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Microsoft Claims a Billion Windows Installs by End of 2008

eldavojohn writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed yesterday that there will be a billion machines running Windows within a year. 'The install base of Windows computers this coming 12 months will reach 1 billion. If you stop and just think about that, parse that for a second, by the end of our fiscal year '08, there will be more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles, which is at least to me kind of a mind-numbing concept.'"

12 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. I suspect the figures by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does that include reinstalls?

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  2. WarezOv Industries Announces Shared Hosting Initia by Saint+Aardvark · · Score: 5, Funny

    ST. PETERSBURG - WarezOv Industries announced today a new initiative in partnership with Microsoft that promises to put shared web hosting on every desktop.

    "With Microsoft's help, we have brought web hosting services to nearly one billion PCS across the Internet," announced WarezOv CEO dRO0m@t. "Windows allows us the opportunity to bring value-add to the customer."

    WarezOv's suite of administration tools allows easy management of all aspects of web hosting, including DNS, mail services and -- most important -- failover. "By tapping into Window's remote API calls, WarezOv's tools can scale web hosting to nearly any degree, and make it easy for the hoster as well," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "This -- and their tool's ease of install -- is what Windows is all about."

    Free Software Foundation president and founder Richard M. Stallman was unavailable for comment. "He's talking to Google about building something similar for GNU/Linux," said a source close to Stallman.

  3. Ob by edittard · · Score: 3, Funny

    there will be more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles
    To do: Insert joke about crashes.
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    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  4. Re:How many zeroes is that? by Luke+Dawson · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Microsoft billion. They use a similar system to calculate the amount of time remaining when installing a .msi.

  5. Re:Something fishy? by arth1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Also note that he said "running". I highly doubt that claim. :-)

    Of course, he could have meant "running" as in "with scissors".

  6. They're just counting the WGA nags by Vicegrip · · Score: 3, Funny

    What they're counting is the number of times WGA pops up to confirm that your copy of Windows is valid.

    It's just retarded how many times that fucking thing pops up.... Microsoft wants to double quadruple check or something....

    User: "but you already checked!!!" ....

    MS: "yes and we're going to check again, bend over please .... you like using the computer you paid for right? We'll fix you good if you don't comply."

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  7. Re:How many zeroes is that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Give it up. When I was at primary school in England in the mid-70's, the definition of a billion as 10^12 was already obsolete.

    When the British government announces that they've spend a billion on this or squandered a billion on that, everybody knows they mean 10^9. It doesn't occur to anybody younger than eighty that they might mean 10^12.

    You might have had a point in 1940. Now you're just being an arse. Hang on, is that you dad?

  8. Energy savings by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just think of the energy savings if they had made it the black screen of death.

  9. Re:Something fishy? by Yetihehe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does Ballmer count licenses to get a high number, or conduct polls to get a true number?
    What do you think? :-)
    I think Ballmer counts licenses to get high.
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  10. What at egregious insult by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Funny


    to McDonalds. When was the last time you had a Big Mac? It may not be the most nutritious thing in the world, but at least it's TASTY. I have eaten many an XP installer CD, and I can assure you it is neither.

  11. It's as if... by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's as if a billion computers all cried out at once in terror and said, "It appears you are being suddenly silenced. Cancel or allow?"

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  12. Re:Works both ways by norminator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, I just stuffed an egg McMuffin in my CD drive.

    That's not working out so well either.
    Idiot. That's a coffee cup holder. No wonder you're having problems.