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Surpassing Windows 7's Market Share For the First Time, Windows 10 Now the Most Popular Desktop OS From Microsoft (betanews.com)

Two and a half years after the company made it available to the general public, Windows 10 is now the most popular operating system from Microsoft, according to analytics firm StatCounter. From a report: Every month, StatCounter reports on the state of the desktop operating system market. Since October last year, the analyst company's figures have shown the gap between Windows 10 and Windows 7 narrowing. It looked as if the newer OS would overtake the older one in November, but that didn't happen, and it didn't happen in December either. However, in January, according to StatCounter, Windows 10 finally claimed the top spot. The latest figures show Windows 10 on 42.78 percent, up from 41.69 percent in December 2017. That's an increase of 1.09 percentage points.

19 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. ATMs by rexbinary · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did they count all the ATMs running WinXP???

    1. Re: ATMs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'd like to know how many people are using 10 because they can't find computers with 7.

    2. Re: ATMs by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Roughly 100% of them.

      (1% error margin)

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    3. Re: ATMs by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Being that windows 10 has been out for a Long time now, I am surprised how long Windows 7 held on for.
      Windows 10 being out for 2.5 years is a long time to take over an older version of Windows.
      However I expect there are some other factors involved.

      1. Lack of innovation on PC's. Having a PC that is now over 6 years old still runs plenty fast for most computing needs, even some modern popular PC Games will still work on older equipment. Back in the 1990's We would upgrade our PC every 4 years. in the 2000's it is every 6 years, now in the 2010s it seems to be at least 8 years. With the 4 year after a couple of years people will just get new systems with the new OS.

      2. Windows 8/10 Tablet interface. I am sorry, the new interface still hasn't got me sold. I am using a PC with a keyboard and a mouse, I do not need big touch friendly displays, taking up real estate. Or worse, blasting out to full screen for some other options. What is worse this interface is on the newest version of Windows Server. With the Search icon (A Circle with a line attached) is next to the power off icon (A Semi Circle with a Line). Granted we never had an accident with this yet. It is just really bad location for it. Windows 7 is still rather optimized for the desktop.

      3. The rise of mobile devices for computing. This means a lot of software has been designed for the slower specs of the mobile devices, Extending the lifespan of the computer.

      4. The Cloud, All the heavy processing is done off the computer and it has became a thin client.

       

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    4. Re: ATMs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I would also contend that "Popular" is not the same as "Widely used"

  2. Another Trump Victory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obama failed to make Windows 10 popular, but it was no problem for Trump! America is well on the way to greatness now!

    #MAGA

  3. most currently used != most popular by musikit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    see the title.

  4. I don't think you know the meaning of that word by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Popular" means that people WANT something. Not that they're basically forced to do it. Independent of the frequency an activity is done. Else you could say that working is a lot more popular than fucking.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Flogging is the most popular corporal punishment by sinij · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Win10 is the most popular OS in the same way as flogging is the most popular corporal punishment.

  6. "Popular" by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.

    By Microsoft's definition, Kim Yong-Un is popular too.

  7. Windows 8.1 ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can have my Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell when you stop assuming I want a fucking interface like a tablet when I have a multi-monitor system, take out your bullshit telemetry, and let me decide when I'll apply patches and reboot.

    Until then, Windows 10 can kiss my ass.

    My next Windows box will be purely a VM on a Linux machine.

  8. windows 10 is shit. by rogoshen1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If MS doesn't reverse course as far as making locked down, consumer unfriendly, annoying, intrusive, and just plain awful OS's; Windows 10 might be the start of their decline.

    Vista might have been terrible, but they took the experience from that, and made windows 7. Windows 8 and the metro clusterfuck was also bad, but 8.1 solved a lot of those complaints.

    10 is bad in a totally different way -- removing user choice and incessant spying. I don't see MS learning their lesson from this. Instead I see them doubling down on these efforts.

    Right now there's only really two compelling reasons to stick with windows -- office and gaming.

    It's a pretty precarious situation to be in. Sure enterprise will continue to buy windows PC's, but with hardware having been 'good enough' for office drone productivity going on a decade now; how many seats will that really sell per year? (and how frequently does that hardware even need to be refreshed?)

    As for games, that's a pretty niche market already. But a few AAA titles being fully released and supported on linux and/or mac might tip the balance a bit. (Or maybe if valve was more aggressive at pushing steamOS on developers?)

  9. Wait to miss the point: Linux isn't being used! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Way to miss the point. It doesn't matter if people are using Windows 7 or Windows 10. It doesn't matter how they got the version they're using. What matters is that they're still using some version of Windows! This also means that the vast majority of them aren't using Linux.

    Despite the Windows Vista, Windows 8 and to some extent the Windows 10 debacles, Linux managed to make pretty much no inroads into the desktop/laptop market. In fact, many long-time Linux users have found Linux to actually have gotten worse over the past decade, with disasters like systemd, GNOME 3, PulseAudio, NetworkManager, Wayland and Firefox seriously harming the Linux desktop experience.

    Although Linux has seen some success in server environments, we're starting to see more and more Linux installations being moved to OSes like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, and even Windows Server. What's worse, many organizations and professionals are choosing these alternate OSes for new deployments.

    We're also seeing Linux falter in the embedded space. Organizations and professionals are now starting to go with OSes like NetBSD and QNX for embedded environments.

    What's most worrying for Linux is how well Google Fuchsia is coming along. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it become a top-tier platform within the next 5 to 10 years, replacing Android on mobile devices, replacing Linux for at least some server use cases, and severely challenging Windows and macOS on desktops and laptops. Before you say "that's impossible!", keep in mind that we've just seen Google already do this with Chrome. They managed to replace IE and Firefox within a few years, and now Chrome dominates both the desktop and mobile platforms.

    The future of Linux is looking extraordinarily bleak. The Linux community failed to capitalize on multiple releases of Windows that were widely disliked. Systemd has caused reliability problems that have caused many professionals to no longer consider Linux a suitable server or embedded OS. Now we're even seeing some of its most notable and powerful corporate supporters coming up with alternatives to Linux that would directly compete with Linux.

    The worst part is that it didn't need to be this way. Linux had everything going for it by 2005. It was just about to break through on numerous fronts. And then it all collapsed so spectacularly!

    1. Re:Wait to miss the point: Linux isn't being used! by smooth+wombat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nor can Linux do photo manipulation with the software out there. Sure, Gimp can be used to a limited extent, but for real work you need Photoshop or Capture One Pro.

      Then there are the other photo software, such as stacking for macro, which runs on either Windows or Mac, but not any version of Linux.

      If you do any serious photo work you're stuck with either the overpriced, underperformance, non-upgradable Macs, or the reasonably priced but invasive Windows.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  10. Re:IE on the other hand ... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Insightful
    When IE had this level of dominance, all the Microsoft shills were saying, "it is the most popular browser, that is why it has so many people attacking it. If any other browser is this popular, it too will be attacked this much.".

    True, Chrome has its share of vulnerabilities today. But is it as bad as IE was in its hay days, despite attackers being a lot more sophisticated now? Despite the core of Chrome has disclosed the source code through the Chromium project?

    Leaving anecdotal evidence aside, if you take a global big picture two things are clear. 1. Microsoft code has a lot more vulnerabilities than others. 2. Open source projects with lots of following are more secure than proprietary software.

    --
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  11. Re:IE on the other hand ... by sinij · · Score: 3, Informative

    Worse, when everyone ragged on MS for IE dominance, MS was just an OS and Doc Editor company. Today, when Chrome is dominant, Google is data gathering and aggregation company. It boggles my mind that everyone willingly leaks so much private information to Google by using their browser. Gmail + Chrome = they know everything about you.

  12. OS Share overall by sqorbit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Interesting : http://gs.statcounter.com/os-m... That link shows total market share for all OS, Windows 10 fell behind Android at the same time Windows 10 surpassed 7. It might show a bit of users switch from Windows 7 devices to Chromebooks or other Android devices and not simply upgrading to 10.

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    Sent from my TARDIS
  13. I wouldn't call it popular... by thedarb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Windows 7 was still available for purchase, and didn't try to auto-upgrade itself to windows 10, I'm sure Windows 7 would still be winning.

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  14. 1040 Tax forms by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These announcements that Windows (fill in the blank) is now the most popular OS is pretty much the same as announcing that the Form 1040 is now the most popular government form. Especially when it's compared to other Windows OSs.

    When you can't buy a "Windows" computer with any other OS than 10, what do you expect?

    What they are really saying is that Windows 7 computers have failed or been replace enough times that more now use the only OS you can buy for a "Windows" computer.

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