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Windows 8.1 Finally Passes Windows 8 In Market Share

Posted by Unknown on from the slightly-more-than-zero dept.

An anonymous reader writes "May was the seventh full month of availability for Microsoft's latest operating system version: Windows 8.1 continues to grow slowly while Windows 8 remains largely flat, allowing the former to finally pass the latter in market share. At the same time, Windows 7 has managed to climb back over the 50 percent mark, while Windows XP still has more than 25 percent of the pie, despite support for the ancient OS finally ending in April."

38 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. 12.64 percent in only 17 months by symbolset · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It is a shame the next update still won't have the promised start menu.

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    1. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Irate+Engineer · · Score: 2

      It is a shame the next corpse still won't have life.

      FTFY

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    2. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by rubycodez · · Score: 4, Insightful

      will take more than a start button to fix windows 8.x

      that's like putting parsley garnish on a dish full of shit

    3. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, from a structural standing, Windows 8 is fine, even better than the ones that came before.

      It's the UI they changed.

    4. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is a shame the next update still won't have the promised start menu.

      Yeah, but funny as hell that, combined, Windows 8.x (all versions) is only ~25% after three years (a complete tech cycle in the consumer realm). It's doubly funny that this is in spite of every bix-box OEM pimping 8.x as hard as they friggin' can (go ahead and try to buy a laptop in BestBuy or Wal-Mart with something other than Windows 8 in it...)

      Now compare that crappy growth curve to XP, 98, 95...

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    5. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For the majority of users the OS is the UI.

    6. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by jbolden · · Score: 2

      If the OEMs were pimping Windows 8 they wouldn't be selling non touchscreen laptops without complex hinges. The OEMs have been "pimping" Windows 7 hardware with Windows 8 installed.

    7. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Jmstuckman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Three years used to be a complete tech cycle in the consumer realm -- back in the 90s and early 2000s -- but the average consumer no longer upgrades their computer nearly that often. Most of my friends are still using 5-7 year old hardware, because the hardware from that era is still perfectly capable of running today's software. Your techie friends may upgrade every three years, but nobody else does.

      The vast majority of consumers only upgrade their OS when they buy a new system. The lack of uptake of Windows 8 is simply because not that many people have replaced their computer in the last few years. Unfortunately, a lot of the hardware from the 2004-2005 era (the first generation of systems to take DDR2 RAM) is still floating around. Because these systems shipped with XP, they are still running XP, and we now have a problem on our hands.

      Compare the Windows 8 growth curve to XP? That 9-year-old hardware from 2005 is still perfectly adequate for most tasks. On the other hand, using a PC from 1992 when XP came out in 2001 would have been impossible (unless you were rich, that computer would have had a 386 CPU and a hard drive with less than 100MB!)

    8. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Beck_Neard · · Score: 5, Informative

      You mean 40% of servers, 96% of supercomputers, and 80% of smartphones/tablets?

      Linux may have started out as a desktop OS, but now it's very much a server/enterprise/workstation (am I allowed to use that word anymore?) OS. Oh, and also embedded devices and phones (really, everything except the desktop). Turns out, the average person who buys a PC is going to use the OS the computer ships with and will never upgrade.

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    9. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And who, exactly, wants a touchscreen on a laptop? Touchscreens are a crappy interface for devices too crappy to include a keyboard and mouse.

    10. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't mean to make a pun here when I say you're out of touch.

      People have nearly always put their damned fingers on the screen when they wanted things to happen. Children were doing that before touchscreens got big.

      The big problem is this slashdot idea that if you have a touchscreen then you can't have a keyboard and mouse.

      A mouse (and especially a touchpad) -- that's a crappy interface device for a civilization that can't manufacture good touch devices and program good touch software.

      And yes, I prefer using a keyboard and mouse most of the time. I grew up on it. Same reason I prefer QWERTY, and the same reason I'm good with our ridiculous units of time.

    11. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by rcht148 · · Score: 2

      It is a shame the next update still won't have the promised start menu.

      I think it makes complete business sense NOT to give start menu to Windows 8.x users.
      If they did give it to a Windows 8.x user like me for free, I would lose a major incentive to buy an upgrade to Windows 9.
      Not saying that start menu will be the only change in Win 9 but the start menu guarantees that I will be upgrading.

    12. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by reboot246 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Windows 8.1 beating 8.0 is like a polished turd beating the original turd. It's still a turd.

      Maybe 9 will be better . . .

    13. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Froboz23 · · Score: 2

      I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Windows kernel, UI, and default browser all share essential low-level processes, and therefore could never ever possibly be decoupled.

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    14. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Informative

      People have nearly always put their damned fingers on the screen when they wanted things to happen.

      Since when? I've never seen anyone put their damned fingers on a PC screen and expect it to do something.

      A mouse (and especially a touchpad) -- that's a crappy interface device for a civilization that can't manufacture good touch devices and program good touch software.

      About the only things a touchsceen is better at than a keyboard and mouse are finger painting, or clicking huge icons in a fast food store. For anything that requires any kind of precision, a touchscreen is an appallingly bad interface.

    15. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      This could be an OEM issue (Dell and Asus being notorious competent and all); but I am, so far, 2 for 2 on Win8 machines that experience the delightful "Failure configuring Windows updates. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer" perpetual hang.

      Thankfully these aren't mine, just test machines; but it hasn't endeared the system to me so far, even if I did like the UI changes.

    16. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 2

      I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Windows kernel, UI, and default browser all share essential low-level processes, and therefore could never ever possibly be decoupled.

      That is incorrect. The kernel can happily work without the UI, and you get the choice for this when installing Windows Server. It has two modes: Server Core Installation and Server with a GUI. With Server Core Installation, the server is configured be either a Powershell command prompt or using administration tools from a Windows computer. This is the default installation option.

      The links to Internet Explorer were removed after they copped so much flak for it. This is why you can no longer customise the HTML of the folder view for specific folders among other missing features.

    17. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Please explain then, how the (according to slashdot, idiot) non-technical Mac userbase has a 51% uptake of Mavericks inside of 12 months? No, it doesn't automatically deploy, and no, 51% of the Mac userbase is not on 12 month old hardware. I'll offer a hypothesis: Mavericks offers things end Mac end-users want. Windows 8 does not offers things Windows users want.

      The explanation is that Mavericks is a free upgrade, while Windows 8 is not. A correct analogy with Mavericks would be that the free Window 8.1 update has passed 50% within 3 months of release.

    18. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by stoolpigeon · · Score: 2

      I went through that with a rather expensive Samsung. They finally rolled out a bios update that let me apply 8.1 but getting out of that loop was a real pain.

      This is my biggest issue with Windows now. Not the OS itself but the lack of decent hardware vendors.

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    19. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      That's nice and all. But so is MacOS and 'nix, so your point again being what?

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    20. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by Rhipf · · Score: 2

      I have been telling my clients this for a while now. If you just add a start menu replacement (the start button of Windows 8.1 was a missed opportunity for Microsoft) and set it to boot directly to the desktop there isn't much difference between 8 and 7.
      One thing that I would like to see back is the Aero theme. The current Windows 8 style is to flat and retro for me (reminds me more of Windows 3 era).

    21. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by benjymouse · · Score: 2

      I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Windows kernel, UI, and default browser all share essential low-level processes, and therefore could never ever possibly be decoupled.

      However, that is wrong.

      Windows kernel is an incredibly modular piece of work, much more so that Unix/Linux. In fact, the "Win32 subsystem" is just *one* possible subsystem mapped onto a very generic kernel. From the start, the core was designed with WIn32 subsystem as just one of a number of subsystems and originally also included a POSIX subsystem and an OS/2 subsystem. Note, that these were NOT emulation layers, but full blown "peers" of the Win32 subsystem, That design is still very much alive within the kernel.

      The confusion with respect to the "browser in the kernel" is at least partly Microsoft's own fault. During the browser anti-trust trials they claimed that Internet Explorer could not be unbundled from the core. Until someone actually did and demonstrated it during the trials.

      Like virtually all OSes today, some of the core GUI administration components use HTML as rendering mechanism for at least parts of the user interface. Hence a html renderer is part of the core OS (unless a GUI less server SKU is used). However, a HTML renderer being distributed as part of the *core* OS does NOT mean that it will execute in kernel space. This is such a mindbogglingly stupid assertion that whenever someone brings up that claim I get suspicious that they actually know better, but finds pleasure in throwing it out there and watch the immediate condemnation and ridicule.

      The HTML renderer is of course the same one as used in Internet Explorer (Trident, IIRC). That *still* does not mean that Internet Explorer is "part of the OS" - it merely means that Internet Explorer (the browser) uses the same rendering library as the core components in the same way that an XML parser can be used buy the browser as well as the core OS without it running in kernel space.

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    22. Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months by jones_supa · · Score: 2

      I have yet to experience a Windows release where the majority of the chant was exactly this, until the HUGE, OBVIOUS, AND UNMISTAKABLE structural issues come to light after a few major security breaches. Not even Windows 8 has failed this test, and it is already getting owned in the wild with little abandon.

      I'm waiting. Meanwhile, can you tell what these structural issues are in Vista and 7? There are still various security vulnerabilities found, but in general the NT 6.x stuff is quite solid. There are no more big disasters like the Mydoom or Blaster worms, which I would count as "huge, obvious and unmistakable" security issues. John Doe will still catch malware for installing shady software, but if you are a geek with a clue, there should be no problems.

  2. dont want it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i dont want 8.1 if it means signing up with fucking microsoft/windowslive id to get it, fuck off

    1. Re:dont want it by tepples · · Score: 2

      It's confusing, but you can upgrade to Windows 8.1 without having to get a Hotm^W Outlook.com account. You have to click buttons with titles to the effect of "create a new Microsoft account" followed by "continue using my local account" (or whatever; I don't have it in front of me).

    2. Re:dont want it by tepples · · Score: 2

      True, the update from Windows 8 RTM to Windows 8.1 doesn't ask the user to convert to a Microsoft account before the download. It asks during installation of the update, which incidentally resembles setting up a new system.

  3. Mouse Latency Issue? by Ferrofluid · · Score: 2

    I read sometime last year that Windows 8.1 introduced a bug related to mouse latency, which was especially noticeable for gamers using high-dpi mice. Apparently, many games became unplayable because of the greatly increased mouse lag. Microsoft issued a temporary "fix" (patch KB2908279), which from what I've read only corrected the issue for a few specific games -- i.e., it was not a true, universal fix. Does anyone know if they have finally fixed this issue? I've been holding off from upgrading to Windows 8.1 for this very reason.

  4. more deck space on the Titanic by chromaexcursion · · Score: 2

    OK, my subject is an exaggeration.
    The ship is still sinking.
    Apple isn't winning the desktop space. But Microsoft is still losing. Linux never really made the field.
    I won't go into the mobile space, where desktop is going, but MS is losing badly there.

  5. Microsoft learned the system requirements lesson by tepples · · Score: 2

    And let's not forget increasingly high hardware requirements.

    Microsoft learned from this mistake when Windows Vista's requirements delayed adoption and caused low-cost Atom subnotebooks to use first GNU/Linux and then Windows XP. That's why the requirements haven't increased much since Windows Vista, except for requiring PAE, NX, and SSE2 starting in Windows 8.1.

  6. Re:ME and Vista by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    This kind of business policy is pretty corrupt and if it's not illegal it really should be.

    I think it's entirely possible that the particular phenomenon that you are describing is a symptom of incompetence and not malice. Don't get me wrong, I am always ready to ascribe malicious intent to Microsoft, but this just smells like incompetence.

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  7. Re:Microsoft learned the system requirements lesso by meerling · · Score: 2

    You can always inflate hardware requirements, but if it's not backed by an equally valuable increase in functionality, nobody is going to want it.

  8. 8.1 actually isn't bad, BUT by Jahoda · · Score: 2

    The fact that I have to install Classic Shell as my first step on any new Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, 8, or 8.1 system is still unacceptable. Yes, I realize this solves many of the problems of using the OS, but no *I* shouldn't have to do it. I was on the cusp of going ahead and telling folks "well, start menu is coming back, and really 8.1 has worked out some kinks...", as I suspect many /. readers were as well, but now this latest announcement of no start menu until Windows 9? Well, I guess 8.1 is a nonSTARTer. :drumroll:. Welcome to the new ME.

  9. Meanwhile at Apple WWDC by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Apple is boasting an over 50% uptake in Mavericks userbase, I see.

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  10. Re:ME and Vista by techno-vampire · · Score: 2

    We're the dumb ones though. We buy the Vistas, the Win8s, the MEs... we BUY that crap. We're to blame!!

    I run a Linux-only household. I don't have to buy a new computer every two or three years because my OS is too much of a resource hog for what I've got. Don't blame me because you keep on drinking the MS kool aid.

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  11. Re:Dear Microsoft by bondsbw · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Somebody's panties are in a wad.

    It amazes me how Windows is the only operating system on earth that MUST. HAVE. A. START. MENU. or omg I'mma kill someone.

    Anyway, didn't Windows 7 work? That's all you guys have been screaming for the past few years. Then when I would come in and say "just use Windows 7"... crickets. So, if you hate Windows 8 so much then 1) Why are you using it? 2) Why not go back to Windows 7? 3) Why not put your money where your mouth is and support an OS with a great Start menu? (Let me know when you find one.)

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  12. Sorry, that's me by BoberFett · · Score: 4, Funny

    I turn on my Windows XP box every other day just to mess with the statistics.

    Actually it's because I still have my homemade porn on it, I haven't moved it to my new computer yet...

    1. Re:Sorry, that's me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Have you considered a distributed backup via torrent?

  13. Re:Under the hood by teh+dave · · Score: 2

    There's heaps of us who like Windows 8.x/2012, but Slashdot has its mind made up and every time there's a Windows 8 submission these idiots bring out their pitchforks while people like us just ignore it. So no, you're not the only one.

    At this stage it looks like Microsoft could patch in a new Start Menu, throw in the option to use oh I don't know, KDE's menu or whatever your DE of choice is these days, put in a tool that converts fucking lead to gold, and donate 50% of their net profit to NASA, and people here would still hate it.