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

[RDW]

Classic Shell fixes most of the issues in Windows 8.x. The Windows 8.1 update doesn't really fix anything.

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

[TheRaven64]

My mother got a new laptop just before Christmas that came preloaded with Windows 8. Over Christmas, she installed the 8.1 upgrade. The amount of swearing did appear to decrease very slightly, but it still did things like pop up the People app for no obvious reason (e.g. when she was in the middle of filling in a password in a field in a web page) with no obvious way of closing it, or send her to the home screen without making it obvious how she got back to the doing-stuff screen. The only way I found to get from one of the randomly popping up Metro apps back to whatever she was doing was hit alt-F4. Hardly the most discoverable UI I've seen...

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

[Luckyo]

Sadly classic shell doesn't fix all the problems.

And 8.1 is indeed a faux fix, just designed to give apologists some more talking points. Actual fixes are nonexistent.

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

[rapiddescent]

That's why they fixed most of the issues in Windows 8.1. You should try it.

Would love to try it, but after Dell updates and Windows Update had a fist fight on the new christmas present laptop for mum-in-law it meant that neither update system could complete all the updates thus leaving the OS in a position that it would not offer 8.1 in the store. Coupled with no obvious way to back out of the problem (no install DVD, and install-creator fucked up 3 times) - I gave up and she got Linux. It's not all Microsoft's fault - Dell's tools simply didn't work, however, there shouldn't be competing methods that you can't obviously switch off for doing things like this.

The funny thing is she doesn't even know she has Linux. She used to use Thunderbird, Firefox and libreoffice on Windows XP and so it just looks the same for her.

Re:It doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

Actual fixes are nonexistent.

Installing Windows 7 (or Linux) is a fix.

Re:It doesn't matter

[VortexCortex]

Tried going the W7 route on a few systems. Driver issues suck. No USB or Ethernet or WIFI out of the box after downgrading to W7. Instead of using another machine to get the drivers I just popped in a Debian LiveCD and used Firefox on the WIFI to D/L the W7 drivers into the windows partition. Turns out inept windows developers can't even compile a USB and Ethernet driver properly. It all works fine on Linux out of the box, no special BS to do to get things working, but now I wait for the moronic devs for the windows drivers who didn't test the W7 drivers on their support site to get around to fixing it.

The thing works in W8. I've made my own drivers for my custom hardware projects. You literally just have to re-compile the damn thing for the right OS. If I had the windows driver source code I could do it myself. The team they outsource to create the Linux drivers was far less retarding than the Windows morons -- which supposedly has a larger market share... Really though? Each MFG has a different windows driver? Why? They all use a common set of chipsets, so one driver meets many separate devices -- typical windows inefficiency. Linux avoids this somewhat since they write drivers for the hardware, not the vendor. So either it's intentional ineptitude to drive W8 adoption, or just bat-shit insanity. I'd say screw dual booting this bastard, and just use Linux, running Windows in a damn VM like I always do (if needed) -- But the machine isn't for me. Had similar problems thrice now on different hardware vendor lines. If I didn't know better I'd think it wasn't a conspiracy.

Re:It doesn't matter

[nctritech]

In my experience, most manufacturer support site drivers are literally nothing more than the original driver from the device's primary chip maker, but sometimes they've shipped with different INF files. Fortunately, aside from having a massive driver collection, I wrote software that automatically generates a drivers folder for me (in Linux) from the computer's own hardware information. It's scary how my driver folder maker is more accurate than Windows: turns out if it selected something for a piece of hardware, even if Windows won't auto-install that driver and thinks it's not correct, you can force it and things always work anyway!

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

[TheloniousToady]

It gets even better when you've got two screens. Instead of being able to think of the two screens as one big screen with a large black bar in the center, you now have to consider the land mines planted near left edge of the black bar.

Re:It doesn't matter

[drinkypoo]

* The Start Menu was a stupid holdover from the Program Manager in Windows 3, which itself sucked

The Start Menu only peripherally resembles the program manager. Every modern OS has a way to start programs. You can start programs from the Apple menu.

The idea that every installed application needs to be installed again in another place is just plain dumb.

The idea that making a program shortcut is doing an install is just plain dumb.

IMHO, Macs had a better solution in the early 90s

From System 7 through System 9 the solution was precisely the same as Windows, indeed, in every way. The programs are installed to one location, and then if you want them to be easier to open, you'd create Aliases. And because of Windows envy, there were launcher apps for the control strip that would emulate a start menu. How can Apple have had a better solution when they had the same solution?

Smart people work at MS, so I assume it had to do with compatibility or performance on the limited machines of the time.

You're committing two failures here. One, assuming their solution was undesirable, which it wasn't as it worked quite well and the start menu has become the most copied interface element after the window and the close gadget. Two, assuming that smart people are calling the technical shots at Microsoft, when there's no evidence whatsoever that this has ever been true.

Re:It doesn't matter

[drinkypoo]

Turns out inept windows developers can't even compile a USB and Ethernet driver properly. It all works fine on Linux out of the box, no special BS to do to get things working, but now I wait for the moronic devs for the windows drivers who didn't test the W7 drivers on their support site to get around to fixing it.

Netgear now hands users off to a spyware third party before they permit driver downloads at all. Never buying another Netgear product. Couldn't download the drivers without enabling all scripts. So I haven't. I think I will buy some more hardware rather than turn on scripts. And I hope Netgear dies of ass cancer in a fire.

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.

Re:It doesn't matter

[Saint Fnordius]

I am not entirely in agreement with you, as the apps that were launched from the Apple menu from 1984 up until System 7 were actually special apps that were allowed to run on top of the main app, back before the Apple could multitask. This is a holdover from the pre-hard drive days, when applications were not actually installed but lived on their own 3.5" disks. With System 7, Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9, you could manually add apps to the Apple menu but that was not a default. Some installers would do it for you, some not.

But yeah, Apple made it easier to create aliases, and was actually pretty good about following the original on HFS no matter where you moved or renamed it. They had a lot of better usability, but from 1990 to 1998 their OS development had stagnated, letting Microsoft catch up and even surpass them until Mac OS X managed to mature enough to make Classic Mac OS obsolete.

The Start menu emulation that you are referring to came from a popular third party system extension (remember those?) but was not part of Classic Mac OS. I cannot speak for NextStep, as I never used that. I was a Mac user when Apple was doomed, not a Next user.

Installing applications in one folder is the philosophy that won out, as we see in Mac OS X since it went on sale. There is even a further division that you have the root Applications folder, but also each user has an Applications folder —that no one really uses, but since it would hurt the few that do use it to remove it Apple has left it as it is.

But your closing point, I agree. Microsoft in (especially in the Ballmer era) was never really driven by the developers, but by the sales force. They did have lots of great developers (and still do), but programmers and engineers do not thrive in a Glengarry Glen Ross environment.

Re:It doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

The swipe from the edges to get toolbars/options is now standard UI design on touch devices. The majority of people now have at least one touch device so this is not going to be a foreign thing for anyone soon. Does it make sense for people with a mouse and keyboard? No.

This is the entire problem though: Microsoft apparently forgot that the vast majority of their users would not be using Windows 8[.1] on a touch enabled device, but chose to screw them all over anyway in a poor effort to chase the tablet market. What a way to shoot your foot, leg and pelvis off at one fell swoop!

Re:It doesn't matter

[Cinder6]

For me there are no showstoppers, though. I'd go as far as saying that I slightly prefer using 8.1 + Classic Shell (with filetype associations re-assigned to non-Metro applications) to a stock Windows 7 installation. Startup is quicker, the file copy dialogue and task manager are improved, and I never liked Aero Glass. There's certainly no compelling reason to 'downgrade' to Windows 7, any more than there is to 'upgrade' a Windows 7 system to 8. Of course, if I were stuck with a locked down Windows 8 installation with its horrible default configuration and jarring interface shifts, that would be an entirely different story. Windows 8.x is still an awful experience out of the box, but there's nothing serious that a knowledgeable user with an admin account can't fix in 10 minutes (or at least, nothing that has affected me so far).

Pretty much this. The worst part of Windows 8, out of the box, is the interface shifts for tasks such as looking at image files. But fixing those is pretty easy. When the lousy "Photos" app opens, close it, right click the file, "Open with...", and change the associated app for all files of that type. Do it once and never think about it again. I can't remember the last time I was shunted into Metro.

If you don't like the start screen, install Classic Shell or Start8. (I actually prefer the start screen, but due to a multi-monitor issue--well, Eyefinity issue--I'm now running Start8.)

What I like is the number of suggestions to "just install Linux", as if Linux needs less configuration than the above. I think people who make that suggestion are ignorant, biased, or would always recommend Linux simply because it's their preference. The last one is fine in certain circumstances, but those people should be honest about it.

Re:It doesn't matter

[david_thornley]

The first time you log into a Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 system there is a brief video tutorial that shows you the charms and how to access them. It also shows you where the hot corners are and what they do.

First, I can walk up to almost any other computer around and figure out how to use it without a tutorial. If a Windows 7 user needs a tutorial to use Windows 8, but not Linux Mint, I'm going to suggest that Microsoft may not have made the optimum choice.

Second, I start using a computer to do something. It may be to write a program, check a website, play a game, whatever. I don't want to have to sit through a tutorial before I can use it. If I can skip the tutorial, it's useless, particularly if it isn't obvious how to get to it later. If I can't, it's annoying.

Third, people don't read manuals. They don't pay attention to tutorials. They have found that they don't need manuals and tutorials for most things.

In short, this is a typical Microsoft thing: create a problem, provide a bad solution, and claim it's the user's fault for not using their solution.

Re:Windows XP still at 28.98%

[a_n_d_e_r_s]

As long as the old junk is better then the new junk. They continue to use it.

Re:Windows XP still at 28.98%

[mwvdlee]

...and 10.49% of all PC users are running disastrously new systems.

Re:Sigh

[mwvdlee]

when did this site become the new site for Microsoft uninteresting press releases about their so-called successes ?

Since this isn't a MS press release, I'm guessing "when" is "somewhere in the future".

You have been found out!

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:Glass have water

[flonker]

But hey, at least Win8 beat Congress!

Re:Windows XP still at 28.98%

[Pentium100]

Windows 7 is better than XP, but not by a lot. That is, it is not worth the pain to reinstall Windows on the same PC (like it was upgrading from 98 and especially ME to XP).

Of course, when I built a new PC a couple of months ago I installed Windows 7 on it (8 just looks awful, even with ClassicShell).

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.

Re:Windows XP still at 28.98%

[nojayuk]

XP has a number of limitations that Win7 and Win8 supercede -- nearly all XP installs still running are the 32-bit version with a 4GB limit on RAM and a 2TB limit for disk volumes, and as far as I know XP doesn't support TRIM for SSDs. It also limits out at DX9, important for gamers and there are probably other limitations due to its age and end-of-support status.

I'm OK with Win8, I run it exclusively in desktop mode where it presents a look and feel similar to Win7. I pinned my most used programs on the taskbar so I don't need to invoke the start menu very often. I have Vistart installed as a shell replacement but I could work without it if I had to. The upgrade to 8.1 on my main machine went OK apart from the very large download (3 GB plus) needed to make it happen but I was satisfied with the original OS release (I still have it on another desktop which is waiting for a replacement motherboard).

Re:Windows XP still at 28.98%

[symbolset]

And then comes the obvious suggestion: "punish them for trying to make you buy their new crap by buying their older crap instead. That will teach them." It is painful to watch you guys work. You know that, don't you?

Just had my first experiences with 8 ...

[Ihlosi]

... over Christmas break. And no, I don't like it. Even after the "upgrade" to 8.1, I don't like it.

The UI is a mess. It's completely alien to anyone coming from XP/W7, and the features that supposedly make it touchscreen-friendly are completely counter-productive to anyone who doesn't intend to use a touchscreen (for example people with a 27-inch screen that sits two arm-lengths away). Hotspots in particular - just moving the mouse cursor somewhere causing an action is an absolute no-no and very counter-intuitive. How is anyone supposed to know that moving the mouse cursor to the top right corner does something special and right-clicking in the lower-right corner has a completely different meaning than right-clicking anywhere else on the screen? Actions should be initiated by mouse clicks on visible UI elements, not by mouse movements to magic areas on the screen.

And the app store is a mess. I only knew the app store for Symbian and thought it was a mess since Symbian is officially dead and buried (app store full of nonsense crapware, X varitions of the same app with each author hoping you'll miss the best one and install his instead, etc), but the windows app store suffers from the exact same problems.

Oh, and it doesn't come with solitaire. And the solitaire from the app store (for which you nee an "MS account") is an overloaded piece of bloatware. Luckily, XP solitaire still runs on W8. This saved the day.

8 is the one to skip

[JeffOwl]

Everyone who has paid attention to Windows the last couple of decades knows, Windows 8 is the one you skip. Just like Vista, just like Millennium Edition before that. Sure they threw a in a minor wrinkle in with 8.1, but that was just a distraction to make you think they are doing something, not a major version roll. 98(SE) decent, ME suck, XP decent, Vista suck, 7 good, 8 suck. Next time around they'll keep the back end improvements and fix all the crap they screwed up in the front end.