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Microsoft Reaches 800 Million Windows 10 Devices (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the further-expansion dept.

Microsoft's Windows 10 is getting bigger. The operating system for desktop PCs, internet-connected devices and other systems is now running on more than 800 million devices. From a report: The total is up from 700 million as of September last year, and it suggests that the newest rendition of Windows could now be the most widely deployed version of Windows, ahead of Windows 7 and other versions. Although Microsoft -- the most valuable publicly traded company in the world -- has shifted to focus more on cloud and third-party platforms under CEO Satya Nadella, Windows is still a key element of the company, contributing almost 15 percent of total revenue in the fourth quarter. It's also a notable contributor of operating income, as former CEO Steve Ballmer pointed out last year.

17 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong Headline by Hydrian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shouldn't it say Microsoft Windows compromises 800 million devices? :-D

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    No good deed goes unpunished.
    1. Re:Wrong Headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Shouldn't it say Microsoft Windows compromises 800 million devices? :-D

      I retired my last Windows 7 laptop. No more. Not for everybody, but I'm quite content being Windows free (at home).

    2. Re: Wrong Headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "How did they get so many installs?" Unwitting 7 users stepped away from their computers during Windows Updates. Those not fooled by round 1 got it again every month on Tuesday for half a year. Old people are easy to trick!

    3. Re:Wrong Headline by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      From the number above, it seems like they were 100 million new PC's sold.

      I know my workplace is upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 soon. But for the most part Windows Sales are from it being the default OS in Most PC's which are sold. For most vendors which still offer a Windows 7 "downgrade" option. Not too many people will choose this, unless they are solid reasons to do such.

      Also being that Windows 10 is now on a constant upgrade cycle, this means we are going to be stuck with Windows 10 for a while, and in general inflate Microsofts numbers.

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      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re: Wrong Headline by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 2, Funny

      But flies swarm around a turd.

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      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    5. Re:Wrong Headline by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably. But there are far too many people with Stockholm Syndrome where Windows is concerned.

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      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re: Wrong Headline by reboot246 · · Score: 2

      Not all old people are so easy to fool. I'm 66 now and I didn't get fooled into installing Win 10. Don't paint with such a broad brush. There are a lot of people over 60 who know more than you do.

      In fact, my guess is that most of the Win 7 users who were tricked were between 20 and 40. Lots of younger people use computers, but only a few actually know how they work.

    7. Re:Wrong Headline by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      There are plenty of solid reasons to downgrade.

      Among them: (1) Windows 10 is generally just awful. And (2) it's dog slow compared to 7. Personally I see no benefit to 10 over 7, except that new software is designed to use it. And 7 performs much better.

  2. We need more finely grained stats... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Like how many of them meant to install it in the first place and wouldn't just continue with 7 until 2038, given the choice and not forced into the fire from the frying pan...

  3. The big Windows 7 EOL push is coming. by xack · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If Microsoft was smart they would make LTSC avaliable to the masses to replace their Windows 7 fleets. But Microsoft will probably let hundreds of millons of Windows 7 machines flounder and we will see more wannacrys instead.

    1. Re:The big Windows 7 EOL push is coming. by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Informative

      If Microsoft was smart they would make LTSC avaliable to the masses to replace their Windows 7 fleets. But Microsoft will probably let hundreds of millons of Windows 7 machines flounder and we will see more wannacrys instead.

      Ransomware is installed by end users just as easily on Windows 10 as it is on Windows 7.

    2. Re:The big Windows 7 EOL push is coming. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Releasing LTSC to the general public would be the right thing to do. Not releasing it unfortunately is the smart (=money making) thing to do.
      The only goal of all the crap going on with Windows 10 is to create a walled garden, like Android/iOS, combined with a Facebook/Google-style surveillance technology, in the hope they can bind their cattle^H^H^H^H^H^Husers and milk them out.

    3. Re:The big Windows 7 EOL push is coming. by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Factually incorrect as every Win10 box comes with a decent AV installed and running by default

      Every Windows 7 box post Service Pack 1 has the same default settings for AV as Windows 10. It will monitor that an AV solution is installed. It will default to an enabled windows defender if no other option is running on the system, and it will alert you, annoy you and bug you unless you specifically disable that alert if no AV solution is present. Completely identical to Windows 10.

  4. Will have to move to that trash as well by gweihir · · Score: 2

    Since I play games and no, Linux is not (yet) a real alternative. But I will be using a gaming only Win10 installation, no email, no browsing, no nothing else that the creeps in Redmond can spy on. For everything else, I already have a nice Linux box and a KVM-switch.

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    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Will have to move to that trash as well by Shikaku · · Score: 2

      Check out Proton, it's working, it's done for you and it's Wine on Steam. https://www.protondb.com/ Another list with supported games straight from the Steam store: https://store.steampowered.com...

    2. Re: Will have to move to that trash as well by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Sorry, I do not have any interest in crusades like that. Both Vulcan and mobile gaming will pretty much ensure Linux gaming in a few years. As soon as most engines support it there really is no good reason to not have a native Linux release anymore. Quite a few indie-games that already include Linux as a platform demonstrate that support is not an obstacle, and hence even a small percentage of additional sales will make this worthwhile. And unlike Windows, which seems to have started a downward spiral with Win10, Linux is not degrading, even with the occasional stupidity like systemd.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  5. But how many are voluntary? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

    How many of those 800,000,000 were voluntary installations or upgrades? How many were installed at the factory and the end-user either didn't care or didn't know they could change it? How many were forced upgrades that the end-user either didn't really understand what happened, didn't know they could revert back to the version they had, or didn't know they had a choice at all? And, last but not least, how many of those 800,000,000 are outright lies, Miscreant-o-soft inflating the figure to make it sound better than it actually is?

    Just on guts I'd say the real number, taking all the above into account, is less than half. Maybe even less than a third.