For the second month in a row, NetMarketShare are reporting that Windows 7 is gaining market-share faster than Windows 10. It's difficult to know exactly what this means, and for who, but one possible explanation is that users upgraded to Windows 10 and rolled back to 7 in significant amounts. It will be interesting to monitor the next couple of months, now that Windows 7 is no longer available at retail, to see how its market-share shifts. Then, a few months after that, we'll need to see how Zen and Kaby Lake, which are not supported by Windows 7 and Windows 8.x, changes that further.
I'll now spend the rest of the post discussing statistics… because I can visualize the comments.
NetMarketShare records browser identification strings from partnered websites. As you would expect, there's a bit of controversy regarding how accurate their numbers are. Some of this criticism is simply wrong, usually misunderstanding how small a truly random sample needs to be to converge to the same ratios you will see in a large sample. Just a thousand truly random samples can get you within a few percent of hundreds of millions of people. Studies like this, if they are truly random, have plenty enough data to get a very precise ratio.
A valid concern, however, is whether their pool of websites under- or over-represent certain groups, especially when you attempt to make comparisons on the order of a hundredth of a percent. NetMarketShare claims that they try to get a global representation, including government websites, and they correct their traffic based on the CIA's per-country statistics. Still, it's good to question whether the group of people you are trying to investigate are represented by NetMarketShare's traffic, and how their limitations lower your effective precision.
I think that the worst
I think that the worst problem about stats in this case is focusing on only a subset, and the one that has a less significant change, then trying to analyse that.
There was one month when Windows 10 went down a bit, August-September, and I’d say that would be consistent with rollback. Still, the more significant trend is the drop in XP use, coupled with the rise of Windows 7, 8.1 and 10.
If anything is interesting, it’s that Windows 8.1 went up a lot more between September and October than either Windows 7 or Windows 10, but I’m guessing that this doesn’t make for a good news item.
well it is no surprise to me
well it is no surprise to me why windows 7 is prefered , what I still do not get is why MS did not stay with what made windows 7 great and build on that instead of some free spyware OS . I wonder how many ran from windows 10 to Linux because of MS blunder ?
Not many. Nobody really cares
Not many. Nobody really cares about linux and most Windows users don’t have the computer savvy to deal with that bullshit.
My current newest laptop came
My current newest laptop came with windows 8 pre-downgraded(Upgraded in my opinion) to windows 7. Remember the pro versions of Windows come with “Downgrade” Rights. Also M$ is leasing individual windows enterprise edition licenses for around 8 dollars a month. So individuals and small businesses can get an enterprise license subscription and turn of all that consumer/spying/adware bloatware pushing crap. Most business users single individual business licensees and above will go to enterprise versions and be in control of their hardware and OS.
There are plenty of 7 and 8.1 pro(with downgrade options) licenses in the retail channels and held by OEMs to allow for the supply of window 7/8.1 pro licenses to outlive windows 7’s EOL, and probably 8.1’s EOL also. Windows 10 professional also has downgrade rights, but many will just get an enterprise subscription.
There is more to worry about with most new CPU/SOC features not being supported for 7 and 8.1 but that will not stop the newer CPUs/SOC from running the older 7, 8.1 OSs it just means that 7 and 8.1 will not be taking advantage of any newer CPU/SOC features in the OS. That issue also concerns drivers, as the newer OEM PC/Laptop hardware drivers may not include support for any older OSs than windows 10.
M$ is going to an OSASS(OS As A Service) model and SASS(Software As A Service) model, and for pay cloud services, for small businesses, individual businesses, and enterprises with their new enterprise subscription licensing. The consumer market is being monetized with the spying and the forcing and the pushing of bloatware without the end users’ permission and anyone that wants control over their windows OS will have to pay for an enterprise license subscription to play.
Windows 10 consumer is not going to get any more market share except through attrition and the bundling of windows 10 on new PC/Laptop hardware. With Windows enterprise licensing available to individuals and small businesses the “Pro” versions will no longer be attractive to single individuals and small businesses that can get an enterprise subscription.
I’m waiting for some Linux OS OEM laptop options with AMD’s Zen/Vega APU options as I really have no need for any consumer version of windows above windows 7. I’d rather have Linux and Vulkan as the main OS/Graphics API and get entirely away from all that ad based, unnecessary bloatware, update forcing(new unwanted Bloatware/Borked patches), and spyware baked into windows 10.
Keep a keen eye out for any M$/OEM monkey business on OEM PC/Laptop hardware that comes with windows 10 factory installed! Make sure that the Firmware UEFI/BIOS has a windows secure boot OFF switch enabled in the PC’s/Laptop’s UEFI/BIOS! OEMs have the “Option” of not providing an off switch for M$ windows secure boot on new PC/Laptop hardware that comes with windows 10 factory installed. Also that Lenovo ACHI controversy shows there are other ways for M$/OEMs can try and lock PC/laptop hardware to the windows 10 closed ecosystem. It may be very hard for some to install their Linux OS/Other OS of choice on some OEM PC/Laptop hardware that comes with windows 10 factory installed!
Why it’s difficult to
Why it’s difficult to understand. There is number of factors at play.
1. Free is not really free and it’s over anyway.
2. EOL doesn’t mean much for a lot of users who stick with 7 or rolled back to 7.
3. There was for sure some frantic purchase trend of W7 licenses, especially in OEM segment before M$ closed the door on 31.10.2016.
4. Speaking from personal experience. Bought 3 extra W7 licenses just for my home to avoid any W10 taint.
5. A lot of folks who wanted security went over to *nix platform. And some certainly switched Micro $oft for $tinky Apple Cult – which really isn’t an improvement.
6. In all my PCs I have boards which allow to turn off or don’t have SecureBoot so Winblows won’t screw me on hardware level. As such I withheld any BIOS updates which may change this. As a result everything works perfectly.
7. Me personally I will never use OS with Cloud integration. That leads to OS as a subscription in a very straight line and overflow of advertising because of invasive surveillance capabilities. Period.
Not really that difficult to understand. And all of that in about 5 minutes… 😉
All of that in about 2
All of that in about 2 minutes. But most people don’t care about that as much as you do.
I bought a brand new $3,000
I bought a brand new $3,000 Sager laptop back when I was still stationed in Hawaii. It came with Windows 8.1 and certain programs would cause the hard drives to go into what was commonly called “disk overload” I tried 8.1, I tried to make it bearable because my laptop came with it, but ultimately I reformatted back to WIN7.
I would have never bothered with 8.1 if the Win7 option was free from factory but it was $100 and 8.1 was free. 🙁
I’m hearing every bit that windows 10 is the exact same problem windows 8.1, vista, and ME were. Broken software, broken drivers, impossible user interface, telemetry spyware, its just not worth it.
Too all those clowns crying the old “If you haven’t tried it then shut up!” I haven’t tried it, I’m not wasting my time with it, I tried windows 2000, windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows 8.1, guess what, they were all garbage and windows 10 already took its place in line. When Microsoft listens to their customers again, I may consider a new OS from them. I still have two offline computers that run windows XP because its low profile and works.
Those are all just “new OS”
Those are all just “new OS” problems. The driver issues will get sorted out over time… if Win10 ever stops being a moving target with those stupid major upgrades in rapid succession.
Changing the system faster than the drivers can adjust is just not at all a good idea, Microsoft…
It is your PC, you purchased
It is your PC, you purchased it and you should have total control on it.
People should run whatever OS meets their needs. If you do not believe in your own freedom, then be a slave to a corporation.
I deleted Windows 10 partitions many months ago. I still have Windows 8.1, but I rarely use it.
Now I am using Manjaro KDE 16.10 and Manjaro 16.10 Cinnamon/Gnome/LXQt Linux desktops on my PC. All these desktops provide incredible experience without asking to verify my indentity to some nasty corporation. No spying, no malware and no virus scan. I do not have a any anti-virus software on my PC.
I am not a gamer and do not need DX11 or DX12.
With Win 7 being EOL’d from
With Win 7 being EOL’d from retail channels entirely, it’s not any sort of surprise that there would be a mad scramble to get those remaining Win 7 installs before the guillotine drops. These numbers are just a reflection of that.
I’m glad Windows 7 share is
I’m glad Windows 7 share is above Windows 10 share. Truly poisonous software.
I gave Windows 10 a solid few
I gave Windows 10 a solid few months, but ultimately upgraded to Windows 7. Too many random issues and annoyances.