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Microsoft Claims a Billion Windows Installs by End of 2008

Posted by Zonk on from the one-beeellion dept.

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.'"

6 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Quality vs Quantity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They are the McDonald's of software

  2. Something fishy? by kraemate · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is this possible? Do that many people even have access to a computer?

    1. Re:Something fishy? by NuSuey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      i guess they count the illegal copies too .. *smile*

    2. Re:Something fishy? by aleph+taw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      some people have more than 1 computer

  3. Why surprised? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

    Not sure why that's so mind-numbing. I personally own more computers than I do cars, and I have my laptop from work. Two out of my three machines are Windows.

    I'm sure most of us work in environments where computers outnumber people. And, I'm sure the back-room infrastructure of most IT departments consists of a fair number of machines doing various things. (And, any sufficiently large organization is gonna have at least one IT department/location.) Hell, I bet Microsoft and Google combined have several hundred thousand machines if not more.

    Now, I have no idea of how they estimated this 1 billion machines, but I don't find it a surprising number at all -- I bet my office of 50 people has well over 100 computers running Windows, and we're one office in a multi-national corporation.

    Cheers
    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  4. Re:Ah, don't underestimate MS by dal20402 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd suggest Tuxpaint to you and your like.

    This sort of comment is exactly what he's complaining about, and a very good reason for someone without an extensive *x bacground to avoid desktop Linux. You just undid all the goodwill that the previous, very informative reply might have generated.

    He isn't a computing n00b. If he wants something comparable to Photoshop, and similarly easy to use, don't smugly point him to a kids' drawing program. Just because a program is arcane and difficult to use (GIMP, although it's *slowly* getting better) doesn't automatically mean it's more powerful. Likewise, just because a user seeks a usable program doesn't mean that user is stupid or doesn't need serious functionality.

    Given that Linux users needing support have no alternative but to turn to the community, it's pretty unhelpful when the community is rude and condescending.

    You can't have it both ways. Either 1) you want Linux to stay the domain of a few self-satisfied, smug nerds, and accordingly never become important on the desktop, or 2) you need to realize there will be users who are new to Linux but, somehow, nevertheless manage to be smart and competent people.