Slashdot Mirror
NPD Group Analysts Say Windows 8 Sales Sluggish
Nerval's Lobster writes "While Microsoft claims it's sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since launch—a more rapid pace than Windows 7—new data from research firm The NPD Group suggests that isn't helping sales of actual Windows devices, which, in its estimation, are down 21 percent from last year. Desktops dropped 9 percent year-over-year, while notebooks fell 24 percent. 'After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market,' Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at The NPD Group, wrote in a Nov. 29 statement attached to the data. 'We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for.'" That seems to match the public grumbling of Acer and Asus about early sales. And though these figures exclude Surface sales, the newly announced prices on for new Windows 8 Pro-equipped Surface tablets might not endear them to anyone. Have you (or has your business?) moved to Windows 8?
I know mine will never use Windows 8
No. Windows 8 appears to be shit. Why would I want to switch to it?
It is the secure boot technology. I don't want to buy a laptop or desktop that does not easily let me use the Operating System of my own build and choice.
That's why I got email specials from Newegg with Win8 Full Version 64bit something like $70
M$ should close the door. Nobody is using their product anymore unless forced out on companies or comes with new laptop.
and used it to download fresh windows 7 ISOs...
... my business is treating it as a minor, avoidable catastrophe and reacting accordingly.
windows 8 is single handedly tanking the entire pc market. my wife just switched to linux mint, and she likes it okay.
my biggest interest in in steam-on-linux! are they going to have a full library?
this will put the windows gaming market in jeopardy.
will linux make things like masquerading as easy as windows Internet connection sharing?
Look, the commercials show a Apple knock off that relies on technology people generally don't have yet. The surface side of it may be interesting, but how many of us have touch displays at home? My guess is, not that many. So if I'm going to be looking at Windows 8 and it's price, I'm also going to be looking for new hardware to make use of some of the features. It prices me to an Apple system pretty quickly and what do I gain? Immature applications? Still the hassle of viruses and security? More lock in to a company that is shit? No thanks.
Windows 8 is having the same problems as Windows Phone. It's like an Apple device with the same price. Consumers may generally be stupid, but they are not that stupid.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I actually like it more than Windows 7, to the point that I wonder if I'm using the same OS as other people. I will grant, though, that I don't use the Metro stuff. Doesn't seem to be much point. But the other features are nice to have.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
Have you (or has your business?) moved to Windows 8?
I don't know why we would switch. Vista was such a shit show that Windows 7 was a blessing, but Windows 8 just seems to do nothing better than Windows 7 on a desktop compter (which is my primary use at home and at work) so why would I spend the money upgrading? I don't even want to pirate Windows 8 for my home computer just to play around. Used it a few times and I didn't like it, and I'm dreading not having Windows 7 included with our new computers.
Because of this sales failure, Ballmer is about receive "boot" technology...
Table-ized A.I.
It solves one of the worst and most persistent security issues with the Internet.
With the introduction of IE 10 on Windows 8, Microsoft relieves users from the threat of browser-based attacks, by making the system unusable for web-browsing.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Moved to Windows 8 on all of my machines (Home, Work and Laptop) as well as moved both of my parents over from XP to 8.
Really like it so far. It does appear to be a lot faster on my machines. I don't really use metro on my desktop machines, but I use it almost exclusively on my laptop as I mostly just use my laptop for web browsing any way.
My dad really likes 8, my mom doesn't care either way, I'm just glad to get her off of Windows XP and use that as an excuse to get her out of Outlook Express and Palm Desktop for managing her contacts and mail to Outlook so I won't have to deal with any more end of life products.
My girlfriend got a Windows 8 netbook, since that's all they had in the store. She hates it. The default metro apps take a long time to load and feel sluggish, even though they're meant for tablets. She also complains that they're poorly thought-out, and it's hard to figure out simple functionality. IE, how do you move the to the next picture when looking at pictures in a folder. Also, she's getting tired of everything wanting to go full screen.
iPhone 6. Duh!
I've heard nothing on their sales so far, which means to me they are terrible. Much like the Surface production being halved.
I don't criticize MS for trying something different. It is a bold move. But, what they are putting out ISN'T the solution to the problem. They just can't figure out what to do it seems.
I'm still trying to get everything migrated to Windows 7. After that I'll be looking for a linux distro that works for the people that don't really require windows apps. This whole Microsoft Blue thing has me convinced I shouldn't have all my eggs in the windows basket.
Why would I spend that much money to get even more locked into their system? Where's the real benefit for me?
I bought the $15 Windows 8 Pro upgrade (which is actually a full version of Windows 8) and installed it on to a second hard drive so that I can dual boot with my existing Windows 7. So far it seems good. It is noticeably faster than Windows 7 but I haven't committed to using it full time yet. I don't have any issues with the missing start menu since I never use it in Windows 7 anyways. My plan is to keep the dual boot setup and if/when I find myself using Windows 8 more than Windows 7, I'll make the switch.
While The PA Report postdeals specifically with games and how they are just not tracked properly by NPD, the same principle applies to any software: the retail store aspect of sales is small and getting smaller every day. Ignore NPD, they really don't matter anymore.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
When offering Windows 8 Pro to business customers that were replacing old crotchety XP machines one customer said "we'll pay an extra $100 for Windows 7 if necessary. But, we don't want Windows 8". I'm not seeing much love for 8 from customers, even though I use it and like it.
Actually, all this report says is that US desktop and laptop sales are sluggish and that Windows 8 has done nothing to change that. In fact, the actual report, not linked to for some reason, states this: “After just four weeks on the market, it’s still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market.” It also states that slow back to school sales have increased inventory, which is hampering Windows 8 sales.
They also have a very strange definition of "four weeks on the market" as the period they're looking at is Oct 22, 2012 - Nov 14 2012... which includes 5 days prior to Windows 8 being released. With Microsoft selling about 1.5M licenses a day in these initial weeks, 5 days where sales are practically zero is a lot to include in the data.
After buying the kludge that was Vista, I swore I'd never buy another version of Windows ever again...
Linux Mint does everything I need it to do for a home user (I'm not a power user, Just Another Random Guy), it's stable and it's free. It ain't perfect, but then, what is?
While IE10 has indeed be made Windows 8 completely unsuitable for user web-browsing, the architectural choice of moving IE10 into the Windows 8 kernel has left a security hole of goatse.cx proportions.
Windows 8: where all Al Gore's Internet can root for success!
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
It was also funny because one machine bought had a special upgrade coupon to MS Windows 8(which is superflous as all machines bought recently can be upgraded, which makes me suspicious about the upgrade licensee as every who bought a computer recently can go for the free upgrade even if they do not use it). So we were told to keep the coupon even if we were not going to use it, just in case. It seems that most shopper were not even interested in the free upgrade.
I am still mostly on XP. It would nice to move to 7 as I like it quite a bit. But the rule of MS is that every other major upgrade is trash.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
are as high as they are because the vendors cannot sell Windows 7 licenses. They are forcing people to purchase Windows 8 licenses and downgrade to 7.
I ran into a licensing issue that was cheapest to fix with a Windows 8 upgrade. Everything seems faster than Windows 7 but it doesn't really provide additional useful functionality in my opinion (and I did just upgrade to an SSD before going to Win 8 so it may be that...).
I was going to post some anecdotes demonstrating how little I care about Windows 8 but then I realized I just didn't care enough to.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
MS offered the $39 dollar upgrade. Given the most recent vintage I was entitled to previously was Vista (free upgrade from a free XP license), it was a good oppurtunity to catch up with a servicable OS.
It performs massively better (boot time on an SSD is great) and has a slicker baked in task manager. The metro stuff is highly annoying and gets in the way. The MS app store is stuffed with crap (even the netflix app is crap, it doesn't seem to support any reasonable keyboard navigation), so it's pretty much a total loss.
I *thought* the metro ui would be no big deal and easily ignored, but it really is a bit more intrusive making me consider installing classic shell, although that wasn't as nice and functional as Win7's start menu was on systems where I could play with it. The biggest aggravation is the removal of the context menu on right click, instead poppung up elements on the far edge of the screen. I realize that's intentional for fat fingered usage, but as a mouse user it is aggravating.
I've seen some touch users comment on something I suspected would be frustrating. As you play with the 'metro' apps, most of them have scrolling using scrollbars. Touch users have to hit a relatively small scrollbar in those apps in order to navigate the viewport.
I had thought perhaps the start interface would make a servicable landing for an HTPC. However, desktop application exit doesn't really land back at the start menu (probably a decent way to script that back). Joysticks can't navigate it. I'm about to find out if it will support an MCE remote to navigate the start menu. If that fails it's a lost cause, and I'll just have startup items start XBMC as the primary interface (despite the praise heaped upon WMC, MythTV scheduler is better and the netflix plugin for WMC doesn't support subtitles).
As you may have noticed, most of my needs so far would be well satisfied by Linux (particularly since the media server/mythtv backend is linux), but Windows is there specifically for the games, sadly.
The "Metro" UI isn't just bad for business applications. It's almost designed to specifically sabotage them.
And the more serious the work, the more it gets in you way. And you can't get rid of it.
There is zero case for using Metro apps for buisness. None. Ab-so-fucking-lutely none.
No integration with AD/Enterprise. Metro might as well be a sandbox the Admin cant touch. Oh, he can't remove or disable it either.
Single task - Task switching is a joke. It's like going back to windows 1.0
If you have extra monitors, the metro UI makes no use of them.. And blocks them while you've got the UI up. Since this garbage has replaced the start menu this happens a lot.
For business, win8 is an nonstarter. It offers some under the hood improvements and new manageability features. But, like vista, It's not worth it. Also like vista, I doubt business adoption will crack 9%
Some of the blame rests with OEMs on this. The entire OS is only really usable with a touch screen. Very few makers are including touch these days, except on tablets or on the very high end. Screen digitizers have never been cheaper, so why leave it out?
Tee hee hee.....
Chortle chortle chortle.
Fuck no. Why would I?????
And here's a shocker - the next machine I have blow it's gaskets here at work.... I'm going to use Windows 7, not 8, on its' replacement. The last damn thing I need to do is hold the hand of my userbase as they try and understand there is no Start button, or have to retro-install something to make that happen, or play guinea pig to make sure that my Enterprise software will play nicey-nice with Win8.
your boned cause the boot record is locked ot only allow winodws 8
SMART move exlax....
It's slightly faster than Win7, still runs all my apps, and has much better battery life. Those things alone are enough to get me to move to it, although I've been using it since beta. I'm basically using it like Win7 with a different Start Menu. I don't find it "jarring", and the fact that it's customisable to let me move all my most frequently used things close means it's actually better than the old start menu anyway. For my really frequently used stuff I pin them to the taskbar anyway, just like I used to do in Win7. And for the most part I use the Windows key on my keyboard because it's more efficient than moving my hand to the mouse.
I tend not to use too many "metro" apps usually because I have a desktop app (i.e. I use Outlook instead of the Mail app, FoxIt reader instead of the reader app). If a metro app happens to be the default I'll use that unless it doesn't do what I want. One metro app I really like is the video app, mainly because it has DLNA support in it which lets me stream video directly to my TV.
Sure, that's why another big rat is fleeing the sinking MS hulk.
"Eric Lippert (C# language designer) is leaving Microsoft."
Soon you marketers will be the only "people" left there.
I got myself a desktop machine with a nice spec, and it runs at least as well as win 7.
I was a bit confused when i could not find the desktop. When i found it and chose mediaplayer as the default instead of the metro one, the same with imageviewer and other standard programmes it was smooth sailing.
All my usual software runs with no problems. All drivers work.
It is fast and snappy and boots in something like 20 seconds.
Metro is the start screen and i just click past it once a boot, so it is no biggie.
The MacOS UI peaked in like '86 and hasn't changed since. Because they had sense enough to leave well enough alone. At a certain point, there's not much you can do to improve a mouse-screen-keyboard interface. The easiest interface to use is THE ONE YOU ALREADY KNOW.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Well, the headline before this chronologically said "Analysts find the Windows 8 beta indicates Windows 8 is designed like crap and everyone hates it and nobody will ever buy it and will avoid it like Vista" so the "sluggish sales" headline was probably written at the same time. It's a pretty direct line of event.
Windows Vista sucked. When 7 came out, it was like Jesus coming to man. Amen. 8? Why? 7 is great! I can't do any fancy stuff with my monitor, and honestly, I have no desire to! I check email and play games....like thousands of others. 8. Great. I'll get around to it.
Why do people fall for this every time? A new version comes out. Microsoft sells loads of licenses to OEMs. MS then claims they've sold loads of copies, refusing to provide the activation numbers that would show how many people *really* bought the new version.
I've seen this same "top story" about Windows 8 sales on numerous tech. sites. Of the stories I've seen, only Wired.com was smart/honest enough to point out that Microsoft's figures are essentially just lies. (Though Wired was more diplomatic, saying the figures need to be taken "with a spoonful of salt".)
I do not disagree with that sentiment one iota. Unfortunately, "new security model" is not going to sell OSs to consumers. Witness the multitude of them who cling to Windows XP because "their brother in law who knows computers said it's ok." Sometimes you gotta bolt on things that don't improve usability in order to appeal to consumers, tempt their sense of New Hotness. Personally, I think anyone who spends three minutes with 8 on a touchscreen will be sold.
Additionally, I think the *idea* behind Win8 has merit. I won't lie, sometimes I need to think for a moment to remember what I can do in the place I am. I'm not that old, but switching between half a dozen platforms and a couple dozen versions is a little jarring. If Microsoft really can deliver a UI that is consistent across PC, phone, tablet, and even gaming console that's pretty cool. Not having to remember what works where would be great. I am behind that, even if it means making another change. Hell, I'm probably okay with that even if it means making a small usability sacrifice on all platforms to get that consistency. I imagine most of the consumer world would agree, too.
Funny you should ask, If I may quote from the latest memo from our IT folks.
"Until a plan is complete and fully implemented, will not be able to adopt or provide support to any aspect of this new operating system. As a result, any Windows 8 installation that causes security considerations or concerns may be removed from the network. Before the system can be placed back on the network, the system may require reloading of the currently supported, -approved system software."
The last time I saw this statement was when Vista was released. Somehow we skipped that debacle.
"IE 10 has a dual sandbox for not only ASLR, and DEP, but also heap spraying protection as well. It has not been integrated at all into the kernel since the days of IE 6. The only integrating that IE 10 does is the grapnics for smooth fluid scrolling and video in Direct X11.1 and WDDM 1.2 which explains why it is not on Windows 7 yet." - by Billly Gates (198444) on Thursday November 29, @06:10PM (#42135919) Homepage
Some "FYI" for you - I'm running IE 10 on Windows 7, build #10.0.9200.16438...
* I've found it's a bit FASTER than IE 9 was already (outlook.com shows me that much by feel alone & it's just a PREVIEW build - I am sure it'll be faster yet, once the debug code & symbols are pulled + when it's finalized)...
APK
P.S.=> I don't *think* it "integrates" (using quotes since I lack a better expression here) QUITE the same as it does in Win8, & probably not even same build version, but it's gotten better than even IE 9 was (though I prefer Opera as my "weapon-of-choice" for webbrowsers)...
... apk
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3283843&cid=42136233
APK
P.S.=> Pretty simple... apk
XP showed that people were happy keeping on OS for a very long time on their machines.
Windows 7 is working for a lot of people who are using it. They've got no real motivation as the home user to switch. It's still new, and most of them probably expect they could get the life of their machine out of it.
Windows 8 will be the skip version then Microsoft will come to their senses and gives us another regular version of windows next.
My wife recently bought a new ultrabook from Dell. She loves the laptop. It's sleek, lightweight, fast, and has excellent battery life. She tolerates Win8. As she puts it "It randomly does stuff that takes you out of what you were doing, and then I have to go to start and bring back Windows".
There you have it, folks! A version of Windows that likes to randomly hide itself!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
tl ; dr
are you paid by the word ?
Have we considered moving to Windows 8? From OpenSUSE!?
Why, no we haven't. What are the pros and cons of Win 8? Is it superior enough to OpenSUSE for it to be worth the cost of switching?
There are a lot of businesses happily running on XP still, and you are asking what businesses have moved to Windows 8?!
Before a large business can move, they will want *all* the software (and hardware) they use officially certified by the vendors, that means Lotus Notes, SAP GUI, Printer software, etc., etc. Once that's done, then they'll test it themselves for a long time. (If it works but it isn't certified, it's a non-starter, but when it's certified, then the tests to see if it works can begin). It's not just about making sure that the latest version of everything works, either. If someone is using a special application that needs Oracle 8, and Oracle 8 doesn't work, then you're screwed. (It's not like you can install Oracle 10 and expect the app to work with no hiccups, and they may not have the new version of the app - or there may not *be* a new version!). They will usually have a small pilot group use it for a few years before moving.
The only places who could reasonably be using Windows 8 right now at any scale are companies of 1-5 people who have an extra PC they can afford to slap it on and see if it works.
Well, that rules out the nipple for most here.
obviously includes some volume license deals that get "free" upgrades when a new version of their licensed software comes out during their contract.
I upgraded one of my desktops to Windows 8. At $40 for the download, why not?
My take: Metro is pretty much useless, but that's OK, because I spend close to 100% of my time on the Windows Desktop. The internals from a look-and-feel perspective seem to hold up well. Compared to the Windows Vista that came with that particular box, Windows 8 is more responsive and faster with the same resources... which is what you would expect with an OS upgrade. Also, reliability is pretty good. I've been running the box for close to a month now without either the system or applications freezing or crashing. Which makes it better than other Windows boxes I've used (or my current Ubuntu box).
Steam and my library of games works perfectly on Windows 8. I understand Gabe Newell doesn't like it; but his platform is working just fine.
In summary; a ho hum upgrade. Some new eye candy that my kids think are pretty, but otherwise faster and more reliable.
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
I'm just saying.
We all know you have multiple registered accounts here to do it with as well Jeremiah Cornelius - since so many of your posts end up @ +5 ratings which is COMPLETE BULLSHIT - you offer no technical insights, or anything worth reading (such as this post of yours).
Especially considering you "hang around" with tomhudson/Barbara, not Barbie & her "trolltalk.com" bunch (and he/she was CAUGHT using both of those accounts to mod herself up with, and her opponents-naysayers DOWN with - AND, "run outta town" here on /., since he/she hasn't been seen since oh, May 2012?)).
APK
P.S.=> YOU running from answering a simple question though?
That simply again shows that all of those +5 ratings your posts get nearly every time is bullshit and that you too mod yourself up using multiple registered 'luser' accounts here...
After all/Again - You don't say anything "profound", interesting, or enlightening etc. - so, it's a SAFE BET TO SAY YOU DO THE SAME AS YOUR "FRIENDS" DO & the "prime example thereof" is above...
... apk
I was planing to purchase a laptop to replace my old one with more than 5 years. But since I use only Linux the UEFI, a crapy BIOS replacement, comes with a digital signature that forbids the installation of any other OS that is not signed I decided to postpone indeffinetly till things are sorted out in favor of FOSS community.
40 Million Windows 8 licenses - Sold to who?- Are these all sold to to OEM's ? HP, Dell , Lenovo, etc ... I think no else BUYS Windows licenses except system builders. It seems like consumers and corporations - buy COMPUTERS- not licenses- that then come with a Windows license.
In my opinion, Microsoft selling 40 millions WIndows licenses to a locked in market ( system builders and OEM's ) is not that same as, say for example, Apple selling 40 million iPads to a consumer market.