Slashdot Mirror
Windows 8 Even Less Popular Than Vista
New submitter NettiWelho writes with even more bad news for Microsoft. From the article: "Windows 8 uptake has slipped behind Vista's at the same point after its release. Windows 8 online usage share is around 1.6% of all Windows PCs, which is less than the 2.2% share that Windows Vista commanded at the same two-month mark after release. Net Applications monitors operating system usage by recording OS version for around 40,000 sites it monitors for clients. The slowdown for Windows 8 adoption is a bad sign for Microsoft, who experienced great success with the release of Windows 7. Data was measured up to the 22nd of December, so there is still time by the end of the month for Windows 8 to claim a higher percentage of the user base."
I imagine Microsoft may just release a patch that fixes everything into a "classic" view to gain more sales.
What amazes me is that(at least at time of writing) they don't even offer a group policy setting that lets their whiny corporate customers set all their definitely-not-touchscreen boring typingboxes to go directly to desktop by default.
It isn't terribly tricky to script an invocation of "explorer.exe shell:::{3080F90D-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}" on login; but the fact that they don't just offer a GPO setting to switch strongly suggests that somebody at Microsoft is hitting the kool-aide far harder than is advisable.
I just don't understand it. With Vista, the mystery was how they'd managed to get so little done in 6-odd years of development, the core product just kind of sucked. With Win8, they essentially have the (generally well-liked) base of Win7, with a bunch of modest improvements in various areas, and then Metro. All they'd have to do is make it optional(or get really crazy and have it default on or off depending on whether the device has a touchscreen or not...) and everybody would stop whining more or less immediately. It's just sort of baffling.
Define "top rate" please. Somehow, I think you've discounted all those unethical business practices.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Installing a start button replacement is not the answer. This will only help windows 8 to have more market share. Understand their stated intention is to do away with the desktop and non-metro apps completely. If you are using windows 8, even if you have modified it to be identical to windows 7, it still registers as a sale to them and thus supports there ultimate goal of turning windows into a cobbled cellphone OS on your desktop where you have to sign into an account and download software exclusively from an App store.
Please stop telling people to use these damned tools. Tell them the ultimate answer to the problems with windows 8 is to downgrade.
Do not let them put you in the pot and bring it to a boil slowly.
At they highest levels of Microsoft, they are convinced that providing the same "user experience" to mobile users as desktop users will be Microsoft's salvation. Somehow they think that this will force adoption of mobile devices running Windows (they think that users will demand Microsoft mobile devices because they look the same as PCs). That's why they don't want to allow people to make PCs easy to configure such that they are different to mobile devices.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Correct. The only way they think they can possibly win the smartphone/tablet markets now, is to leverage their Windows PC monopoly. The only way they can do that is to make the Windows PC look like the Windows smartphone/tablet, force people to get used to it, and then hope that will translate to a preference for Windows on the portable devices.
It's actually not a completely misguided strategy.
Well, it is misguided in that Microsoft should actually try to win markets by making better products. But they have never been good at that. Their entire success is based on leveraging their Windows PC monopoly, so this strategy is "do what works".
With any luck, all this will do is start the ball slowly rolling (if it isn't already) on the eventual decline of the PC stranglehold. People have predicted this many times before, but things are a bit different. Smartphones and tablets with iOS and Android are now a huge market and huge user base. OSX on the desktop is actually reaching a noticeable size. And Microsoft is doing their best to alienate ISVs who are increasingly looking to these other platforms (and even Linux-on-PC) to escape.
Microsoft's decline started on Bill Gates' watch. Maybe Ballmer will preside over the "fall" phase. Maybe Ballmer's next trick will be learning to play the fiddle while playing with matches.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
If there had been some EASY and OBVIOUS way to get rid of the METRO interface and go back to a Classic Shell she might have been happy with it, but after an hour of trying to do anything useful she wanted it boxed up and she has already returned it for a refund.
The Classic Shell I use is a third party addon:
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/
It's a useful project that has been adding back features removed by MS from Vista onwards. Their start menu actually pre-dates Win 8 - it's more configurable than the standard Win 7 menu.
Of course, it's crazy that downloading something like this is even necessary!