Most Firefox Users Still Running Windows 7 (softpedia.com)

Microsoft is pushing hard for Windows 10 to become the operating system of choice for everyone across the world, but this isn't happening just yet, as Windows 7 keeps dominating the desktop market. From a report on Softpedia: The Firefox Hardware Report published recently by Mozilla shows that Windows 7 is the number one browser for users running the company's browser, with a share of 44.86 percent, followed by Windows 10 with 25.67 percent. Seeing Windows 7 dominating the desktop OS charts is not surprising, but on the other hand, it's living proof that Microsoft will really have a hard time moving users to Windows 10 before 2020 when it reaches end of support. Microsoft's Windows 10, however, already improved substantially since its launch in 2015, mostly thanks to the free upgrade offer targeting Windows 7 and 8.1 users, but this still isn't enough to become the number one choice for PC users.

Comments

Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[hyperar]

They just seem to be unable to let go the past, FF, W7.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[UnknownSoldier]

Do you complain about people using the wheel that has been around for thousands of years too?

You're under the assumption that the latest SHINY is worth upgrading to.

I neither want nor need MS spyware.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[ckatko]

That's kind of stupid. Windows 8 and 10 offer "almost" no useful features over Windows 7 and have a much less power-user friendly GUI. Every GUI dialog takes twice as long to display, and twice as many clicks to accomplish.

The ONLY feature of Windows 8/10 that I've noticed I'm missing? Desktop Duplication API which allows fast, user-mode, desktop capture. Why isn't it in Windows 7? Because Microsoft arbitrarily decided to remove it from that version of DirectX/DXGI for Windows 7.

Great folks.

And some psychopath backported it to Windows 7.

https://github.com/rgcjonas/dd...

And I work in IT and software development, supporting hundreds of Microsoft desktops and servers from XP (and Win server 2003, ugh.) to Windows 10 and use them all regularly. So I'm talking from a position of experience, and not willful blindness.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Joce640k]

He also assumes that our printers, etc., will have drivers available and we won't need to spend $1000 for the privilage of junking them.

And ... that all our documents and data files will still be there after an "upgrade". Mine certainly weren't when I tried it. Luckily for me the rollback to Win7 worked or I'd have lost everything.

(yes, I had a backup, I'm not that stupid)

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

call me when this statement is actually true

"Microsoft's Windows 10, however, already improved substantially since its launch in 2015"

and even when 10 does "improve" it has a hell of a long way to go before it is in the same league as windows 7.

hell, even my windows vista machine, stable since it was purchased before vista's retail availability, is *better*, more *reliable*, and an *improvement* over 10. it hasn't needed a reinstall, "refresh", or had any update or other issues in ten years. it has been the best, most solid system i've ever had.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not want to let go of the glorious present in which my still-adequate hardware works, and updates only happen when I allow them to happen.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

On my desktop box I use Win 7 and FF, and they work just fine for me; I see no compelling reason to upgrade or change.

I use Linux Mint and FF on my laptop and also see no reason to change anything there.

Not all of us want to spend our lives upgrading stuff or chasing the release or gadget or whatever. Some of us just want to find something that works and use it.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[thechemic]

I couldn't have stated it better than you have here. Windows 10 offers little to no feature, function, or benefit that would motivate Windows 7 users to switch. The only thing I can think of is arguably a better interface for touch screen users. Windows 10 is crippling from an efficiency-of-use perspective. Want to update your system? Try hitting the start button in Windows 10 and type "Windows Update". The search results are ridiculous and there are literally 100s (perhaps 1000s?) of examples of clunky experiences just like this one. Getting Windows 10 to behave properly in an enterprise environment is also a nightmare. We spent weeks tinkering with Group Policies in an effort to make Windows 10 stop spying on the agency, and to stop terrorizing our end-users with frivolous prompts squirting out of every orifice in the user interface.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I "upgraded" from Vista to Win 10 a year ago and the idiots at the computer store erased most of the files on my hard drive. Then they had the nerve to swear at me (including the F word) before hanging up on me. I guess that was the icing on the spoiled Win 10 cake.

Windows 10, to coin a word, SUCKS. I wish I still had Vista. And I wish I had all my files...at least 20 years worth of files...back.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet you are not using the same thousand year old donkey cart.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[hyperar]

Wow, you make one innocent joke and get downvoted to oblivion, chill people, damn

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

The most people complaining about "almost no useful features in w10" do not know anything about windows 10.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[__aaclcg7560]

They better not upgrade to the newest CPUs that will require Windows 10 (or Linux).

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-10-the-10-biggest-controversies-and-surprises-in-2016/

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[mlw4428]

MS Spyware, Google Analytics, Alexa, and a billion other pieces of tracking out there. Face it, unless you're running everything through a VPN, through TOR, run NoScript, run an adblocker or two, never use any web features that require Javascript, and never reuse usernames then you're being tracked by some entity somewhere. And even TOR isn't a guarantee these days. You don't have privacy on the internet. You never will have privacy on the internet UNLESS you're willing to give up quite a bit of functionality. And honestly, you shouldn't really expect it. The internet isn't some bastion of freedom. It's a series of highly commercial entities who are providing stuff for you in exchange for their being able to market to you OR sell your information to someone else. It's not even about what's fair and equitable - this is simply about capitalism in its finest, unhindered state. You, the end-user, aren't usually the customer - rather you're the resource. You're going to be harvested regardless of your wishes or desires. Meanwhile you stay on an insecure OS and you make it possible for your machine to become a zombie and interrupt MY experience. Don't like it? Well set aside those Libertarian ideas that \. loves so much, boys, only regulation will fix this kind of crap.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[__aaclcg7560]

chill people, damn

The electoral college is voting today. All the Trump people have their panties in a bunch that he might have to concede to Hillary.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

... and I thought Vista sucked pretty hard.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Joce640k]

You took your machine to a computer store for idiots to mess with and you didn't make a backup first? Pot, meet kettle.

I wish I still had Vista.

No you don't. Trust me on this one.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

So after running Vista (wtf1), when you finally decided it's time to an "upgrade", you hand your computer to the idiots at "the computer store" (wtf2) to have them install W10 (wtf3) for you, because what, is it difficult? You didn't back up your files (wtf4) beforehands, or at all in the last 20 years, i suppose.

I know /. is mainstream theses days, but WTF are you doing here?

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all of us want to spend our lives upgrading stuff or chasing the release or gadget or whatever. Some of us just want to find something that works and use it.

But what about the economy? The entire economy is built on planned obsolesce. The moment you started being happy with good enough, the entire economy went down the toilet.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Archangel Michael]

Can't wait for another round of Triggered Snowflakes whining about losing.

"I want everybody to pay attention here. This is dangerous," Obama said at a Hillary for America event in Miami Gardens, Florida.
"Because when you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people's mind about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy. Then you are doing the work of our adversaries for them."

That is, until Hillary Loses.

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

vista did suck windows 7 was and still is good. windows 10 is the windows 7 of windows 8.

windows 10 is good as far as windows goes.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

this
if my currnet Windows XP notebook bites the dust, I'm going Mac or whatever. Windows spyware version will never be installed.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[tendrousbeastie]

" Try hitting the start button in Windows 10 and type "Windows Update"

I've just done so. The first result is "Check for System Updates", the second "Windows Update Settings". Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anomalyst]

Any chance you could publish those policies to github or googledocs?

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[__aaclcg7560]

Can't wait for another round of Triggered Snowflakes whining about losing.

The electoral college votes today and Congress votes on January 6, 2017. When all is said and done, then the election is finally over. The only reason this is an issue and not a formality is because Trump lost the popular vote by a YUGE margin. And being a founding member of The Friends of Putin Club doesn't help either.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't want spyware and you are using any version of windows, you are a damn fool. You ASSume any version is anywhere near "safe".

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Calydor]

... said a random anonymous coward while providing zero examples.

Great post, would read again.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

And what idiot entrusts a computer store with sensitive data? What idiot cannot be bothered to upgrade by themselves.
And just to re-iterate the store's attitude for you:
FUCK OFF YOU CUN..........

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[harvey the nerd]

...except for being MS's ad engine

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 8, sure. It had a terrible GUI for a desktop. (Fantastic for a tablet, though. Better than anything else I've used, including Win10.)

Windows 10, however, is not that. Its GUI is basically a different theme slapped onto Windows 7's familiar old interface. It's the same old thing, but with many very noticeable improvements to various behind-the-scenes pieces.

And anything involving DXGI in Windows 7 was basically incomplete to start with. DXGI was barely ready in time for Vista, so Win7's version was the first marginally-usable one. WIn8's version added some breaking changes. Win10's has made DXGI truly replace GDI, so they can safely deprecate that old-ass Win16-era library once and for all. As always, never use it until it hits the third (or even fourth, a.k.a. the 3-point-1th) release. I do feel sorry for the poor soul who spent his time on that backport to Win7, though. That's time he'll never get back.

For me, personally, the most onerous change was one that broke how IMFTopologyNodes being used as tee-nodes respond to media events, which causes a multi-output video topology to only display on the first output of the tee-node. That broke (or was changed, if it's intentional) in Win8 and has not yet been fixed (or reverted). But it's OK. I've worked around it now. It's so much easier to just make UWA's in .Net than to futz around with COM in C++, and MS has gone to a hell of a lot of effort to make the performance roughly equivalent. (Thank the x-bone for that, I guess.)

TL;DR: Just because you're all pissy about Windows 10 doesn't mean that everyone is.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't quite understand your questions. What does WTF mean?

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[TWX]

Yep. I don't need a desktop operating system that serves ads to me. It's bad enough that I get ads served by the default applications that were preloaded on my smartphone, I don't need my computer now doing the same thing.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[FatdogHaiku]

I bet you are not using the same thousand year old donkey cart.

I'm using Donkey Cart 987.4 and it works fine. It may have been a mistake to add nitrous as we gain no extra velocity and the donkey weaves around a bit... but he seems happy so I give him a whiff every once in a while. I have found load balancing to be important, but other than that no complaints.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Lord Kano]

My migration from Mac to Windows happened because Apple depricated all of my SCSI, ADB and serial peripherals at the same time and if I had to buy all new stuff, it wasn't going to be for a clear plastic Mac.

LK

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[thechemic]

It works after Windows 10 has spent hours/days indexing the start menu items. However, it does not work correctly on a fresh install of Windows 10 which has booted up for the first time. You know... the most likely time you would want to manually check for updates.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. We all know vendor peripheral support for new MS OS offerings is always a shotty endeavor from the outset. And only comes to stability 3-5 driver releases down the line. How many peripherals out there, still functioning just fine, work on the onset in WIndows 10? How many need new drivers developed, and installed? And to go through MS 'gold certification' or whatever it is to be an 'authorized secure driver'.

There's a reason why many people I know, who use Windows and no other OS, will leave Microsoft before switching to Windows 10. Forced UI learning, for the sake of itself, is not reason enough when what you have works just fine for what you do.

It's likely if MS didn't shoe-horn Windows 10 upgrade down peoples throat like that did, they wouldn't see the backlash they are. I know at least for myself, I loathe such behavior at extremes and put it on par with the corporate behaviors we've seen with Sony, Apple, etc.... MS hasn't gotten my money in a long time. A VERY long time. And the won't be getting it any time in the near future either. Possibly ever.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[atrex]

Yes, the internet is everything you describe it as being. However, consumers have the right to opt out of that kind of invasion being done at the OS level of their own computer (particularly if they pay for a license instead of accepting one of MS's first year "beta-ware" freebies). Granted, they'd be better off doing so by not using Windows at all.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

i'll second this by saying the following:

I wont change my OS (from Win7 to X) for the same reason I wont change my Wifi Thermostat, my TV, my Phone, or even my refrigerator... a PC is like an appliance now, the improvements that can be made to them can only go so far, and we seem to have reached a tipping point. a Win7 PC can run pretty much anything an average IT person would require. People are starting to finally realise they don't need to have the latest and greatest, because its all marketing...

MS should completely stop designing OS's and start working on AI integration or something similar for PC's ... when my OS is smart enough to start my car on cold mornings and tell me I need a new box of fruit-loops ... then maybe, just maybe i'll upgrade.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[hoggoth]

> the idiots at the computer store erased [...] 20 years worth of files...

I feel your pain! I lent my car to a friend with the only copies of 20 years of precious family photos in the back and he lost them. Haha just kidding, I wouldn't do something so careless, and if I did I wouldn't blame my friend I would blame myself.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[nukenerd]

And what idiot entrusts a computer store with sensitive data?

Garry Glitter

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[cfalcon]

> You don't have privacy on the internet.

YOU don't have privacy on the internet. People who want it, do. More importantly, the fact that privacy on the internet is harder to come by than it should be, does not in ANY way give justification to Windows 10, which makes you not have privacy on your DESKTOP.

> Well set aside those Libertarian ideas that \. loves so much, boys, only regulation will fix this kind of crap.

Install Linux, problem solved :/

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[cfalcon]

> The only thing I can think of is arguably a better interface for touch screen users.

I don't want a non-touchscreen device to have an OS that was designed with ANY consideration for touchscreen users. All that does is hurt the usability on the device I'm using it on. The touchscreen device should have an OS, or at least a UI, that is entirely designed around them. A hybrid approach sucks for everyone.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you complain about people using the wheel that has been around for thousands of years too?

What wheel have you been using that has been around for thousands of years? Wheels have vastly improved over time.

You're under the assumption that the latest SHINY is worth upgrading to.

Firefox has lagged and become worse over time, switching to Chrome (or even Palemoon) is worth it. Indeed keeping your software up to date is important, this is a continual problem for the Android community for example with the constant stream of security vulnerabilities left unpatched for the vast majority of users, dismissing that as unimportant is just ignorant.

I neither want nor need MS spyware.

Then you wouldnt be running Windows at all, we have been hearing for decades (particularly from groups like the FSF) that Windows has secret backdoors to spy on users (now of course even with the NT and 2000 source code leaks these were still unproven) so were they lying? Now of course you can turn off things like typing/voice/handwriting feedback (just like you can on macOS) but that's unlikely to placate the conspiracy theorists.

Seriously I constantly see people here saying about how MS (and Google) are "selling your data" which of course is completely and utterly false so why be so ignorant? What's the agenda?

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[jeff.langemeier]

Where's the Files?

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's likely if MS didn't shoe-horn Windows 10 upgrade down peoples throat like that did, they wouldn't see the backlash they are.

That "backlash" is grossly overstated. Sure in a niche community of geeks (that for some reason still mostly appear to run Windows) such behavior is an outrage, to other people it's really not a big deal.

I don't use the operating system directly to do work, I use the programs I run on my computer. To be honest the only thing that has slightly changed is that when launching my programs the start menu looks a little different. Once I'm using those programs it doesn't matter what operating system I'm running. This is the case for the overwhelming majority in the real world.

We saw the same thing when Apple did its dramatic iOS redesign to move from the skeuomorphism, sure there was a lot of vocal complaining and threats to change platforms but in the end that was also grossly overstated because the OS itself is of little consequence. Running programs is what is important, that is the same reason Linux has had such tiny market share on the desktop and never grown more popular, it is also why Linux on the smartphone has had explosive growth while Windows on the smartphone languished.

The best operating system is the one that runs the user's programs.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The entire economy is built on planned obsolesce."

The greatest economic expansion in US history started with this little ditty:
Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without
Oh, and Buy Bonds!

Nearly two decades of Depression and War taught Americans to save, and coupled with a few Socialist policies, like FHA insured loans and the GI Bill, when it came time to spend again... Americans had the money! They could afford College educations, and a new house out in the new suburbs. And Saving continued until the Mid-Sixties at over 10% of income, when it started to decline again, and actually went negative during the recent Recession... something not seen since 1933.
I've nearly always been a Saver; I paid off a Car loan in 1984, and that was my last consumer loan. Hell, in 1986, I tore up my sole credit card, and have been paying cash ever since, and if I went over my monthly allowance, which I tied to the UC, where I worked, annual COLA numbers, I put off purchases.
So when I took Early Retirement, I not only could afford it, but I actually went on a bit of a spending spree. If my calculations work out right, I'll be out of ready spending money... at the age of 118.
Did I make sacrifices? Hell yes. I haven't eaten in a Restaurant in many years; I'm actually a pretty good cook. My clothing is utterly practical, and only bought on Sale. My most recent toy... was a Microscope, a pretty good one on sale, that replaced the one I got when I was 11. (My Parents, Depression Babies, didn't believe much in Toys; my Presents were nearly always practical, like Books.) I nearly always buy used when I can. The last Movie that I saw in a theater was "The Return Of the King". I don't socialize much these days; I find myself excellent company. My last "Vacation" was in 1994.
By many standards, I am just not part of the "Consumer Culture".
Oh, that Car loan that I paid off in 1984? I still have the Car. According to recent Auction numbers... it's now worth three quarters of a million dollars... I even buy Ferraris used.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

And ... that all our documents and data files will still be there after an "upgrade". Mine certainly weren't when I tried it. Luckily for me the rollback to Win7 worked or I'd have lost everything.

I'm a little confused here. How did a rollback give you back your files, when you'd just said that they weren't there after the upgrade?

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[exomondo]

I don't need a desktop operating system that serves ads to me.

It's all well and good to hate Microsoft for whatever reason but when the solution to this is so simple and obvious do you really need to pretend it's beyond your abilities? Unpin the tiles from the start menu and uncheck the box in start menu options to "Show suggestions in start menu" to turn off that one line of text.

I've got Windows 10 on one of my machines and that's what I did to solve that issue, you're welcome.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

OTOH, many of the driver issues could be avoided by avoiding certain peripheral manufacturers. Not all, certainly, but a lot. Specific case: printers. Don't buy HP (inkjet drivers only available for the Windows version at the time you buy it, possibly +1). Canon, Epson do that for some cheap consumer models, too. Brother, OTOH, seems to support more or less forever - wife has a 15-year-old multifunction (non-PS, non-PCL) laser originally bought for use with XP that has current drivers for 10. And it works fine. Of course, if you have a laser using PCL or Postscript then you have driver support for as long as the hardware lasts - but those are usually only in higher-priced business models.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

TL;DR: Just because you're all pissy about Windows 10 doesn't mean that everyone is.

And if you're that pissy about it then go use something else. Most actual users won't even know the difference because their programs all look and work the same as they did in previous versions anyway. The ones who are really complaining are the lowly Windows admins that keep Windows entrenched in corporate organizations. They bitch and whine about it but lack the ability to convince managers to make any meaningful change and they themselves for whatever reason aren't willing to change and join their better-paid Linux admin brethren.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Almost" only works with horseshoes and atom bombs. I didn't notice the desktops difference because I don't use it. The mobile-user-friendly interface happened in 8, not 10 (and worked great in my 8.1 phone - the only reasonable use case for it). The real differences I see with 10 (after using in anger it for about 6 months and in testing for about a year), compared to 7, are:

* takes more disk space and RAM.
* even if you block the advertising (it's mostly possible, but only with 3rd-party help) it still burns up your network talking to MS - the telemetry can't be managed as well as in earlier versions.
* updates can't reasonably be controlled outside of Enterprise contract versions; since you can't control what comes (just one big package), deferring updates is futile. You would have to totally block them, which requires something outside the computer itself. And even with that, the time needed to manage Win10 is well beyond what I spent with 7 (which just worked: turn on the computer, do some work, shut it down) - constant fiddling is needed rather than just a hobby.
* Realtek audio is frequently broken by interrupt latency; this happened in 7, too, when SP1 came out, but was fixed there; appeared to be fixed in 10, too, in 1511, but it's back in 1607.
* the fast startup trick introduced in 8.1 works quite well now, which is probably related to:
* power management actually works like it should, without crashing the computer on waking from sleep like it did in 7.
* a Start Menu is back, though IMO 1607 broke it by having the all-apps list visible all the time; liked it better in RTM and 1511 where it was hidden until you wanted it.

Let's see, I make that 3 major downsides, 1-2 so-so, and 1-2 1/2 minor improvements. Is my count at least proportional to others'?

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, not so much that the newest motherboards "require Windows 10", it's more like Win 10 is 'forbidden' to load onto yesterday's motherboards. That was manually & artificially introduced by MS to 'guide' us forward.

You see, WIN 10 can operate on yesterday's CPUs just fine, it's only recently that it has been 'organized' not to. Y'know organized meaning a "racket" type situation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_(crime)

_

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck off shill.

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or.... someone could write software that pretends to browse and operate like a real person when the real user does other things. One could enable the 'browse like a.... democratic or republican or anarchist, 99 yr old grandma, etc...' feature to make the analytics untrustworthy. Building and sharing false user web activity profiles between users would keep them guessing.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[cfalcon]

That's not quite right. You can run Windows 7 on Skylake and Kabylake just fine. What you don't get is support for any new features specific to those processors. You still gain in IPC and/or clock speed as per normal, and you can still run them just fine.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Ol Olsoc]

My migration from Mac to Windows happened because Apple depricated all of my SCSI, ADB and serial peripherals at the same time and if I had to buy all new stuff, it wasn't going to be for a clear plastic Mac.

LK

As long as you are happy, that's all you need.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Ol Olsoc]

Meanwhile you stay on an insecure OS and you make it possible for your machine to become a zombie and interrupt MY experience. Don't like it? Well set aside those Libertarian ideas that \. loves so much, boys, only regulation will fix this kind of crap.

Well, Einstein, you just made millions of people revert to Windows 95 in the hope that they can be owned, and absolutely ruin your experience.

Too much coffee today, or just a natural rager?

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Ol Olsoc]

On my desktop box I use Win 7 and FF, and they work just fine for me; I see no compelling reason to upgrade or change.

I use Linux Mint and FF on my laptop and also see no reason to change anything there.

Not all of us want to spend our lives upgrading stuff or chasing the release or gadget or whatever. Some of us just want to find something that works and use it.

That's because we are actually doing things, and not just trying to get the operating system to work.

So odd to see these shills yapping about how awesome W10 is, and that no one should mind the telemetry because other stuff has it, when at base, Updates break your system. Then again, some as swipe said we're just supposed to avoid buying things that Windows 10 breaks.

The shills are getting rather psychotic these days.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

"whaa whaa I dont like reality pointed out to me and im too braindead to come up with a rebuttal." whine some more douchebag.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[__aaclcg7560]

You can run Windows 7 on Skylake and Kabylake just fine.

From what I read elsewhere, it's the next gen processors that will require Windows 10 or Linux.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Rebuttals are for real arguments. You're just a M$ mouthpiece and therefore everything you have to say is invalid before you even say it. Go hang out on ZDNet, n00b.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Scutbitch here, our K-12 SROs weren't able to view camera footage on their boxes if they upped to win10, because of some incompatibility that's way beyond my $12/hr to even be aware of.

The embedded video used an Intel architecture or something that broke on win10 (despite the prompts that would've said "it looks like your computer is compatible, off we go") . I spent a fair part of spring/summer chasing downgrades, scrubbing KB8018533 or whatever, scrubbing the 8~10GB already-downloaded install files hidden in root that caused upgrade lock-in, and making an Explain Like I'm Five guide for a department of "real techs".

So yeah, Intel. Can't be assed to dig up the work order.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[dbIII]

The only thing I can think of is arguably a better interface for touch screen users

I've got an MS Win7 tablet I use to run some camera software. It's far more simple and easier to use as a touch screen than MS Win10. The clutter and shifting shit means MS Win10 does not even win that category IMHO.

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[pixelpusher220]

What percent of users do you think did what you did? I'm guessing less than 5%.

Given NINETY-FIVE PERCENT ACCEPTANCE rate, MS will no doubt disable your ability to turn them off before too long.

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[exomondo]

What percent of users do you think did what you did? I'm guessing less than 5%.

Well firstly your "guess" is completely unsubstantiated but wouldn't that be all the more reason to spread the solution? Unless of course you want it to be accepted to the point where it can't be turned off, if that's your agenda then by all means continue trying to suppress that knowledge.

Given NINETY-FIVE PERCENT ACCEPTANCE rate, MS will no doubt disable your ability to turn them off before too long.

But there isn't a 95% acceptance rate, that's something you just made up out of nothing. I'm telling you the solution to the problem and your response is to whine about your made up fantasy future where that solution might not exist. What's your solution then? Or are you just knuckling under.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't matter how technically good an operating system is it is completely useless if it doesn't run the programs the user needs to run. Sadly you gimps in IT support will never understand that and keep telling us how the Year of the Linux Desktop is coming, meanwhile crap like Windows 8 and Windows Vista are more popular than all the hundreds of Linux distributions combined. Fact. ... a fact that will doubtless make you even more furious :P

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[pixelpusher220]

You are correct, 72.6 percent of all numbers on the internet are made up.

You missed the point though

MS can look at 5/10/15 percent of people to take the time to do something and 'claim' 95/90/85 percent LOVE IT the way it is just fine and proceed to use their own 'assumptions' to further goals the OP was saying didn't matter because he could turn it off currently.

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

(same poster) ...and have an optional browser flag similar to anonymous browsing that says 'my analysis will reduce the quality of your results so don't analyze me because the well is poisoned'

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't watch the ads then you're stealing the...er...desktop!

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF does What does WTF mean mean? Disregard this, I voted for Trump.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[david_thornley]

Vista wound up being fairly decent. It sure didn't start that way, and 7 was a very definite improvement, but I was reasonably happy with it shortly before moving to 7.

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[exomondo]

MS can look at 5/10/15 percent of people to take the time to do something and 'claim' 95/90/85 percent LOVE IT

They can claim whatever they want to but really its effectiveness is measured in how many people actually click-through, even if you don't opt-out it's completely ineffective if you don't click on it. But all the more reason to take my advice and turn it off rather than pretending everything's hopeless and continuing your agenda to try and get people to leave it on.

to further goals the OP was saying didn't matter because he could turn it off currently.

It's one line of text in the start menu, which you can turn off and if your workflow is to launch programs through one of the other many means of doing so you wouldn't even see it anyway or failing that you could install a start menu replacement or failing that you could even install a different shell. There are so many solutions to this very minor issue (remember, it's one line of text) so why are you being such a defeatist about it?

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[armanox]

Goodness, that was before the big jump to OS X happened!

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[armanox]

I feel like W10 has a better on screen keyboard then W10, but that might be about it. However, my W10 tablet no longer works at all (WinBook, won't boot except to the "Rescue"screen that won't allow me to boot to any rescue media even though it claims to be trying to do that...), so that really isn't a concern for me any longer. Shame, because I almost liked the little tablet (save for the abysmal battery life - with an Intel Atom in it I got at most two hours of life out of it, and it died after a day on standby, compared to my 2012 MBP with roughly 6 hours and my Precision M4500 with four hours (i7 and Quadro FX GPU - it's a power hog of a laptop, but it's powerful as can be iwth 16GB of RRAM and two SSD. My current work laptop (M4800) gets at least 4 hours of battery life as well, depending on what I am doing).

Re: Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

No vacation for over 20 years. No eating out. No friends. You won't live to 118 so that savings is pointless. Didn't really think this one through did you? I doubt anyone envies you, even if you have retired early, your miserly life sounds like a Scrooge Lifetime movie warning people to enjoy their lives and not live for money. Yeesh. But congrats on your ferrari and microscope, I'm sure they're great reassurances.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[Lord Kano]

Yes. It was about a year before OS X and about a year after they discontinued the Beige G3.

By the time OS X was released, I was already gone.

LK

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[ConceptJunkie]

Wait, Backslashdot likes libertarian ideas? I guess I'm on the wrong website then.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[ConceptJunkie]

I've seen more weird bugs on Windows 10 than any version of Windows in a long time, and the "flat UI" look is stupid and ugly. Some pajama boy threw out all the major R&D and UI advances that Microsoft was at the forefront of in the 80s and 90s just so he could foist his minimalist aesthetic in a place where it does absolutely no good. I know I'm personifying what is surely many, many people, but the effect is the same... throwing out 30 years of hard-won UX knowhow to turn the desktop into someone's vanity art project.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[ConceptJunkie]

The shills are getting rather psychotic these days.

They gotta do something now that Correct The Record has laid them all off.

Re:Kind of consistent, isn't it?

[toddestan]

Not only that, but Microsoft never bothered to back-port the telemetry crap back to Vista, so at least for a few more months you can have version of Windows where you can install the updates without worrying as much about what data your OS is sending back to the mothership.

On the other hand, a lot of vendors have dropped their Vista support and list Windows 7 as the minimum version. But my guess is just like 2000 was to XP, most anything that will run on 7 will run just fine on Vista even if it's not officially supported.

XP Forever!

[Anonymous Coward]

Still have no reason, or need, to update to Windows 10.

Missing the point

[UnknowingFool]

Microsoft's Windows 10, however, already improved substantially since its launch in 2015, mostly thanks to the free upgrade offer targeting Windows 7 and 8.1 users, but this still isn't enough to become the number one choice for PC users.

Quality isn't really a problem for Windows 10 as to why people are not upgrading Windows 7. While some drivers will eventually be updated for Windows 10, some of the "features" like telemetry are the problem. That and how MS forced updates on people involving trickery.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Quality isn't really a problem for Windows 10

Didn't Microsoft fire most of its quality assurance people? Followed by a migration to forced updates that just break things? Since I don't intend to pay for enterprise class support both quality and spyware remain an issue and until both are fixed its Debian + Windows 7.

Re:Missing the point

[Joce640k]

Yep, and the way you never know what sort of OS you'll be running tomorrow.

MS has given themselves total control over your computer. You have no say in the matter.

Obviously they're not going to delete all your files, but ... what happens if they push out a bad update and everybody's machine is out of action for a week?

What happens if they decide a new monthly subscription model is the way forward for Windows "professional" users? Insert credit card...?

Re:Missing the point

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

That and how MS forced updates on people involving trickery.

Bingo. The flat-out trickery and subterfuge that was used to force the upgrade on people was the most damning indictment of why people shouldn't upgrade.

If they have to trick you into doing it, chances are it's not in your best interest.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, the trickery and spying are the problem for me. And I suspect that's probably the case for a lot of Firefox users.

Look, I use Firefox because I'm generally privacy-conscious. I don't want a browser that phones home to Google all the time. I definitely don't want a broken browser made by Microsoft. I use Firefox because it allows me to (provably) disable third-party communications, I can fine tune which features are enabled and turn off the ones I feel may pose a security threat, and it has a solid base of plugins to help create a more secure environment.

Shouldn't it stand to reason I'm sticking with Windows 7? In 10, the entire fucking operating system phones home constantly, with god-knows-what contents, and there's no way to disable it entirely. I'll pass.

Re:Missing the point

[nnull]

A lot of PLC software stopped working on Windows 10. Specifically Siemens Step software that just utterly pisses on you for trying (I don't know if they fixed it, I run it in vmware). So there's quite a few reasons why people will not install Windows 10. I've completely moved away from Windows.

Re:Missing the point

[TastelessGarbage]

Excellent points. As a windows user since 3.0, I finally reached my limit and installed Linux Mint on my personal machines. LM has some issues (grumblesoundgrumble), but the overall annoyance level is clearly lower than win10.

I can see the subscription model for windows up by 2020 - time to get out now.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

You are making a *huge* assumption. That only tech people use computers. Most seriously *do* *not* *care* what it is running. They just do not want it fuck up. They just saw some stupid pop up and ignored it. They didnt want 10 or need it really. Most people are *terrified* of 'breaking' their computer. The do not change things just for the fun of it. They just want it to work enough to use whatever program they are using.

I went to 10 because I found it interesting. The rest of my family is on 7. Not because they could not get it or some 'they are spying on me'. They honestly just do not care about it. The only question I got was 'how long would it take'. I told them it takes anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on what you have installed. They noped out.

When their computer conks out on them. They will get a tablet or just replace it with something they grab from best buy which will have 10 on it. They *do* *not* *care*.

At this point you will see an erosion of 1-3% per month of win7 share. Eventually ending up around 1 to 5%. Those are the computers that refuse to conk out or are needed for that specialty bit o software.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Most PLC software is shit. Give up on the COM ports, archaic ARCNet networks, and other stupid shit that shouldn't be tolerated now that the year 1990 has come and gone.

Most PLC hardware is also shit. RS-232? Really? USB controllers are cheap and easy now. Even hobbyist boards have them. Sure, bitch about reliability, but that's what people pay you for. If your board-designers can't be arsed to use USB and make a reliable driver for it, then you shouldn't be making PLC's. And, no, the answer is not to make a USB-to-serial cable, sell it for $300, and continue making shitty hardware the same way you have since 1987. Move. The. Fuck. On.

And support for PLC software and hardware is double-shit. Devices that don't have safe or reasonable default configurations? Check. Devices that fall over and brick themselves? Check. Inadequate documentation? Check. Per-incident support fees? Check. A big, fat "fuck you" to all companies that fit this pattern.

And to top it off, Siemens itself is a shit company. I used to have to deal with their terrible HVAC products. The best quality product I ever bought from them was a control panel. Quite nice. Also, basically impossible to fuck up, since it's a metal box. The hinged door would be the only thing they could possibly have done wrong, but somehow they got that one right. Color me surprised.

There's just a shit-ton of layers of shit in what you said.

Re:Missing the point

[ArhcAngel]

what happens if they push out a bad update and everybody's machine is out of action for a week?

You mean like last week?
I was scratching my head for an hour trying to figure out why my wife's laptop showed it connected to the AP but not the internet. I felt really dumb once I figured it out. Then I read this story and got really mad. All the while happily connected to Steam playing games on my Win 7 desktop running Waterfox (64 bit FF fork). And of course since it took out DHCP there's no way for the average person to connect to get the patch!

Re:Missing the point

[ripvlan]

You have a valid point - I use Win10 at home and I'm not sure what "telemetry" really is (its extent, reach, etc). Win10 seems good to me, fast, it works - my PC was a Free upgrade from Win7. Sure there are a few hiccups here an there - but nothing to the level of say my iPhone which occasionally freezes for 15-30 seconds at a time. Plenty of things to like & dislike such as searching for "Event Viewer" and having Bing results including Plane Ticket to Event.

Which makes me wonder what the Corporate version is like.

Win10 hasn't been rolled out yet in the office (coming soon). But what do all of those "features" look like at a corporate level? I assume they are all turned off because we're paying money. We'll all adapt to the new UI - thankfully the Win8 UI has been improved (I have to use Win2012 servers once in awhile and want to shoot myself every time I press the Windows key - yes I know - you can just start typing).

And the live tiles. Ugh. I like the MS Phone demos of live tiles where they grouped everything by category "Conversations." It is not a feature I appreciate "on a PC."

Onward and upward.

Re:Missing the point

[WaffleMonster]

Look, I use Firefox because I'm generally privacy-conscious. I don't want a browser that phones home to Google all the time. I definitely don't want a broken browser made by Microsoft. I use Firefox because it allows me to (provably) disable third-party communications, I can fine tune which features are enabled and turn off the ones I feel may pose a security threat, and it has a solid base of plugins to help create a more secure environment.

Firefox talks the talk about privacy but makes it virtually impossible to achieve. Sheer volume of "call home" excuses in Firefox is breathtaking. Their own expansive about:config privacy documentation tweak guide is as incomplete as it is ridiculously long and convoluted to follow.

If they really gave a shit they would provide usable privacy options as in options that mortal people can actually manage.

Such as:

"Never call home for any reason".
"Ask me before calling home"
"Automatically call home for x class of reasons" ...etc.

The other major issue with Firefox is relatively poor code quality makes using Firefox more dangerous than other browsers.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 10 is designed for one thing and one thing only.... TO RAPE YOUR PRIVACY, send all your info to microsoft, and be an exploit vector.
That's it really.

Time all you idiots ditch Windows for Unix (FreeBSD and Debian are fine examples).
And ditch all your stupid clearnet access and comms tools for encrypted access like Tor and encrypted tools like Signal, Pond, etc.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

So he should say screw it and replace the process controls or HVAC at his company then?

Re:Missing the point

[hambone142]

Given Microsoft's trickery in attempting people to download Win10, I'll stay away from it.

It's sad. When I go to a store and see the new PCs, part of me wants to buy the latest. However, when I see "Win 10" listed as the OS, there is NO WAY I will buy a PC with that operating system.

So... I stay with my Win7 systems and have migrated another laptop to Linux Mint, in preparation for completely pulling the plug on Microsoft operating systems once Win7 is no longer usable.

If Microsoft would keep the UI simple (like Win XP/7) and get rid of the forced updates (I have a 10 GB/month data cap on my satellite internet) as well as eliminating the fucking "telemetry", I might consider a new OS but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.

So... burn in hell, Microsoft. Along with your crappy operating system, you are preventing future hardware sales.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

The problems is that Windows 10 doesnt do anything useful over Windows . What Windows 10 does do is a whole lot of annoying stuff no one needs in an operating system.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

You have a valid point - I use Win10 at home and I'm not sure what "telemetry" really is (its extent, reach, etc).

Which begs the question of what the hell are you doing on a site like Slashdot.

CAP: apathy

Re:Missing the point

[Pentium100]

I bought the GPD Win palmtop PC (not for games, really, but there was no alternative with an x86 CPU and this form factor and my Viliv N5 is a bit slow). It came with Windows 10. After failing to make Windows 8 work on it (sound driver didn't work properly and there was no display of remaining battery charge - kinda important for a mobile device) I had to go back to Windows 10 and spend a few days making it not send data to Microsoft and disabling updates (so my settings stay).

As an OS, Windows 10 is not that bad, though I still hate the UI (for me, Windows 2000/Classic look is the best, followed by XP and Aero), but what makes it awful is the forced updates and the data sharing. "Cloud storage" seems interesting, but only if "the cloud" is my own server.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't that bad if done right. Our office disabled cortana, stopped live tiles and other menu crap, disabled and firewalled telemetry as it is a violation of our security mandates, and a few other changes. Many things just don't work. Most people use IE11 as Edge crashes. Edge is an unfinished pile of crap. The main problem is the UI lag and when keyboard combos fail like CTRL L to get to the Urlbar. Really sad for a Windows OS

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

So you felt really dumb for being really dumb. Amazing.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

and treachery.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

"Never call home for any reason".
"Ask me before calling home"
"Automatically call home for x class of reasons" ...etc.

Good idea. Maybe someone will submit a request for this functionality?

The other major issue with Firefox is relatively poor code quality makes using Firefox more dangerous than other browsers.

That is no longer true. They have been consolidating and cleaning their code since version 40, as well as forcing plug-ins to be signed. If they keep up the good work, then Firefox can easily be the all-time best web browser. The icing on the cake will be a 64-bit version.

Re:Missing the point

[Anonymous Coward]

The subscription model is already happening, especially in education where Microsoft created strange annual licensing subscriptions. It's not monthly at least, but before we could buy the OS or an application (like Office 2013) and just be done and own it. Now we pay annually. Cheaper for education than private businesses, but still a new annual cost we had to budget into our expenses.

I was pleasantly surprised when my curriculum department asked about dropping Office altogether and going to Google Docs, Sheets, etc., and they asked for a cost analysis of switching everyone to Apple iMacs (funny how we had Macs in the 90's, then PCs, and now maybe back to Macs again). We've already removed over 56% of our Windows PC's and replaced them with ChromeOS devices. It's getting ridiculous to pay Microsoft for such a small percentage of PCs versus everything else, including BYOD.

Re:Missing the point

[RockDoctor]

Obviously they're not going to delete all your files, but ...

I don't see how the last part of your statement follows from the "Obviously" part. Please elaborate.

win 10 is still a work in progress

[anthony_greer]

It is far and away better than it was a year and a half ago, but Win 10 still has a ways to go before it is ready for the "it just has to work all the time" workloads of many with demanding workloads. It is stable, but they need to really finish the transition from old to new completely, and add proper GPO management around new features like the Windows Settings app that is replacing control panel a little more with each feature update. Give it another 6 months or so and it will be there I think.

Re:win 10 is still a work in progress

[Anonymous Coward]

Win10 will always be a work in progress in leu of a finish production ready OS. Microsoft's development methodology has regressed to agile...for an OS! Look at the stuff they keep breaking with each major update[DHCP/wifi/etc]. How in the hell can you ship a patch that breaks DHCP and not see that in QA?

Re:win 10 is still a work in progress

[Motherfucking Shit]

How in the hell can you ship a patch that breaks DHCP and not see that in QA?

Easy, lay off all your QA people. The users are QA, now...

Re:win 10 is still a work in progress

[Anonymous Coward]

Give it another 6 months or so and it will be there I think.

I heard the same 6 months ago. I'm not holding my breath anymore.

Realistically at this rate it needs at least another year of focused development and a restructured QC.
But I predict that 2 years from now it will still have 2 control panels (which isn't even the main problem--big updates and bugs are more annoying).

Re:win 10 is still a work in progress

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is planning on moving all settings and control panel functions to the cloud eventually.

Re:win 10 is still a work in progress

[Anonymous Coward]

Win10 will always be a work in progress in leu of a finish production ready OS. Microsoft's development methodology has regressed to agile...for an OS!

That is the best explanation for why Win10 is a stinker. Agile development is great, but only until you ship. Win10 should have been Windows 9 that dumped the mistake of mobile cross-development in Win8. They should have brought the Win7 code base back and started from there. But good luck convincing them to revert after all the time and years wasted.

7 works

[turkeydance]

10 sometimes

Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Spy Handler]

One of my desktops is a Phenom triple-core I built in 2009. It's kinda underpowered for newer Windows versions so I still have XP (service pack 3) running on it.

It runs like a champ by the way, still quite snappy. I used to run Google Chrome on it, but some time last year it started spamming me with "Upgrade your windows, Chrome no longer blah blah" message so I uninstalled Chrome and put Firefox on it. Runs great, happy with the setup.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[smooth wombat]

Same here. XP (fully patched) with Firefox 37 (I think). Throw on uMatrix and it speeds along without a single issue.

I have install discs so am thinking of getting a slightly newer used system which should last me another decade or so.

I do have a W7 machine but that is reserved for photo processing. Still need to get it patched to October of this year but it too has Firefox on it.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Thanks for the mention of uMatrix, I wasn't aware of it before but I'm installing it right now. Very useful add-on.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[I've Got Three Cats]

Yep. I have XP and Firefox running on a Phenom X4 and it's great for all my legacy needs. I also run a Win7 box with hardware bought in 2007 (Core2Quad) and that runs fine too. By the time Win7 ends it's life I assume there will be free commercial software that no longer supports it, e.g., Skype, Chrome etc, assuming they still exist, but you get the idea. If I need to run something I can't on Win7 because of corporate fuckyouism I'll move to Linux.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Merk42]

What do you use it for? I'm curious why you'd leave a vulnerable OS connected to the Internet rather than using Linux (or some more recent, supported, version of Windows)

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Anonymous Coward]

One of my desktops is a Phenom triple-core I built in 2009. It's kinda underpowered for newer Windows versions so I still have XP (service pack 3) running on it.

Er, do you mean that new windowses are really bloated? Because Phenoms still are pretty powerful in my books. I'd understand if you were talking about a 2005 CPU...

Me? Windows 2000 on an Athlon T-Bird. Works well, apart from the lack of SSE which limits me to older display drivers.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Skuld-Chan]

I enjoy running your copy of XP too ;). I have to admit - your old machine is a weak link in my botnet though - especially as everyone else likes using it too.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Anonymous Coward]

WinXP isnt a "vulnerable OS" is you do the wepos registry mod to it. Google is your Friend. essentially the wepos mod makes your xp install look like one of the embedded windows xp installs that are still out there in the wild. think of ATM and other POS uses.There are still regular batches of monthly updates coming out for XP after you make this mod to your system.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[smooth wombat]

uMatrix is good because it is very granular in what you can block. However, that granularity comes at a price because it requires more effort from the user to determine what is and what is not needed.

Just remember, once you have things set the way you want you have to lock in your changes at the top of the screen or else you'll have to do it all over again the next time you go to a site.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Yeah, I noticed, lol. I'm finding it may be more trouble than it's worth at this point....we'll see.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Anonymous Coward]

in my case lan gaming. Only now games are coming to require something newer, and would prob want newer hardware anyways.

Sad that the OS not the games being the reason for updating...It's also sad how few games you can play lan too.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[antdude]

Does Mozilla still support Windows XP SP3 for its products? I thought they dropped that OS support recently. I used to run an updated 14 years old 32-bit Windows XP Pro SP3 too until my old Seagate SATA HDD died due to its clicks of death back in 10/22/2016 in the early mawning hours. I was forced to get a new SATA HDD and install a new Windows (64-bit 7 HPE SP1 this time). That's OK. It was way overdue to start from scratch especially when I stopped doing backups of everything (only do unrecoverable data files).

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Spy Handler]

XP (all versions) are supported until 2018. After that I may retire the machine from internet duty and relegate it to a file server or something.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[antdude]

Supported? Where do you see that? I know embedded XP is supported which I don't use.

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Spy Handler]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[antdude]

Ahh. You were talking about Firefox. I thought you meant the OS. :)

It looks like Mozilla will end Windows XP support in March 2017 according to quick Google searches: http://www.google.com/search?q... ...

Re:Still proudly running XP and Firefox!

[Anonymous Coward]

Are any of the updates useful for desktop systems?

But of course!

[Type44Q]

...shows that Windows 7 is the number one browser

Sure thing, Manesh.

Re:But of course!

[BarbaraHudson]

Worse - it's in the cited article as well. Didn't the submitter (msmash) bother to read it first, or is this just karma whoring.

The Firefox Hardware Report published recently by Mozilla shows that Windows 7 is the number one browser for users running the company’s browser, with a share of 44.86 percent, followed by Windows 10 with 25.67 percent.

How hard would it have been to link to the actual report, which doesn't claim that Windows 7 is a browser?

Re:But of course!

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 7 is the best browser on FirefoxOS

Re:But of course!

[Anonymous Coward]

My OS is Internet Explorer, you insensitive clod!

Just because

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because I am running your software, does not mean you own my computer. You do not seem to understand this concept.

When 7 gets a critical hole that can't be secured without updating, I'll be moving to whatever *nix os seems like the best option.
The only reason I didn't switch when I assembled my current rig was due to a driver issue, which has probably been patched by now anyway.

I do too

[AndyKron]

I run Firefox on Win7 at work and home. Use Android for the mobile though.

Telemetry

[Anonymous Coward]

https://metrics.mozilla.com/firefox-hardware-report/#goto-os-and-architecture

"The data for this report comes from Firefox’s built-in Telemetry data system. Firefox automatically collects information about desktop hardware and operating system configurations and sends this to Mozilla roughly daily, unless users disable this collection."

Wonderful.

Re:Telemetry

[narcc]

The difference between FF and Chrome, of course, is that FF actively notifies you (allowing you to immediately change those settings) and doesn't sell your info to anyone with a few bucks to spare.

Disabling Chromes telemetry takes a bit of doing, and more technical knowledge and skill than the average user can manage. (Assuming that it can actually be completely disabled, of course.) They also don't tell you about it, preferring to keep their invasive data collection and sale as secret as possible.

Slashdot story July 4, 2020:

[Anonymous Coward]

As Windows 7 drops off in market share, total Microsoft market share drops, while Ubuntu 20.04 picks up some serious steam.

Poor 3rd party link

[marcle]

This link is to a badly written Softpedia article, which has the link to the actual Mozilla report.
Why couldn 't Slashdot link to the original report? It's very informative.
The Softpedia article adds no information, and sounds like the writer is a non-native English speaker.

Free Upgrade Offer

[PPH]

Windows 10: Do not want

Re:Free Upgrade Offer

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what I love about slashdot. No meme is too old to be dank.

Re:Free Upgrade Offer

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah, me neither!
I haven't even touched Windows 9.

$me ducks and runs... ;-)

2020

[thundercattt]

Considering most laptops have a 3 year life span because people buy the cheapest one on the market IE HP/Compaq. They'll be forced to buy a Win10 laptop anyway. Either use it or move to Linux.

Re:2020

[I've Got Three Cats]

But won't MS have released their next version by then? I assume by 2020 we'll have Windows 11 to buy on those new laptops. Woot!

Strange, it's as if they had Free Will

[WillAffleckUW]

Just because your corporate greed needs you to junk stuff to force people to pay you on a continuing subscription basis, doesn't mean we see any point in "upgrading".

Most of our machines are Linux btw. They don't show up in your metrics, because we don't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for each machine, but only thousands, and they do about 100 times more actual work.

Enjoy failure.

not real reason

[Anonymous Coward]

you spy on people and get caught - strike one
you trick people to an os they dont want - strike two
you try and force people to a spying os and get caught - strike 3

the 4th strike is that wndows 7 can do all a user needs , we dont need win10
we dont want subscription operating sytems that spy on us and make me pay for the spying....

see hilary clinton emails for how nice corporations are

Lowest Common Denominator

[emil]

Microsoft removed the cheesy Aero interface for one reason only: mobile devices could not run it efficiently.

As Microsoft's mobile strategy has utterly failed, Windows 8 and 10 users are forced into a mobile-friendly UI for no purpose whatsoever.

The market objects.

Re:Lowest Common Denominator

[Joce640k]

Microsoft removed the cheesy Aero interface for one reason only: mobile devices could not run it efficiently.

It's almost as if you of abstraction layers. There's no reason it can use Aero on the desktop and something different on a mobile device.

They could even let the user choose what they want!

Re:Lowest Common Denominator

[Anonymous Coward]

They could even let the user choose what they want!

That's pre-1995 thinking, User. Why do you think the Windows icon is called "My Computer"? It's not your computer, it's Satya Nadella's. You are allowed to operate it at his pleasure.

Re:Lowest Common Denominator

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft removed the cheesy Aero interface for one reason only: mobile devices could not run it efficiently.

[citation needed]
Speculation from some blogger is not enough.

Windows 8 theme is not that different from Aero and it actually uses more VRAM: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-myths,3694-5.html
It might give the illusion of being faster, but that's because the animations/transitions are slightly shorter (they can be disabled anyway).

Re:Lowest Common Denominator

[Anonymous Coward]

Cheesy, oh please, Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 looks like someone ate a box of crayons and took a giant dump on my desktop.

Of course Firefox users like yesteryear tech

[Anonymous Coward]

This is no shock. The following groups like firefox:

1. Older developers
2. Old people who's kids turned them onto it a decade ago when it was cool
3. People with old computers
4. People paranoid about spyware
5. People who use obscure operating systems

People who like old tech are going to stick on an old OS too. People scared of upgrade or change will stay on it.

For me, I only use firefox when I'm testing web applications or using BSD because chromium barely runs. Google's cross platform support is terrible.

People scared of spyware are not going to run windows 10 or use chrome.

Re:Of course Firefox users like yesteryear tech

[Anonymous Coward]

...People scared of spyware are not going to run windows 10 or use chrome.

s/scared/aware/g

There isn't a 'fear' factor involved here, just f.tons of do not want...

Re:Of course Firefox users like yesteryear tech

[Anonymous Coward]

People who like old tech are going to stick on an old OS too. People scared of upgrade or change will stay on it.

I think you have to clarify what you`re saying. I have the newest possible Debian distro, with the newest possible Firefox release. Scared of change, moi? Come on. Windows users are the proverbial change scared.

People scared of spyware are not going to run windows 10 or use chrome.

I wouldn`t say `scared`, but *concerned*. But, yeah, I never gonna run Windows or Chrome.

Re:Of course Firefox users like yesteryear tech

[Anonymous Coward]

6. People who like to customize their browser's UI.
7. People who like to use neat features such as vertical tabs.
8. People who like it when all addons are free and none of them require the user to pay to unlock full features (TabOutliner being an example).
9. People who use session managers that work properly on that browser, while the best equivalent on Chrome (SessionBuddy) is worthless because Chrome lacks tab lazy loading, and each session load risks freezing the system.
10. People who prefer a browser that doesn't nag them or troll them any time they use certain addons that make Google butthurt because they improve some of Google's services.
11. People who want a browser that will allow them to unlock or enable certain functionality if they can afford, or have a way around, security trade-off. Case in point: Opening online videos and streams via external application (any installed player of choice).
12. People who don't mind a slower browser if it will give them freedom of choice and functionality.

I could keep going.

Enterprise security inertia?

[Anonymous Coward]

Some places are "late adopters" for security reasons.

My workplace has been standardized on Win7 and FF for some years. (PC's have IE on them, but encourage people to not touch it because it is Bad and Wrong.)

The security folks have spent quite some time developing a Win10 image that's reasonably secure, and just this month started offering to re-image people's systems with it on an opt-in basis. I'm sure eventually it will become mandatory, but it'll be slow.

#1 CHOICE OF NEW USERS

[Anonymous Coward]

7 is now as old as XP was 7 went gold. Same story then. In 2020 there may be yet another XP-like 'scramble'. And again, same story to unfold: old machines keep running what they came with. Damn! the! torpedos!

windows 10, hmm

[FudRucker]

just think, in 85 more releases they will be back up to windows 95, i will wait for windows 95 to be released before i buy another windows OS

Only 77% have Flash?

[gQuigs]

My biggest surprise is that only 77% have Flash installed. That either means users don't need Flash any more on the desktop or Mozilla has a bigger mobile usage than I think... Either way I think it's good.

https://metrics.mozilla.com/fi...

Re:Only 77% have Flash?

[Anonymous Coward]

Desktop only.

"The Firefox Hardware Report is a public monthly report of the hardware used by a representative sample of the population from Firefox's release channel on desktop."

Re:Only 77% have Flash?

[Anonymous Coward]

That either means users don't need Flash any more on the desktop [...]

Nah, that just means that almost all are using an outdated Flash that are blocked by Firefox. ;)

Re:Only 77% have Flash?

[Waccoon]

I'm not sure how you concluded that 77% = nobody.

Sounds like just about every telemetry report companies use to "prove" that useful features need to be removed by force.

Re:Only 77% have Flash?

[gQuigs]

The conventional wisdom (that I've been exposed to) would say that on desktops the Flash marketshare would be >95%. Most of that "wisdom" may have come from Adobe itself: https://www.adobe.com/mena_en/... (2011 time frame too).

I knew that Flash was being used less, I just didn't realize a substantial install base didn't have it. Or in other words 23% != nobody.

Re:Only 77% have Flash?

[toddestan]

I don't have Flash installed. I noticed that on Linux where I never bothered with Adobe's crappy Flash plug-in, pretty much anything I that I wanted to do that you would think I would need Flash for has started to work without it over the past year or so thanks to HTML5. So I uninstalled it on Windows, and haven't looked back.

The only slightly tricky thing is that you also have to uninstall FlashBlock (as FlashBlock will fool websites into thinking you have Flash installed so they'll send you Flash stuff instead of HTML5), and you'll also want to install some kind of click-to-play for HTML5 content for all the stupid sites that still have auto-playing videos.

Windows 7 is the number one browser...

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 7 is the number one browser for users running the company's browser

Cool, I didn't know you could run windows 7 as a browser, within another browser, how do I enable that?

Re:Windows 7 is the number one browser...

[Anonymous Coward]

If IE is integrated into the o/s as much as it used to be, couldn't that kind of be considered as "browsing with the operating system" then? Just a thought.

Interesting, but not unexpected

[Thyamine]

People running Firefox are users who are more aware than standard users. They have gone out and downloaded a non-standard (for not tech people) browser and are using it. It makes sense that they are more likely aware of their OS, and what they would want or not want; as well as able to avoid the forced Windows 10 upgrade many techies were forced into.

Re:Interesting, but not unexpected

[Anonymous Coward]

That plus the plugin support. I use ff even on my iphone, I hope plugin support will soon arrive on ios.

No No No

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason that people are NOT upgrading to Windows 10 especially from Windows 7 are many. It is a multifaceted whole.

• - There's no need. Windows 7 suites their needs just fine and they have no need to replace their OS until they buy a new machine.
• - Windows 10 now costs a non-trivial amount to upgrade an existing machine.
• - Upon purchasing a new machine, people do not like the new look, which goes way beyond just the Start Menu. Literally everything has been moved/re-arranged and it is beyond cumbersome to find relocated settings and applications.
• - People do not like having to through out their applications and perfectly HARDWARE like printers and scanners, because they are not supported under Windows 10. I've literally had to trash two year old $1,000 Xerox/Fujitsu scanners after moving a user to Windows 10, because there is no Windows 10 support, nor will there be. Perfectly good OKI color laser printer, albeit a few years old.Push it into the trash as there's no driver.
• - Windows 10 Metro Apps are a massive ball ache.
• - Windows desktop advertising, from Candy Crush and constant attempts to get users to sign up for and buy Microsoft cloud services, especially OneDrive and O365.
• - Telemetry, forced updates that break things like DHCP clients(last week) or remove previously present features or options(Anniversary Update).

All this while still taking an Intel i7-6700 processor and making it perform at the same overall user experience level that Windows 2000 provided on a Pentium II processor.

Don't get me wrong. There are many nice features and advantages to Windows 10. I'm particularly impressed with its seemingly low RAM usage. But I shouldn't have to put an NVMe SSD into an i7-6700 to get the same performance I got years ago.

Re: No No No

[Anonymous Coward]

You're an idiot. You can most likely print to those older printers with the generic PostScript or PCL drivers.

"Free upgrade offer"

[ilsaloving]

Right. "Free upgrade offer".

I'll have to remember that phrase next time I want to forcibly coerce someone to do something that they don't want.

The Fuckery Never Ends

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a lot that I like in Windows 10 but there's SO MUCH MORE ASININE FUCKERY that you can't get rid of that just makes it teeth-gratingly irritating to use

Case in point: There's this insidious piece of trash called the Windows Game Bar, fine, cool... cool... how do I rid myself of this unwanted plague? Oh well, simply LOG IN to the Microsoft XBox app and disable it ...but what if you don't have an account? Then make one and log in and then disable it. Riiiiiight

OKAY well lookie here there are some powershell commands you can run to uninstall it, great works, until I plug in my XBox controller or let Windows update run and well ... fuck it's back

OKAY well here's some registry hacking you can do that gets rid of it, nope, keeps coming back.

Just like Cortana - just like a lot of other garbage I don't need nor want.

"So don't run Windows 10" you say... well... you're right. This is how you push a long time Windows fanboy off the cliff you fuckwits. I'm sick of this garbage. I'm sick of not having even the level of control I had with lame duck 8.x (and that's saying something)

Microsoft doesn't understand its consumer-level customers at a fundamental level and that is going to cost them in the long run

MS Windows Users Should...

[Anonymous Coward]

Demand Microsoft either update 7, adding any new device support such as USB-C it may be lacking, etc., even if that means putting another $79 box on store shelves labeled "Microsoft Windows 7.1" or "MS Windows 7, Long Term Support Edition," and let it be updated for security purposes and to support new devices like I said, with a legally enforceable commitment to support it through something like 2035, offering full refunds to anyone who buys it if they don't, and putting the money to fund that into a trust or escrow account with, for example, the US Department of Justice which they only get to have if they COMPLY, with that and every other court-ordered measure they have EVER been slapped with for anticompetitive behavior.

Should they fail to do this, as Microsoft deliberately and intentionally makes using Windows 7 THAT PEOPLE PAID FOR THE RIGHT TO USE, either directly or indirectly, they should respond not only by NOT knuckling under to Microsofts demands for more money for their buggy, non-securable, defective-by-design, doomed to require upgrading again, BY DESIGN by Microsoft crappy software of crap, and instead UPGRADE to GNU/Linux, and send screenshots or photos of their computers during the upgrade process, and of people throwing their Microsoft discs and manuals IN THE GARBAGE, accompanied by messages like, "This is a what I think of your insistence that I pay you AGAIN for the same thing I already fucking paid you for, over and over again."

"You have no legal right to cripple my computer, nor legal claim on MY MONEY; in short, you assholes go fuck yourselves with a broken whiskey bottle dipped in shit."

Or something like that. Get creative. Learn to use a real, grown-up operating system, not a junky toy like the trash Microsoft sells and tells you it's gold. It's not. It's gold-painted garbage that will rot and stink up your house and anything it touches.

GNU/Linux is built from the ground up to FREE YOU and let you do what you want with your computer; Microsoft Windows is kludged together from old parts never intended to work at all, let alone together, to make you a SLAVE to Microsoft and make you pay them an illegal TAX to use your own computer that you PAID FOR; they tried, (and for a long time were succeeding at,) making it impossible for you to get a computer that DIDN'T have their useless "operating system" on it, and which is and always has been a vector for computer virus, worm, Trojan and other malware infection and dissemination.

GNU/Linux is the future because it is maintained and developed by people whose motivation is that they want to use it and make it the best it can be.

Microsoft will ONLY continue to support and develop Windows as long as they think there's enough money in it for them to make it worth their time; as more and more people switch to REAL operating systems, the pool of people still trapped in the cycle of paying Microsoft over and over again for the same thing grows smaller, and as a result, each individual will bear a larger and larger, ever-growing proportion of the financial burden of maintaining an OS that by design will ALWAYS need maintenance, for that is the underpinning of Microsoft's theft ... er... business model.

Don't be a Microsoft sucker for even one more day. Start using the superior GNU/Linux operating system OF YOUR CHOICE TODAY, and choose FREEDOM over SLAVERY.

Re:MS Windows Users Should...

[Anonymous Coward]

Autocad and adobe suite would like a word with you. Linux is so grown up it doesn't like using the GPU for anything but crunching numbers.

Re:MS Windows Users Should...

[Pentium100]

Linux is great. I use it in my servers and in my desktop PC in the office. It works great, for desktop use LXDE does not take a lot of resources and looks good. KDE also looks good even though it uses more resources. I also am an admin for a lot of Linux servers and they all work great.

However, I also have problems with desktop Linux at home:
1. Most video games do not run on it (yes, there are Linux compatible games, but they are a subset of Windows-compatible games).
2. A lot of software I want to use (NI Multisim for example) does not run on Linux.
3. Mobile PCs (like my Viliv N5) have problems supporting Linux and I cannot exactly buy one that supports Linux, because there are very few options available and they all use some weird hardware that require special drivers. I am not that good a programmer to patch the kernel or write the drivers myself.

Because of these reasons I have to use Windows on my desktop PCs at home and even some servers.

Lets hope they fail.

[a_n_d_e_r_s]

Microsoft is pushing hard for Windows 10 to become the operating system of choice for everyone across the world

I wanna continue to run Linux.

Re:Lets hope they fail.

[Anonymous Coward]

That, and they're not pushing hard since most versions of Windows and most editions are not allowed to upgrade to 10. If they wanted us to run 10, they wouldn't block the upgrade.

MIcrosoft has a plan

[taustin]

to "convince" the hold-outs.

Anybody who knows Windows at all knows you have to periodically reinstall the operating system, and you really don't want to skip the security updates.

As best I can tell, it is now impossible to reinstall 32 bit Windows updates, because the first time you run it, the master list of all updates exceeds the maximum possible memory for 32 bit operating systems. It might still be possible to - slowly - get through it with automatic updates every night for a week, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Meanwhile, I just reinstalled 64 bit Windows on a box here at work. The first round of updates took three days to process the list, before I could even begin to actually install any updates.

So treasure your Win 7 installs, and take good care of them. If you bork it up, odds are, you won't be able to reinstall.

Re:MIcrosoft has a plan

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why you make a back up image of the clean and fully update install. this way it "should" be easier to update from that point then from a install with no updates.

Re:MIcrosoft has a plan

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody who knows Windows at all knows you have to periodically reinstall the operating system

Really? You must not be very good at Windows administration, then. I've been running the same installation of XP for 10 years now, I've done all sorts of things with it, and it's never 'borked up' so much that I couldn't find the problem and fix it. It runs just as well as it did when it was first installed. 'Reinstalling Windows' is a meme, and if you fell for it, then I say again: You're not very good at taking care of a computer. I sure hope that's not your primary job responsibility, because if it is then I pity your employer for all the wasted time and man-hours paid out to you when you're clearly not competent at your job. If you're just an end-user then you should be taking your computer to someone knowledgeable when it 'borks up', not try to do it yourself, because again: you're clearly not competent to be administering it if 'reinstall Windows' is your solution to problems.

Re:MIcrosoft has a plan

[AVryhof]

Get this, and keep it on your NAS.

https://support.microsoft.com/...

Re:MIcrosoft has a plan

[taustin]

Nice theory, but in reality, when you have 100+ computers, and the OS install isn't static, hardly practical.

Re:MIcrosoft has a plan

[taustin]

I have no troubles with my own computers, at home or at work. But when talking about an admin, you're talking about computers used by other people, hundreds of other people, in my case, many of whom are not the most computer literate in the world. You, of course, apparently have zero experience with being an admin, will suggest those people should be fired, proving you also have zero experience with business management, as well.

So, how's the burger flipping business these days?

Re:MIcrosoft has a plan

[taustin]

I'll take another look at it. I haven't have all that much success with convenience roll-ups in the past. I firmly believe this is intentional on Microsoft's part.

Firefox should cater for Long Term Support

[Anonymous Coward]

Firefox could get a niche by providing long term support for older operating systems by allowing legacy users to get the modren web experience.

"..improved substantially.."

[Rick Schumann]

Microsoft's Windows 10, however, already improved substantially since its launch in 2015..

'Improved' for the user, or have they just 'improved' their spyware/adware/malware/surveillance/privacy-invasion software? I'll never use it willingly until it's 100% free of all the above. I'd rather use some flavor of Linux, even if that means I lose access to some software and some functionality. Fascism is a real thing, and even a corporation can be Fascist in how they conduct themselves; this does not however mean that we end-users must put up with corporate Fascism.

Remove Telemetry and Forced Updates

[Anonymous Coward]

When they remove the majority of the telemetry and allow Windows Updates to function as they do in Win7 and previous, I'll gladly switch to Win10. Until then, they can fuck right off.

So early 2000s...

[Anonymous Coward]

They are also still running Firefox.

End Automatic Updates

[lorien420]

Windows 10 won't be popular until it stops restarting without asking users.

Malware is unacceptable

[WaffleMonster]

Win10 is not even on my radar. As long as it is loaded with malware and forced updates feature set is irrelevant.

Re:Malware is unacceptable

[cerberusss]

Win10 is not even on my radar. As long as it is loaded with malware and forced updates feature set is irrelevant.

I don't think the phoning home is ever going to stop. So I wonder what you are going to do when the security updates for Windows 7 finally stop.

Re:Malware is unacceptable

[Anonymous Coward]

Havnt updated my win 7 in at least a year.... security is fine... i don't rely on my OS to protect me, thats what front line security programs are for.

Re:Malware is unacceptable

[toddestan]

Anyone who doesn't want Microsoft's telemetry has already stopped updating Windows 7 (and 8.1) when Microsoft introduced the new update rollup system last October which made updates an all-or-nothing affair which meant you can no longer block the telemetry updates while still installing the security patches.

Common sense issues apply

[Targon]

There will always be people running old computers that should NOT run a new OS. Many, if not most of you don't remember when low end computers had 128MB or 256MB of RAM when Windows XP was first released. Needless to say, Windows XP was painfully slow for those who decided to pay to upgrade their computers to XP back in 2001-2002. When faced with "too little RAM" as the reason for the performance issues with XP, you had people who either stuck with Windows 98 or ME, or they upgraded their computers, either replacing them, or adding RAM.

Windows 10 feels a bit sluggish with less than 4GB of RAM, and that, or problems with a lack of drivers, will be good reasons to hold people back. Many didn't care for Windows 8 for a number of reasons, and some people don't realize that Windows 10 fixed many design issues introduced with Windows 8.

And then, of course, you have those who don't like Windows 10 for various issues, paranoid about security and what may be shared, and waiting to see if there will be fixes for the complaints they personally may have. There were also the initial problems that have scared people off, where they tried to upgrade to Windows 10 and something happened to break Windows for them in a way that wouldn't let them recover on their own.

Really, people? Windows?

[hackel]

It's 2016. Why is anyone still running *any* version of Windows outside of some backward, locked-down corporate environment? I know there are little gamer kiddies that are desperate for compatibility with their proprietary software, but outside of that, I honestly don't understand. I don't know anyone who uses Windows myself. The people I know who refuse to use some variant of Linux (including Chrome OS and Android, of course), all use Mac OS. I can only assume this is *still* due to Microsoft's unethical, monopolistic business practises that multiple lawsuits have still failed to put an end to. How much longer are we expected to put up with this?

windows 7 rules above the peasants and kings alike

[Anonymous Coward]

may it bathe in the blood of his many enemies forever!!!

at least you can turn it off

[Anonymous Coward]

at least you can turn it off

and they will kill htemselves when and if they disallow turning it off and they know it

Still ? ! ?

[Anonymous Coward]

>Still

As if that's a bad thing, or some newsworthy and shameful observation? You're damn right we're 'still' on Win 7. The better OS, get over it.

Re:Really, people? Windows?

[kimvette]

Why?
Because various gadgets' software often require Windows or a Mac to function. If they subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud, they'll be on Windows or a Mac (gimp is NOT a Photoshop replacement, and there is no F/OSS photo processing/lightroom software as good and easy to use as Lightroom). If they're into 3D gaming (3D Vision) they'll be running Windows. If they're running $GameNotOnSteam, they'll be running on Windows rather than mess with Linux + Crossover Office and find it doesn't work out of the box.

Re:Really, people? Windows?

[Pentium100]

1. Games (I may not be a "gamer", but I like to play games once in a while)
2. Windows-only software. I use Multisim for drawing circuit diagrams. It does not work on Linux.
3. Hardware compatibility. Find me a clamshell UMPC with x86 CPU (so I can use Wine) that completely supports Linux. I have a Viliv N5 with 1GB RAM and Windows XP (too little RAM for newer Windows). I tried installing Linux on it, but I could not get it to be stable.

Firefox users vs. Chrome users

[Tony Isaac]

Does this study say something about Firefox users, or does it say something about Windows users?

Maybe Firefox users are more likely to use Windows 7, but that doesn't mean that Chrome users are likewise inclined.

A person's browser choice says something about them.
- Edge - probably a person who doesn't know how to switch to a different browser, or doesn't know why one would want to.
- IE - probably a similar person, who is using an older computer.
- Firefox - probably more security-conscious than most
- Chrome - probably hooked into the Google ecosystem

Of course, this is not complete, and there are other reasons to pick a browser. But it seems like a leap to extrapolate a lack of Windows 10 adoption from the subset of users who use Firefox.

Yeah, but look at the bugs M$ ADMITS to...

[CAOgdin]

...notably excluding the one's they DON'T:
https://blogs.windows.com/wind...
Scroll down to "Known Issues."

Whatever happened to the concept of "testing" and "fixing" defects ("bugs") in code. Apparently, end-users are not as eager to be willing to be guinea pigs for untested code, not that they have to PAY for this kind of punishment.

Remember: If the product is claimed to be "Free," YOU are the product!

Windows 7 was the last great MS OS

[Anonymous Coward]

It has been all down hill after Windows peaked at version 7. Until there is a Windows 7 version 2, I will not be running other Microsoft Operating Systems. The spyware filled crap that is post 7 will not be on my machines. I deliberately blocked the MS installs of Telemetry, and have other preventative measures in place to block Telemetry. Microsoft failed their customer base miserably.

do any of these replys have anything to do

[Anonymous Coward]

whatsoever with what 99% of users do...which is upgrade when their computer breaks

that is all

Windows is a garbage operating system.

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't matter what version you use, its stability is secondary to the other two most popular contenders.

Re:Really, people? Windows?

[Anonymous Coward]

why
simply to irritate arrogant jerks like you who think they have the right to tell other people what they like
how would you like it if I told you only jerks *still* eat potato chips (or whatever your fav junk is) ???

as for our household...

[Anonymous Coward]

Only one machine stands against the tide of Linux installs... my dear wife's. It is infested with Zuckerscheize but the Sony Viao keeps running Windows 7 and Firefox. But of late, she has been asking for me to migrate her to a Linux, any Linux, anything BUT not that fanboi turd world of Windows 10. Zuckerschwein will likely be ringfenced inside a dedicated VM to keep the rest clean.

Maek Amerika Grate Agen!

Re:as for our household...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody cares about the ditch pig you married. Go roll her around in the flour and do your thing. The rest of us don't need to know about it.

shiny?

[mcswell]

But the funny thing is that Win7 is "shinier" than Win10. Do a web search for "Windows 10 ugly", for example. On another /. topic, I've said that if Windows was Indiana Jones, then Win7 would star Harrison Ford, and Win10 would star Lego actors.

Re:shiny?

[ConceptJunkie]

On another /. topic, I've said that if Windows was Indiana Jones, then Win7 would star Harrison Ford, and Win10 would star Lego actors.

From what I've heard the Lego movies are pretty entertaining, and I know the games are, if Windows was Indiana Jones, Windows 10 would nuke the fridge and have a third act that looks like watching someone else playing a video game.