Windows XP Drops Below 40% Market Share While Windows 8 Passes 1%

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Windows XP Drops Below 40% Market Share While Windows 8 Passes 1%

Posted by timothy on Saturday December 1, 2012 @09:05PM from the meaningless-stats-to-ponder dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Just three months ago, we reported how Windows 7 had finally overtaken Windows XP in terms of market share. Now it's time to see how long it takes Windows 8 to succeed its predecessors. Between October to November, Windows XP fell to 39.82 percent while Windows 8 jumped to 1.09 percent."

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I Wonder? by lister+king+of+smeg · 2012-12-01 21:10 · Score: 5, Interesting

I wonder if win8 will ever pass the xp market share

--
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
1. Re:I Wonder? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-01 21:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
2. Re:I Wonder? by kthreadd · 2012-12-01 21:17 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
  So use the desktop interface then. It's still there.
3. Re:I Wonder? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-01 21:28 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  That way there's no cognitive effort when switching between your phone and your desktop.
  I'm looking forward to the Microsoft car, which will have a bicycle seat and controls.
4. Re:I Wonder? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-01 21:49 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
  Don't forget that it is a phone OS from a company that nobody buys phones from.
  CAPTCHA: horrible
5. Re:I Wonder? by penix1 · 2012-12-01 23:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I wonder if win8 will ever pass the xp market share
  Microsoft's biggest competitor has always been itself. This is an effect of having the software pre-installed and aiming for the unwashed masses who don't go beyond what they got with the machines.
  As a side note, for shits and giggles I just ran the Windows 8 upgrade assistant and it informs me I will have to dump almost a quarter of the applications I use daily and that my screen resolution was too low for snap (whatever that is). It also informs me the touchscreen I have (HP Tx2Z) isn't compatible and that gestures won't work right. Now the question is why I should update and lose perfectly good software I purchased and is working right now as well as system functionality that is working right now just to have the "latest" version of an OS? Why should I go through the pain of the update when I don't need to? That will always be the Microsoft fight and why XP is hanging in there for so long.
  
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6. Re:I Wonder? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2012-12-01 23:54 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
  Of course it makes sense . . . for Microsoft. You see, you're not supposed to use a keyboard or mouse to interface with your Windows 8 desktop/laptop. You're supposed to use your Windows 8 Phone, connected to your desktop/laptop, as your interface. Your Windows 8 Phone is the keyboard and mouse. This means that every Windows 8 desktop/laptop user will need to buy a Windows 8 Phone, as well. Microsoft is doing this because their Nokia subsidiary is not doing so well, because Nokia is selling Windows 8 Phones, instead of iPhones or Androids. Or Blackberries.
  So you don't need to worry about installing a phone interface on your desktop/laptop. You will be using your Windows 8 Phone to interface with it anyway.
  Does that sound bizarre enough for a Sunday morning?
  
  --
  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
7. Re:I Wonder? by RobertLTux · 2012-12-02 00:11 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  but the problem is you get Metro going MEESA IMPORTANT LOOK AT MEES NOWZ!!! every five minutes or so
  
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8. Re:I Wonder? by Nyder · 2012-12-02 01:03 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Oh boy, I sure can't wait to install an OS with a phone interface on my desktop/laptop, that makes so much sense!
  So use the desktop interface then. It's still there.
  No point. I'll stick with Windows 7 myself. It works just great, no point in upgrading.
  
  --
  Be seeing you...
9. Re:I Wonder? by rtfa-troll · 2012-12-02 01:39 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  So use the desktop interface then. It's still there.
  You should have a look at this usability report which will help you understand it better. Basic summary: applications are written for either the desktop or the Metro interface. Where the apps are written for a particular interface you have to use that interface to use the app. There are some places where two different apps have the same name on both sides (for example "Internet Explorer" exists as both a Metro and a Desktop app) but you can see that they are separate from the way that they don't show the same Window list. Imagine the confusion which can happen if you use "Metro Internet Explorer" started from another metro app and then a desktop app also opens "Classic Internet Explorer".
  All this confusiion adds up to an interface which very much slows down and confuses the user.
  
  --
  =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
10. Re:I Wonder? by rtfa-troll · 2012-12-02 01:58 · Score: 5, Informative
  on this, but Win 8 is probably a better fit for inexperienced users than anything else out there right now.
  Please remember that it's for usability it's better to go with testing with multiple users than opinion since what seems to an technology expert to be good for a beginner might not actually be. In this case the testing has been done and a summary is avialable.
  
  having two environments on a single device is a prescription for usability problems for several reasons
  
  Users have to learn and remember where to go for which features
  
  [..]
  
  Switching between environments increases the interaction cost of using multiple features.
  
  [etc... ]
  
  Read the full report to get the rest. Basically added to an interface which has been designed for graphic effect rather than usability:
  
  the new look sacrifices usability on the altar of looking different than traditional GUIs
  this all adds up to a system which will take much longer to learn and have much higher training costs than other UIs which exist currently, including Windows 7.
  --
  =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
11. Re:I Wonder? by lorenlal · 2012-12-02 04:00 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  If we're discussing anecdotes:
  I upgraded my gaming rig... Because I figured I might as well get used to using Win 8. My conclusion in using it since the end of August, is that Metro is a glorified start menu. I personally spend less time in the Metro interface than I even spent in the start menu.
  Now, in some ways that's good. I'm finally forced to use the search function to find the program I'm looking for. Instead of Start->All Programs->Vendor->Program, I now hit the windows key, and start typing what I'm looking for (which is pretty quick) and I just click that. I feel it's slightly quicker than going through the main start menu. No gain if it was commonly used and I had it it on quick launch. Overall, my keyboard usage in Windows is way up, and I do more switching between keyboard and mouse.
  It's also bad because I'm not using Metro Apps at all. I don't use IE. I don't use the "store." If anything, I'm now encouraged to just create desktop shortcuts for the few things I use on a regular basis. I may just be stuck in fallback mode, but that works really well for me. I don't care for the Metro interface on my PC. I don't hate it, I just don't use it. I think the value-add for me was minimal, and in fact I even think Win 8 is a slight loss for me... Not enough to switch back, but on the next rebuild, I might just stick with 7.
  Windows 8 on my laptop resulted in formatting and becoming Ubuntu only. I liked it even less, and with the realization that I'm not gaming with that Intel integrated card, I finally felt enough motivation to just abandon Windows on it. I gave it a fair shake... I gave it one month. I'm much happier with Ubuntu.
  I get the feeling that most businesses will just stick with 7. I don't think 8 will ever pass 7 in the business environment. The business cost of moving to 8 to gain... Metro?... I don't see it. The costs of doing proper testing vs a benefit I don't see is why I feel this way. If anyone knows of ways that Windows 8 can actually increase productivity vs. Windows 7, I'd love to hear.
12. Re:I Wonder? by wvmarle · 2012-12-02 04:31 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  1) Nokia is not a subsidiary of Microsoft yet.
  FTFY.
  Current strategy seems to be to make Nokia as a company lose a lot of value so they're easier to buy out later.
13. Re:I Wonder? by graphius · 2012-12-02 05:22 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  other than the *many* shills, most people seem to be saying Win8 is fine if:
  1) you ignore "Metro/Modern/whatever UI and the associated apps and only use the desktop
  2) you install a start menu replacement
  In other words, if you change Win8 to work the same way as XP/Win7 it is ok. So why again do I want Win8 on my desktop?
  (Of course this is ignoring touch, which is a whole other conversation)
14. Re:I Wonder? by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-12-02 18:54 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The start screen is just like a start menu, but instead of it taking up a very small part of your screen, it now expands to fill your entire screen, which makes sense.
  That's precisely the part that doesn't make sense. It's very distracting to have your entire screen flash in front of you and be obscured by something else.
Photoshop angry birds by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-01 21:18 · Score: 4, Funny

Finally!
I can Photoshop Angry Birds! You don't know how I've been missing the feature to be able to run Angry Birds AND full blown photoshop, and all for the bargain price of $999.99!
Plus I get to use Active Directory, letting me leverage my work network for printing out all those Word documents on the exciting ribbon interface.
Sometimes on a cold morning, I miss the warmth of a Pentium, I'd sacrifice some of my battery to make, say, some sort of leg warmer, maybe even with a fan to blow the warm air! If only somebody would make me one of those tablet thingies with a lap warmer, I'd be happy!
WinXP and FLP live on... by bmo · 2012-12-01 21:32 · Score: 3, Informative

...in virtual machines, because honestly, everything Vista and above is so freakin' huge.
And to what benefit all that resource suckage adds up to, I'm still not sure.
--
BMO
Our way or the FLOSS way by sqrt(2) · 2012-12-01 21:37 · Score: 4, Interesting

I support a lot of XP machines and in general the owners still love the OS because they are familiar with it. It's going to be around for a long, long time. I predict marketshare will continue dropping as it has until it reaches about 10% where it'll stabilize for a couple years despite being completely unsupported, losing perhaps 1-2% per year after that until completely dropping off the radar.
MS is in a unique position with their OS because in general all new PCs ship with the newest version of Windows. So they can force Windows 8 into the market just by refusing to license it to OEMs for default installs and then waiting long enough for consumers to upgrade their hardware. That takes years, but as we saw with Windows 7 it's a predictable and regular process.
The only question is, will MS stick to their guns and force this paradigm shift, or will they relent like they did with Vista and make Windows 8 a short-lived intermediate OS for whatever comes next? Maybe the next version of Windows will see a return to a more classic desktop paradigm similar to Windows 7, with metro being entirely optional. Maybe the next version will split into two, metro being aimed at consumer and tablet hardware and a Windows 7 style OS to keep corporate users happy. Sadly, I think the most likely outcome will be the first one. MS isn't going to relent. This is what they want their OS to be and that's the last word. "Corporate world, you better get used to it. You know you can't ditch Windows, Office, and Exchange." They're betting on the pain of switching to Linux or OS X (which strangely could now provide a more familiar experience to Windows users than MS's newest offering) being worse than the pain of learning this new family of software. And I think they'll get away with it just by shear momentum. To hurry adoption along even more I expect them to be more aggressive with Windows 7's EOL schedule than they were with XP, which was generous to start and then extended.

--
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1. Re:Our way or the FLOSS way by digitalchinky · 2012-12-01 23:29 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  You have a source for your claim that the classic desktop is magnitudes more difficult to operate? From my purview, which is no different than yours, the world wants their old interface back, be that classic Gnome or Windows. A vast generalization, but the desktop PC creates, the future you imagine involves consumption and finding abstract buzzwords to describe the same old file system that'll be with us for a few more decades yet.
  Get back to me when you have an AI agent that can facilitate writing code more accurately and faster than I can type it.
2. Re:Our way or the FLOSS way by kestasjk · 2012-12-01 23:34 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Speaking your commands is definitely the way of the future, but I think they also need to make the window manager 3D if they want to stay ahead of the game.
  
  --
  // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
Re:I really don't like Windows 8 by jones_supa · 2012-12-01 21:38 · Score: 4, Interesting

There are few advantages, such as minor performance improvements and some of the Metro apps are actually quite nice for a notebook or tablet: IE10, Windows Mail, the 3rd party Wikipedia and Khan Academy apps. That being said, I felt that the constant flicking through Start screen, Desktop and Metro apps was ultimately rather painful. They really are like two worlds that don't integrate at all. Also, the graphics are crappy. You could say it is minimalism, but I see it just as having no style at all. Just look at the startup logo or the volume indicator popup as examples. As a little side issue, I experienced audio buffer underruns which does not happen under Win7 with the same laptop.
For a Joe Sixpack machine, I suppose Win8 is just fine. For a power user desktop, it's a turd.
The Linux desktop beating Windows... by ndogg · 2012-12-01 21:41 · Score: 3, Funny

8?
Truly, 2013 will be the year of the Linux desktop!

--
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
1. Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... by lannocc · 2012-12-01 22:35 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Each application captures the scroll events and handles them on their own. There is no system-wide setting. Perhaps a hardware abstraction layer could be written.
  
  --
  -IOVAR Web Dev Platform
2. Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... by Teun · 2012-12-01 22:50 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Ubuntu offers a fully configurable experience in the KDE desktop, just an apt-get away!
  
  --
  "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
3. Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... by bmo · 2012-12-01 22:57 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  >Let me know when Ubuntu can do something simple like change the amount of lines scrolled with the mouse wheel.
  http://i.imgur.com/tfca6.png
  Look how silly you are. Look.
  --
  BMO
4. Re:The Linux desktop beating Windows... by kestasjk · 2012-12-01 23:47 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Pfft.. 2013 is the year when Windows RT/8 on Surface will force Linux to retreat out of tablets/smartphones and back onto Chinese "smart-fridge" interfaces and escalator firmware where it belongs.
  
  Disclaimer: I am a Red Hat Certified consultant with 20 years UNIX experience looking on in terror as Microsoft renders my life obsolete.
  
  --
  // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
You've never tried Windows 8 then by Sycraft-fu · 2012-12-01 21:50 · Score: 4, Informative

It works quite well in 512MB in a VM. Try it on a hypervisor that can do dynamic memory some time (Hyper-V and ESX can). Set it to 512MB minimum and a plenty high max. Fire it up, watch it drop to 512MB used.
Also if you are planning on using XP in VMs you'd better either plan on taking them off the net or plan on moving to something else since support for it ends in 2014 and running a networked OS that doesn't get patches is a bad idea.
1. Re:You've never tried Windows 8 then by bmo · 2012-12-01 23:04 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Well, that's the advantage of virtual machines.
  Severe bondage and discipline for Windows OSes with no safeword.
  --
  BMO
2. Re:You've never tried Windows 8 then by Archimonde · 2012-12-02 00:09 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  If it runs so well, how do you explain that those metro programs are total pigs in terms of running them? I have a fairly fast computer with SSD and even microsoft's metro apps take 10 seconds to open. On the same computer, photoshop takes 3.5 seconds to open. It just painful to watch those those full screen loading screens for applications which are gui-wise not much complex than win3.1 programs.
  
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3. Re:You've never tried Windows 8 then by MacGyver2210 · 2012-12-02 04:12 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Set it to 512MB minimum and a plenty high max. Fire it up, watch it drop to 512MB used.
  I did try Win8 on a VM. The simple fact is, it's slow as shit. I did as you said, and tried setting it to a 512MB minimum. The only time it ran at 512MB was when I wasn't using it, when I had switched to something outside the VM with nothing running under 8. As soon as I even moused over something in the Win 8 VM the RAM usage skyrocketed to about 800MB. Then, when I launched Notepad, it went over a gig.
  Not sure how that is as efficient, considering on XP I can open a web browser and still sit under 400MB while using it.
  
  --
  If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
Re:I really don't like Windows 8 by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-02 02:04 · Score: 5, Interesting

No, as a power user I run more than one thing at a time. Let me give you a simple example. For several years I have used Windows 7 and done this simple thing: Watch a webcast from a site like twit.tv and play a game of freecell while watching it. This worked great on Windows 7. On Windows 8, Freecell is not built int - but you can get it free from MS in their Windows Store. It is a huge (196 MB) download, but it installs fine. Every time you launch it, it asks you to sign in to xbox live (I guess MS forgot that solitaire means "alone"). There is no setting to make it stop asking. Then, it is FULL SCREEN. On my 27 inch monitor. There is no way to make it anything but either 100% or 80% (with that Metro Snap thing where you can put a tiny strip of a second metro app up next to it). No webcast I have seen fits in the 20% space without being too tiny to watch. So that simple workflow: watch a webcast while playing freecell no longer works unless you hook up a second monitor. I've been using Windows 8 as my primary OS for 9 months now and I still hate it. Whoever thought that apps should always be full screen on large monitors is an idiot.
Re:I really don't like Windows 8 by MightyYar · 2012-12-02 03:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

It was an example. What happens when you want to run a program and it is only available in metro? Drag and drop to Word? Nope.
Here's another example. I often have documentation opened up in a PDF reader while I program. I alt-tab back and forth. Windows comes with a PDF reader, but it runs in Metro-land. Metro land automatically closes applications when it decides you are done with them, including my documentation. Oh, well, back to a Desktop-land PDF app.
It's just a pain in the ass for no good reason.

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Re:wtf by Patch86 · 2012-12-02 04:16 · Score: 3

RTFA. It is from NetApplications, no location filters:
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0
Win7 = 44.71%
WinXP = 39.82%
Win Vista = 5.70%
Win8 =1.11%