Windows 7 Overtakes XP, OSX Struggles To Beat Vista

judgecorp writes "Latest market share figures show the difference between perception and reality. Windows 7 just nudged past Windows XP with both around the the 43 percent mark. OS X and Windows Vista divide the rest of the spoils, with all versions of OS X only just adding up to a little more than the failed Windows version, according to data from Netmarketshare."

Comments

Worldwide? Probably not

[A Friendly Troll]

OSX isn't very used outside the western world. So, I guess it has a lower worldwide marketshare, whereas Linux might have a higher one.

Re:Worldwide? Probably not

[ACS Solver]

I can relate. I lived in Latvia until a year ago, and while that's a Western country by now, it's also one with much lower income levels than the "proper" Western countries, besides, the whole free market thing is kinda new there.

Thinking about the previous 10 years or so, I think I had seen people with Macs something like 3 or 4 times total. Most people I talked to didn't even know Macs existed, although starting in 2005-2006 I met a fair amount of people who had heard of Linux as an alternative option. After moving to Sweden, I literally saw more Macs being used on my first day than I had seen in Latvia, ever.

Also puts me in an interesting position where I'm a knowledgable computer geek and have used many OSes, but not OS X. The last time I used a Mac was with Mac OS 8, and even that was brief. I think I should just install a Hackintosh at home one weekend because I am curious to play with OS X, to see how it works and whether I'll find it as easy as it's supposed to be.

Oh, and if anyone is curious to the reason why Macs are essentially non-existent in Latvia, it's simple - prices. Macs there cost as much as anywhere else, which in terms of Latvian incomes places them firmly in the luxury item category (especially until a few years ago). Together with the essentially ubiquitous piracy among privately owned computers, it makes the idea of buying a Mac very strange. Case in point, with iPads. Having just checked the prices, an iPad 3 with 16 GB Wi-Fi only in Latvia costs 339 lats, the same with 4G costs 425 lats (not including data plan). MacBooks start at 895 lats. The average monthly income in 2011 after taxes for those employed in Latvia was 330 lats (about 600 USD at today's rate). Puts things into perspective.

Re:Methodology?

[Missing.Matter]

iOS includes iPads and iPods, which vastly outsell Android equivalents.

Re:It's all about the mojo

[Anonymous Coward]

And? That copy came in and ran Unix out of town in practically every niche it existed in. Being "Unix" doesn't mean shit. It isn't the standard anymore.

Re:Year of the Linux Desktop

[Grave]

Because they have no reason to. Seriously. Linux offers so little of value over Windows 7 to the average user that would justify dealing with a significant UI change and loss of support. The average user has had a hard enough time moving from XP to 7 (and these are honestly almost identical except for a couple of eye candy tweaks). The differences going over to any of the current Linux distros would be too much.

The argument that Linux could ever take off on the desktop is based on the idea that it's equally easy to use for a complete novice. Unless you regularly deal with people who are genuinely novices, you really don't understand just how much changing things scares them. The support infrastructure for Linux on the desktop is just plain awful compared to that of Windows--OEMs do not support it except under specific circumstances, and the average neighborhood computer geek is far less likely to know how to fix an issue with Linux than with Windows.

Converting to MacOS X happens because of marketing hype and chic factor, but at least there is a decent support infrastructure in place from Apple, and the platform is consistent and stable enough that most issues that arise can be fixed.

Windows "just works" on almost any hardware. MacOS X "just works" on Apple systems. Linux does not, unless you are willing to do some digging.

Re:Flamebait

[cpu6502]

>>>its cool to bash OS X / Apple here.

False. Every time I bash Apple (mainly because it costs 2x as much) my post gets modded down into invisibility. This forum is very protective of the Apple brand and punished anybody who says something negative about it.

As for the Article, "reality" is the same as "perception" for most people. We all know that XP is being replaced in offices/homes by Seven. That XP share is shrinking & Seven share rising is not news.

And we all know that Apple's Mac OS is less than 10% of the market. Also not news.

Re:It's all about the mojo

[cpu6502]

Having Apple rearrange your desktop is a "feature" for those artistic types that barely understand technology. They like that Apple comes along every +0.1 iteration and cleans-up the mess the artist or musician left behind. (Just like they enjoy a maid to come visit their house once in awhile, even if things end-up rearranged.)

Re:OS X is THE superior OS

[smash]

Yup. The apple trackpad is worth paying for. Even if you're going to run windows on it. Carrying a mouse and keyboard around with your portable computer because the built in gear is awful is fucking retarded.

Re:Year of the Linux Desktop

[ifiwereasculptor]

Support a wider variety of filesystems?

Work with most integrated audio chipsets out of the box? (Windows has me hunting for drivers whenever I have to reinstall and the mb cd is missing - actually Linux plug-and-play has been way better than Windows for quite some time, now. When it fails, though, it sucks badly.)

Repositories (or ye olde app store)? (Windows 8 might negate that advantage)

In that same vein, the absence of a registry.

Oh, memory requirements. Windows needs way more RAM at boot than even Kubuntu.

There's plenty of things, really. Windows came a long way in recent years and 7 is the best yet, but it's not a perfect system. Though I support your view that for the average user Linux offers little more advantage than whatever the Windows license cost, that's not why Linux isn't as ubiquitous as it should be. It's a mix of lack of software support and alternatives (getting better all the time) and the neverending breakage of shit. If people ran only CentOS or Debian stable, then their outdated crap would keep running flawlessly forever and annoying changes would only come every two years or so. But we don't.

Re:OS X is THE superior OS

[Osgeld]

installing that gps software, running office ... its not what you want, or what you think other people want, its what THEY want, and according to the numbers OSX dosent have what they want, and its more expensive

drum on apple boy drum on