Closed ecosystems are why Apple only has small share of the overall devices market, so its was never people’s love for M$, it was more of the, who offered the least closed ecosystem. M$ could have made the TIFKAM UI and Runtime a completely optional download and install, but instead they tried to force the desktop user into their new fangled cash cow, how that cash cow working out for the Hated 8, not so good! It is more like Linux will be in more gaming systems, and people will discover that having a un-bloated OS will enable better gaming, and eventually move away from windows, or relegate windows to a rarely used dual boot partition, or VM instance, for running legacy code.
As of Windows 8.1 update 1,
As of Windows 8.1 update 1, Win 8 has actually become quite bearable, with some very minor tweaking. It’s a pity that they trashed the brand so thoroughly before they reached what Win 8 should have been at the start.
Really, what kool-aid was MS drinking, when they pulled that stupid bait-n-switch from the beta preview to the production OS? They took all the excitement and goodwill of the preview version, and flushed it down the toilet with those stupid forced “all your desktop are belong to Metro” and “you will use Metro and you will like it!” changes.
There are many factors about
There are many factors about possible share increase for Windows 7. But odd that Windows 8.1 lost so much shares.
End of life for Windows 8/8.1 is still January 9, 2018 as Windows 7 is January 13, 2015. — EOF Dates appears to have shorten since last time I looked at them — 4 years left or 1 year left, both aren’t much, but 4 years is better.
I prefer Window 8.1 for the boasted performance increase, which I do notice. Seems like a good choice as PCper is running on Windows 8.1 too.
But now, with rumours about Windows 9. So far, all I hear is nothing that I am pleased about. Learning curve of an interface is irritating, but not a huge loss.
I am sure Windows 9 will cause a huge shift for all OS. I am also curious about what PCper will do during that release.
Those “End of life”(EOL)
Those “End of life”(EOL) dates for windows 7 are incorrect. Jan 13, 2015 is windows 7’s end of mainstream(free) support, but 2020 is windows 7’s EOL, after the 2015 date free support help for win 7 will end, but the security patches, and some severe non security related defects will also be patched up until 2020, but help with most non security related issues will cost you, after Jan 13, 2015 end of mainstream win 7 free support deadline. Most enterprises do not care about win 8, as enterprises will continue to use 7, until 9 changes how things are done, and yes 7 will be like XP, and some will pay for beyond 2020 support. Most enterprise have enterprise grade support for the enterprise version of windows 7, for a continuing fee based license, and support tied to the fee/service contract.
Microsoft confirms with 8.1
Microsoft confirms with 8.1 what I think they feared with Vista in the past. When Vista come out and everyone realized that in the eyes of the public it was a failure, they moved straight to Windows 7 that became a huge success.
Now they decided to give Windows 8 another chance with 8.1 version. Well it doesn’t seems to work. Windows 8.1 isn’t doing any better than 8.
Personally I haven’t had any interest in checking 8.1 after having pass a small period of time with 8. I believe that’s the case with most people who tried 8 and gone back to 7. They don’t care to see if 8.1 is better and how much better than 8. And even if for me it is easy to use a spare hard disk to install 8.1, someone with a laptop isn’t going to start formatting the hard drive just to check the new version, or swap disks or whatever.
Windows 8.1 makes it clear that Microsoft’s past decision to come out with Windows 7 instead of calling it Vista SP2 was an excellent business decision.
I went to 8.1 straight from
I went to 8.1 straight from XP. I’ve had a little exposure to Windows 7, but only enough to be a bit familiar with it, so for me, Windows 8.1 (as of update 1) is really pretty good with some very minor tweaking (charms bar only lower left corner, and start tiles reorganized and culled to my liking). In fact, I like the new versions of Solitaire, Mahjong and Minesweeper way better. I’m a slave to Minesweeper’s adventure mode!
If there’s one item that actually bugs me, it’s the lack of collapsible/expandable folders in the “all apps” screen. I hate having to row my way through all those tiny icons to find the one new item I’ve installed.
Other than that, I can say, if you’ve not tried 8.1 update 1, you haven’t tried the only really good version of 8.x for keyboard and mouse with no “swiping” required.
This post came straight from
This post came straight from M$’s marketing department, well not exactly straight, but you know the chain of handoffs of little small envelopes to pay for this terfing, and the Good Cop/Bad Cop subtle complaints that are not really there but to offer the appearance of objectivity!
I see what you did there, but M$’s time as the main supplier of the OS for gaming is beginning to decline!
Mobile will use Android mostly, even for gaming, and hopefully some full Linux distros will come to the tablet market, a tablet market that will begin to decline if it does not start offering tablets with full Linux distros for people to create with, and not just consume! Gaming will be improved by the introduction of the Debian based Steam OS, and Linux’s ability to be configured for low OS overhead when gaming, unlike M$’s Bloat/services which are CPU cycle eaters that take away resources from the gaming engines/games! Windows 7 will be dual booted with Steam OS, but for only as needed uses until the gaming Industry gets its products running on Linux full force!
The Year Of Linux will never be acknowledged, it will be more like some unnoticed slow and steady market growth over the years that will gradually take on more share, kind of like ARM took the mobile market, that the big players ignored until it was too late. M$ does not have the time or the ability to stop the decline of windows on the gaming platforms, not when Linux can be customized for gaming, and AMD and Nvidia have their own more efficient drivers that are not tied to DX, or the M$ ecosystem. Likewise the open Steam OS, with its Open Source drivers, that are receiving more attention for the Steam Box/Steam OS gaming industry driven OS distros, Steam OS, and Others that will appear to counter The M$ closed Ecosystem, and lack of OS customizability for low OS/System overhead for gaming!
How’s that Jack Of all trades TIFKAM working out for you M$!
Windows 8.1 gives smoother
Windows 8.1 gives smoother performane than win7. Much more responsive than win 7. Sure it takes a week to get used to use the redundancy in the Gui on desktop but I wouldn’t go back to win 7.
An increase in Windows 7 is
An increase in Windows 7 is still money in the bank for M$.
Windows 9 is really just Windows 8.2. And, much like Windows 7 was to Vista, Windows 9 will be to Windows 8. People will gush about how great Windows 9 is when in reality it will be a tweaked Windows 8 with more focus on the desktop.
IMHO Windows 8.1 on a Touch based laptop is great. However it is still fine on my Gaming PC.
Now what if I find a touch
Now what if I find a touch laptop on sale, you Know they always have good deals on the unsold year old models, and even the core i7 laptops are relatively cheep. But what if I want to use windows 7, and not 8, because frankly I do not want the Runtime/BLOAT stealing cycles from the applications, and the 3D rendering applications use all the processor’s cores/threads at 100% for rendering, less system overhead, but the core/threads stay pegged at 100% for the rendering run. If M$ made the TIFKAM runtime and UI an optional install then they would have been fine, but they did not listen to their customer’s complaints!
And now for gaming Steam OS comes along, and offers up a Debian based Steam OS distro, and Linux can be custom tailored to be even less resource demanding than its already low system overhead requirements are currently. Well for gaming and rendering, Steam OS will be from the start, only loaded with the most essential OS system components, and no Bloat, allowing games and other tasks to have the most processing cycles available for actual gaming or rendering, etc. If I can not get the OS, or OS version, that I want with the UI, that is best for what I do, then that touchscreen Laptop(on sale), with a forced windows 8 will remain unsold, until it can be loaded with windows 7, and the Touch screen ignored, so there needs to be the option of ignoring the touch, and still using the desktop, windows 9 better run that whole TIFKAM as a side application under control of the desktop/laptop OS, and not as a resource stealing service.
Steam OS being a Linux distro, means that if the user desires more functionality from the Steam OS distro, there are plenty of Desktop environments, applications, and other resources that are just an apt-get, of whatever package manager(GUI or Command Line) is available to allow the user to download and install what they need, and only what they need, unlike windows with its bloat, and running services eating those processor cycles and taking up the page file swap space. The user could Dual boot Steam OS, for gaming, with another Linux distro, That could be configured for more general purpose computing tasks, and most gamers will probably dual boot Windows 7 along with Steam OS, until such a time that most of the games come with a Linux version. The Steam OS Debian based distro will offer a level of gaming OS customization that windows can not, and will not be able match for gaming, as windows was not designed with the end user in mind! The gaming OS tuned for gaming, and running games with as little OS overhead as possible is going to drastically change the gaming market for the better.
Actually, there is a lot to
Actually, there is a lot to say for Windows 8.1 for the general user. It’s got an interface many can quickly get up to speed with, etc. The cloud is something anyone who has any proprietary data and common sense concerning MS “security” will stay away from. MS doesn’t make a professional product- just one they want to be popular and proprietary. I really think the main reason people don’t go to Windows 8.1 is the initial pressers, Windows 7 is already a good product and there is really no compelling reason to do so. BTW, EOS is 2020 for Win 7 and I’m not all that convinced MS won’t extend it. It really is a matter of how well 9 is received.
All I ever wanted out of
All I ever wanted out of Windows 8 is better scaling for small screens and a resizable touch keyboard. It’s hard to type on a tiny touch keyboard on my 8in carputer screen. I just want to make it to the size I want lol.
I have 4 PCs at home being
I have 4 PCs at home being used daily, 2 with 7 sp1, 1 with 8.1 and the other still with 8.0
I don’t see the problem with any of them, even 8.0 (which I installed in 8/3/2012 according to Aida64) is great, a very smooth desktop UI outside of “Metro”, and solid OS.
if you don’t like the Metro UI and apps you don’t need to use it, I certainly don’t, I think it was a mistake by MS to go with that model, but not enough to avoid the OS because the start menu or screen is a very small portion of the interface and OS, at least for me.
but the perception of people is hard to change, most win8 haters I know didn’t even try windows 8 before hating it, so I think MS should be soon releasing a new Windows, be it “9” or some other name, as long as it’s not 8.x, give it the start menu they showed in some photos for update 2, make metro apps run in a window, and boot to desktop as a standard and the haters will love windows 8.2 (with a different name).
Vista suffered more or less the same fate becoming windows 7.
truth is, looking back I was one of the fools sticking to win xp, Vista since day 1 was a big step forward, and with the service packs even better.
Not sure why this is bad for
Not sure why this is bad for Microsoft. They still make money by selling windows 7.
I am looking to build my own
I am looking to build my own computer, and every time the option comes up on websites for the choice of operating system, I make sure to check Windows 7. I absolutely dislike the Metro interface, and I have no desire to have a touchscreen to leave my fingerprints on. Yes, I am fully aware that Windows 8 or 8.1 is faster than 7, and that you can boot to desktop. Still not interested. Hopefully in Windows 9, you can fully hide the Metro crap.
I am looking to build my own
I am looking to build my own computer, and every time the option comes up on websites for the choice of operating system, I make sure to check Windows 7. I absolutely dislike the Metro interface, and I have no desire to have a touchscreen to leave my fingerprints on. Yes, I am fully aware that Windows 8 or 8.1 is faster than 7, and that you can boot to desktop. Still not interested. Hopefully in Windows 9, you can fully hide the Metro crap.
You can hide the metro stuff
You can hide the metro stuff fully in win 8.1.
You don’t have to use a touch screen either.
Have you ever used 8.1?
Once you enable desktop apps for everything and boot to desktop it is better than Win7 in every way.
they’re just moving faster
they’re just moving faster than the business cycle… businesses dont upgrade if its not broke. they should have different product and development cycles for enterprise OS and consumer OS… and keep it open like android, thats why its number one in devices
Microsoft missed the mark in
Microsoft missed the mark in that the Windows 8 Metro should have been the interface for a new generation of touchscreen keyboards, not monitors. The classic desktop environment could have been kept for the monitor workspace for documents and the internet. The touchscreen keyboards would have changed depending on the application open on the tab with the ability to have metro widgets and the task bar at the very top of the keyboard.
Hate to be “that guy” but
Hate to be “that guy” but what if this is all on purpose. We all agreed that windows 8 was unnecessary when it was announced “7 is perfect, why are they bothering,” Just like vista to xp, but now we all hate it even though at its core its a better os, 9 is coming, I have a feeling that they are gona make 9 exactly what we want it to be, bang, 50% market share on the new os. Just a still awake at 7:25am drinkin all night shouldn’t be allowed near a keyboard theory.
I really don’t understand the
I really don’t understand the irrational hate with Windows 8. I’ve got a windows 8.1 tablet (venue 8 pro) where metro works just fine and I just put 8.1 on my desktop (replacing win7). After installing classic shell and changing some default programs, windows 8 is almost identical to windows 7. I haven’t seen metro hardly at all.
My only complaints are how classic shell’s functionality isn’t built in by default, the stupid charms in the top right corner, and metro apps not being windowed, all things that will be changed in windows 9 (8.3).
People riding the hate bandwagon without actually using it more than 5 minutes. Finally, before someone says I work for M$ or w/e, I’ve used everything from Gentoo and Debian to Solaris and FreeBSD on SPARC (yes sparc) and I own a Macbook pro with Mavericks, which is better than win8 in almost every way except gaming.