Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Pass 10% Market Share, Windows XP Falls Below 30%

An anonymous reader writes "With the release of Windows 8.1 to the world in October, Microsoft ended 2013 with two full months of availability for its latest operating system version. While Windows 8.1 is certainly growing quickly and eating into Windows 8s share, the duo has only now been able to pass 10 percent market share, while Windows 7 seems to be plowing forward unaffected. The latest market share data from Net Applications shows that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 made steady progression in December 2013, gaining a combined 1.19 percentage points (from 9.30 percent to 10.49 percent). More specifically, Windows 8 gained 0.23 percentage points (from 6.66 percent to 6.89 percent), while Windows 8.1 jumped 0.96 percentage points (from 2.64 percent to 3.60 percent)."

Comments

It doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 8 is still a piece of shit, and most people got it because their device came preinstalled with it... they didn't choose it.

Re:It doesn't matter

[Stormwatch]

Did they kill the retarded Start screen yet? No? Then it's not fixed.

Re:It doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

See the previous two comments... Microsoft didn't 'fix' anything - Classic Shell fixes it.

Would you buy a user interface from this man?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAO2wk27Vmk

"Derp, derp, derp"...

Would you buy a shirt from this man?

Re:It doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

I still see a lack of a proper Start Menu instead of a jarring state change to a completely different UI, invisible and non-discoverable magical mouse movements based on a magical handful of pixels dotted around the screen, horizontal scrolling instead of scalable content or vertical scrolling (you know, that thing every mouse has a wheel for, unlike the other type), three different versions of Internet Explorer, control panels where most of the options have been hidden or completely removed, and a lack of any coherent thought at all ("It's for servers! It's for tablets! It's a desert topping AND a floor wax!").

Of course the most horrifying part of it is that Microsoft intended Windows 8 & Windows 8.1 to look and act that way.

Re:It doesn't matter

[Cenan]

What are those "most of the issues" you speak of?

Is it the completely, un-mouse friendly interface to reach your settings, or anything at all actually?

The completely retarded replacement of the start button with a shortcut to the equally retarded start screen?

The utter lack of feedback from the UI? Is it working now!? maybe I missed the button - the scheduler knows, but why the fuck should it tell me, I'm just the user right?

Or could it be that you're referring to the fact that I have to run a shell command to setup which programs start with Windows?

Or that it feels like some smug 20-something year old asshole, fresh out of college, employed the entirety of his book learnedness to shit all over 30 years of UI design practices.

The Windows 8 UI is entirely un-userfriendly, couple that with the fact that a good portion of the install base came pre installed and therefore without a fucking manual to ease to transition. Have YOU tried this 8.1 piece of shit? Because I have and I am not impressed.

Re:It doesn't matter

[MightyYar]

I agree that the Start menu sucked*, but the Start screen sucks even more... you can hardly blame people for not wanting to use something that sucks more. More than just the Start Screen, the whole schizophrenic Metro thing is a PITA. True, you can take steps to actively avoid Metro, but that's another thing that sucks more than Windows 7. Personally, I put up with it for a year until I had a hard drive flake out. At that point, I realized how much less useful Windows 8 Backup was than Windows 7 Backup (no image???), and since I was reinstalling anyway I just loaded 7 on.

* The Start Menu was a stupid holdover from the Program Manager in Windows 3, which itself sucked. The idea that every installed application needs to be installed again in another place is just plain dumb. IMHO, Macs had a better solution in the early 90s, so it seems odd that they went the way they did. Smart people work at MS, so I assume it had to do with compatibility or performance on the limited machines of the time.

Re:It doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

Actual fixes are nonexistent.

Installing Windows 7 (or Linux) is a fix.

Re:It doesn't matter

[nctritech]

The disabling of the "legacy boot menu" ability by default is ridiculous and makes any serious problems with Windows 8 frustrating to fix, as now we can't tell customers to slap F8 repeatedly, we have to tell them to force the machine off in mid-boot TWICE to get the menu and access safe mode. A number of older software titles don't work properly, especially older games. But you want to know what the absolute biggest problem I ended up having with Win8 was, and why I ultimately threw it out?

THE FUCKING CHARM BAR.

I have a laptop with Win8 from the factory and every time I'd slide my finger onto the touchpad from the right edge (a habit I didn't know I had until this) the stupid bar would appear. It happened constantly and infuriated me every time. IT'S NOT A TOUCHSCREEN, IT'S JUST THE DAMNED TOUCHPAD. Who thought this was a good idea?! I have dual monitors set up with the laptop, and the bar would steal focus and I'd have to dick with the pointer to make it go away so I could get back to work!

Touchscreens on home computers have begun to destroy everything good about them. I still have yet to meet anyone who is willing to sit there with their arm outstretched constantly to do work on a flipping touchscreen. I'm also a "square" monitor throwback: my 1600x1200 monitor is more versatile than a widescreen of the same inch diagonal which tends to come in 1366x768 or 1400x900 resolutions and be very annoying when working with vertical data (spreadsheets, SQL queries, etc.)

Re:It doesn't matter

[seanvaandering]

Bought my wife a brand new laptop with Windows 8.0 preinstalled for Christmas. Today I caught her back on my desktop computer when I came home from work...

"Hey honey - something wrong with your laptop?"

"No, i'm just sick and tired of it always shutting down (Windows updates to 8.1, etc, been updating every day since she turned it on) and the mouse is too sensitive (shes used to a desktop optical mouse) and I can't find my desktop! (the new interface is confusing)"

This is supposed to be Microsofts target demographic - and she already hates it, not even a full week after using it.

I almost couldn't believe that I had to download VLC because Media Player won't play DVD's because Microsoft didn't include the codecs? Why the hell did manufacturers install a DVD payer in the machine.

This Operating System sucks balls. I for one will never be upgrading my main system - ever.

Glass have water

[Anne Thwacks]

put it another way: WinXP is still roughly three times as popular as Win8, and even Unity is probably more popular than WIn8 but no meaningful is data available.

Re:Windows XP still at 28.98%

[symbolset]

I knew I was going to see this here. Disastrous12 year old software. For the record system builders were stilled allowed to install XP on new netbooks up until October 22, 2010, and new machines were still being cleared from inventory Christmas 2011. So it is still pretty new to a few people. Up until three years ago it was still new software. That is not very old for a desktop installation.

But that doesn't play into your "not Microsoft's fault stupid people won't update their software every decade" theme you have to have going on here, does it? Now it's a matter of people getting jacked out of what they paid for sooner than a reasonable expectation, on hardware that won't even run the upgrade. Completely screws up your flow. Now it's not their fault. Sorry for ruining your party.