Slashdot Mirror


Windows 10 Continues To Close in On Windows 7 (betanews.com)

An anonymous reader writes: NetMarketShare reports on the state of the desktop operating system market on the first day of each month. [...] In July, [the market share of] Windows 10 went from 35.71 percent to 36.58 percent, an increase of 0.87 percentage points. That's down from the 0.97 percentage points it grew in June, but shows that the OS is still packing on share at a steady rate. In July, Windows 7 lost 0.51 percentage points and now sits on 41.23 percent, just 4.65 percentage points ahead of the newer OS.

6 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Upgrades. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Being that PC's are being sold at a higher rate for the first time in a while, We can expect to see Windows 10 market share to go up.

    As much as we want to Hate on Windows 10... Microsoft Windows Sales have been tied to General PC Sales. The length of Windows 7 in the market is mostly due to the fact that Windows 7 PC's have been the primary computers for people for many years, and now these systems are start to show their age and become out of date. Back before Windows 7 the Average Live Span for a PC was 4-6 years now it is 6-10 years. Thanks mostly in part to Mobile devices that forced OS makers and software designers to focus more on lower end systems. So That 2008 Windows 7 PC, for most people would be finally really showing its age. 4Gigs of Ram is getting tight, and that Duel Core is quite quaint. So people get a new computer and they Get Windows 10 on it.

    Previous to Windows 7 That 2002 PC in 2008 would be really showing its age. and that 1998 vs 2002 PC would show age too.

    The Slow increase of Windows 10, is just because PC Sales have been slow too.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Oh well by oldgraybeard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is as expected. Microsoft per their marketing plan will force as many as they can on to Windows 10. Up to this point I have resisted and still run Windows 7 Pro on my Windows workstations. Not sure I will ever go for Windows 10. Or just phase Windows workstations out and stick to my Linux and Mac workstations. I stopped doing Windows development work over 10 years ago anyway. And just keep 1 Windows 7 Pro workstation at my office and one in my home office now.

    One thing I do know "I will never use a DaaS workstation for any of my development work or to run my business". Heck, I don't even use any cloud based apps for any real work.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

  3. Re:Spyware... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Run Tronscript after updates. It removes Windows 7 telemetry updates automagically.

  4. Re:Exact opposite interpretation by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder why Mac and Linux tend to stay up to date, while Windows users have to be dragged forward.

    In don't presume to speak to Apple, but there are several reasons for Linux. Linux users pull updates at a time their choosing, it's nice to be in control.

    The update experience is much smoother for Linux, I typically don't even log out. Sometimes Firefox needs to be restarted, which is crappy design, but that's about it. Upgrading libraries while in use is a bedrock part of Linux, it just works except in extremely rare situations like libc's nscd, normally used only in enterprise, which got a disruptive incompatible protocol change more than 10 years back. And 10 years even further back there was the c++ ABI thing. And 5 years before that there was the libc thing. In recent years, roughly zero serious issues. The normal situation is, upgraded services (optionally) restart without issue. So upgrading nearly always just works, even with a massive number of changes. Did I say, I normally don't even log out? Certainly, you normally don't reboot a Linux server on update, that's really key to server uptime.

    Linux users are more clueful than Windows users. Serious security events in Linux that require immediate update are few and far between. Linux users tend to hear about them in the news or other channels and update immediately. No waiting for Patch Tuesday. In short, Linux users tend to know when an update is truly needed. This drastically reduces the amount of updating. Even if you miss out on a major security update it's not that big a deal because even the worst Linux wholes are seldom really bad. If you aren't hosting random unknown users or intentionally trying to run as much malware as you can, you chances of getting owned by even the worst of them are really slim. (I'm not saying don't update, mind you, I'm just saying that even the scary sounding ones mostly don't apply to you.)

    Linux changes are normally not disruptive. For the most part, open source devs are on your side and they put a whole lot of effort into not breaking things that you have come to depend on. This breaks occasionally, like KDE 4 or Gnome 3, but the blowback from those was severe, project devs learned from it, and its highly unlikely to be repeated. Usually what you see is, Linux interfaces including GUIs change slowly and logically, mostly by adding new functionality that users appreciate. Seldom by taking things away, well, except for Gnome, but even there it's kind of a force for good, it moves users to the much better designed KDE and supportable.

    Linux updates are really fast usually don't impact the running system at all. I noticed, a Mac update tends to take an hour or more and the machine shuts itself down for the entire time. And they are pushy: "update now or wait till tonight?". Not as bad as Windows, but bad. The idea of shutting down the workstation to update is just unacceptable to a Linux user, we just don't need to. I mean, you can if you want, but I never do. The technical term is "life in paradise".

    Linux updating is generally so pleasant that everybody wants to do it, especially when a major new release lands. You do it because you want to, not because you have to. You do it when you want to, not when somebody wants you to. That's the way it should be.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  5. Steam survey by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Steam Hardware & Software Survey:


    Windows 10 64 bit .... 57.03%
    Windows 7 64 bit ..... 32.38%
    Windows 8.1 64 bit ... 4.05%
    Windows 7 ............ 1.93%

    all other version of Windows are <1% (8 64-bit, 10 32-bit, 8.1 32-bit, XP)
    all versions of Linux combined are <1%
    all versions of MacOS X combined is 2.93%

    Conclusion: Windows 10 has been a big deal for quite some time, at least in gaming.

    This is all unfortunate news for me because long ago (~5 years) I had decided that Win7 is the last version I will use in my home. So convinced of this I bought a 5-pack of builder licenses to cover any future systems I build. It seemed reasonable because for creative work Linux happens to meet my needs. For gaming I had high hopes that Steam OS or Android TV or something would have taken hold. I'm not really a consoles guy, so I may have to adapt to running Spyware-from-Redmond, or limit myself to 10 year old games.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Steam survey by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Some of the *sole* reasons gamers are running Windows 10:

      * Typical MS bullshit about not supporting DirectX 12 on Windows 7, They did the same shit when they tried to force gamers to migrate from XP to Vista via DirectX 10.
      * MS artificially not supporting newer CPUs even though AMD officially has drivers for Threadripper

      Ask gamers to tell you ANY _new_ features that are DirectX 12 only and not available in DirectX 10? You'll get *crickets.* Gamers don't fucking care. They just want to play the latest shiny.

      They obviously don't care about Windows Spyware

      How many of those running Windows 10 were forced upgrades?

      ---
      Only children censor.
      Adults discuss, and even laugh about "taboo" subjects.