back to article Crack open more champagne, Satya, XP's snowballing to HELL

It's not often a company would celebrate losing 43 per cent of its users in two months, but Microsoft is probably chuffed that is the fate of Windows XP in October and November. So says Netmarketshare, one of two analysts whose monthly operating system market share data we trakc. The other, Statcounter, found that XP fell …

  1. John Tserkezis

    "It's not often a vendor would celebrate losing 43 per cent of its users in two months, but Microsoft is probably chuffed that's the fate of Windows XP in October and November."

    Microsoft killed XP, and it only took them 13 years to do it.

    Unless Microsoft can pull a rabit out of its hat with Win10, I expect it'll take them another 13 years to kill win7 too.

    1. Michael Habel

      Unless Microsoft can pull a rabit out of its hat with Win10, I expect it'll take them another 13 years to kill win7 too.

      Perhaps... Perhaps, not... If Windows 10 likely is a Dog, then I'll just jump that sinking Ship like the Rat I'am, and move on to something Minty Fresh. Which is where I should be.. Just to lazy to backup my W764 HDD to nuke it, for Mint Linux right now.

      But, my best take on it is that Windows 10 (or is that WinX?!), will be an OS looking for a home. As I'll probably be ditching this crappy PC for something more IoT inspired. Something with enough ommph to run a Web Browser, and perhaps LibreOffice. on an Octi-Core ARM Processer that only eats a micro-fraction of what this Beige Box is currently doing now.

      Games?? I've heard of 'em... Thats what we have the PS4, and XBOne(ers) for....

      1. Gordan

        I will be retiring my XP x64 Steam bootloader soon, since Steam and all the games I play (Left4Dead 2, Borderlands series, and Planetary Annihilation) all have native Linux ports.

        So yes, people are abandoning XP, but I suspect a significant fraction are abandoning it for non-Windows OS-es. For Gamers Linux is now a viable option, and for non-gaming users I have observed a dramatic shift to Macbooks over the past 3 years. Whereas before there was a sprawl of cheap HP and Dell desktops running Windows in offices, it is increasingly common to see iMacs and Macbooks in their place.

        Sadly, there is no Steam for ARM at the moment, but it is only a matter of time before that happens. Now that they have most of the important stuff ported to Linux it will be trivial to rebuild it for ARM.

    2. Roger Mew

      Hmph

      The reason for this is that if you try and upgrade your computer you will find that you cannot! The reason is that new MoBos are designed ONLY to work on 7, 8 or 8.1. That means you are essential phucked.

      You have bought your new mobo, installed the processor and then go to install your existing (stuff MS saying you should not use it, but hey its my machine and my MoBo needs replacing and so does my processor to speed it up!) But you cannot, you will find that new boards will not work on Vista (which personally I like). In fact had I have known that this Gigabyte board I have got then I would not have bothered and just looked for a faster processor for my old board.

      So if you want to go faster do be prepared for a shock, mine has cost about £400 for all I wanted was an upgrade. I still will not have all my stuff on it! EG Office. However I shall get free office. You cannot keep taking the p1ss. Further, the 8.1 will not play music, you have to get pro.

      Frankly I am now starting to see what I can do to avoid this MS fraud situation.

      Pro OEM £116, PSU (old one not compat) £50, MoBo and processor £200, and now £120 for pro, and god knows what for other stuff. It seems I now need things like Nero (again) and loads of other things.

      1. Interceptor

        Re: Hmph

        Yeah! And where's the floppy connector on those new motherboards? And the Serial keyboard jack! Hmph!

        /sarc

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Windows 10, even in preview, is very good.

      1. Interceptor

        As I've been saying, "10 is the next 7" :)

  2. chivo243 Silver badge

    Stats misleading?

    I wonder how many people still have XP installed, but are not using it as much. I have an XP box in the office, but I have blocked it - no accessing the interwebs for XP.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      IT Angle

      Re: Stats misleading?

      The XP machines here are all present and accounted for, it's just the thing they handled are being done on the Kindles and other Androids. (I have a couple VM'S, but those don't see the net.) What I'd be really interested to see is a complete breakdown across all devices but that's still only capturing browser identification (and depends on "real" user-agent data).

      In many ways, econometrics is easier than trying to correctly collect and analyze IT data. (Fraught with error comes to mind.)

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Stats misleading?

      Agree there is something not right about the stat's. There is a significant increase in the number of Win8 systems, which given you can't buy Win8 and WUP will auto-update it to 8.1 is a little surprising.

      Even so the big increase is with Win7 and not with either Win8 or 8.1, but even this seems to be insufficient to account for all of the fall in XP. Win8/8.1 will only begin to truely gain ground on Win7 once Win7 goes off sale, which currently is looking like sometime in 2016.

  3. Khaptain Silver badge

    W7 is the winner

    So Windows 7 is actually the real winner with a more than a 3 point increase. Win8 is obviously only being "installed" throught the pruchase of preinstalled machines..

    Microsoft wins regardless but it does show the confidence that business has with MS at the moment.

    MS cannot continue for ever with this MO, I am not convinved that Satya is the man to take them out of this situation though.. Satya is more of a puppet figure, he will please the shareholders for a short time but they will soon become bored and want some real action to take place.

    It will take a major visionary to change things, definately not a Steve Ballmer or a Tim Cook , more of a someone with the business acumen of Bill Gates, a squeezing of Jony Ive and the balls of Rocco Siffredi.

    1. James O'Shea

      Re: W7 is the winner

      " the balls of Rocco Siffredi"

      Does that make their customer base, ah, Kelly Stafford?

  4. Roger B

    Win 10?

    Our final XP machine at work had the Windows 10 Beta put on it, but nothing about that in the figures table?

  5. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Meaningless statement by useless stats mangler - film at 11

    So what's gonna happen in January when support for Win7 ends

    1. richardcox13
      Stop

      Re: Meaningless statement by useless stats mangler - film at 11

      You'll continue getting support.

      Because it does not end in January, only "mainstream support" (ie. new features being added) ends in January, Bug fixing and security patching go on until "extended support" ends in 2020.

      But then I expect you know that. Troll.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Meaningless statement by useless stats mangler - film at 11

        I am glad to hear that.

        But next you will be telling me that trolling and the sad reality about anything "Microsoft" can actually be distinguished in a finite amount of time?

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
          Trollface

          Re: Meaningless statement by useless stats mangler - film at 11

          Hah! Downvotes from Microsoft grass rooters don't faze me. Give it up.

          1. James O'Shea

            Re: Meaningless statement by useless stats mangler - film at 11

            I just downvoted you.

            1 I don't own a Surface

            2 i don't own a WinPhone (and haven't owned one since I got rid of my old Samsung Omni WinPhone 6 junkpile. and never will buy a WinPhone ever again, thanks to that thing.)

            3 I am not particularly fond of Mickeysoft.

            4 there are other reasons why you might get downvotes. Perhaps you can think of a few, if you try.

            1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
              Holmes

              Re: Meaningless statement by useless stats mangler - film at 11

              > Perhaps you can think of a few, if you try.

              Deranged people who for some reason feel the pressing need to loudly declare their non-allegiance to Microsoft come to mind.

  6. MJI Silver badge

    My XP

    Thinks it is XP POS version support for a few more years.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: My XP

      I do hope you won't be forced to upgrade to Windows 8.1 POS version.

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: My XP

        No, got a dual boot into Mint Cinnamon for that

  7. DropBear

    Hmmm....

    I find those numbers fishy. I don't know what's wrong with them, but I'm pretty sure not even a Snowden announcement that every XP talks directly to NSA HQ daily would have been able to effect that sort of change in the numbers...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmmm....

      Maybe not. One of our division was finally force upgraded from XP after a major hack. Throw in Target, Home Depot, et al. upgrading their POS systems and maybe you get that kind of shift.

    2. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: Hmmm....

      It's not *that* implausible. Let's assume that all the Server 2003 patches issued since April have been present in XP. Let's further assume that it takes the bad guys a month or two to weaponise a patch. That means there will have been a rise in malware targetting XP since mid-summer. As machines finally tumble, their owners discover that support options are limited and eventually they bite the bullet, open their wallets, and spring for a shiny new Win7 box, or Mac, or Chromebook.

  8. Paul Herber Silver badge

    Linux Mint runs quite nicely on my old Win XP machines.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Run's fine on my wife's G4 iBook as well.

      1. Jess

        Run's fine on my wife's G4 iBook as well.

        Is that a supported version? If so, can you supply a link? (Assuming it will also work on a G5)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Run's fine on my wife's G4 iBook as well.

          If so, can you supply a link?

          Start from http://mintppc.org/

          1. Jess

            Start from http://mintppc.org/

            Thanks, but Mint 11 dropped out of support well over two years ago, so I don't see any advantage over Leopard (which has current versions of Firefox and Thunderbird)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And?

      Windows XP runs quite nicely on my old Win XP machines.

      Your point is?????

      1. James O'Shea

        Re: And?

        it still works.

        Assuming, that is, that it can accurately be said that any machine running XP is actually 'working'. The jury's still out on that.

        And I'm not too sure about how well Mint 'works' on old XP hardware, either. On the other hand, Mint may very well work quite well on a G4. I have two ancient eMacs, fitted with G4s, which haven't been booted in about two years. Anyone who wants to try to put Mint on 'em is invited to come and haul 'em away, right now they're paperweights. (Literally.)

        1. Chemist

          Re: And?

          "And I'm not too sure about how well Mint 'works' on old XP hardware"

          Well I've got an old IBM/Lenovo laptop from ~ 2006 with a Celeron M which was donated to me after a Windows XP update borked it and the owner couldn't be bothered to sort it. OpenSUSE installed fine on it and is now on 13.1. Wouldn't ask too much of it as it only has 1GB and a wimpy processor but it's fine for traveling.

        2. Eion MacDonald

          Re: And?

          OpenSUSE13.2 works well on Old Dell (Circa 2004) originally XP 1Gb RAM< Browsing email Libre Office.

  9. Gray
    Windows

    It's a silly assumption

    for them to think that XP dropping off the chart is a switch to another MS product. I can account for two desktop and several more laptop XP installs that are still working just fine, but not allowed to touch the net. Even with old hardware, it's a no-brainer to dual-boot a Linux install to run browser and email apps. And all the other familiar XP apps keep on keepin' on, being productive. That's just one example; there must be many more.

    Too bad for MS: if they had extended support and allowed new installs of W7 at a reasonable price, they'd have preserved a much happier home market. But all they've accomplished is to hasten the stampede to fondle slabs and pocket pods. And Linux. And Apple. Anything but Windows.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    XP machines are being switched off for good...

    But they aren't all being replaced by 7 or 8... Android is proving surprisingly useful and cheap at replacing some old Windows XP laptops out in the field... Mind you they aren't running the dreaded lollipop yet!

  11. Javapapa

    Expect a spike up in December

    When all the students come home and surf the net on their parents' XP desktops.

  12. Tom 13
    FAIL

    Nice try on the positive spin, but... See icon

    First up, Win 8.1 hasn't exceeded XP, only Win8 + Win8.1. And while on some level that's a valid comparison, the two combined barely exceed an OS that is supposedly long dead.

    Next up we have this little nugget at the end of the article:

    At about US$100 per machine, that's a lot of new Surfaces and perhaps the moment the worm began to turn for Windows 8.1

    Now, maybe I just didn't look in the right place, but the last time I bought a copy of Windows to install on a just built PC, prices were running around $95 to $179 depending on what you bought. Seems to me the profit margin on that was a lot higher than on a piece of hardware that includes a license.

  13. Pookietoo
    Linux

    Where did the XP users go?

    I expect a significant number are now running some sort of Linux.

    1. Eion MacDonald

      Re: Where did the XP users go?

      Where an installed for paid software ONLY runs on Win XP, we have dual booted to Linux for 'downloads, email, normal browsing', and run XP disconnected from internet. Not the best solution, but company supplying software went out of business years ago with regard to that product. (I think the company was called M..S...). . I think thus many XP boxes working, invisible to MS or others.

  14. CJ_in_AZ

    As I type this on my XP machine, I'm debating on whether to get a MacBook (with my limited $). I've got several Linux boxes I also use. BTW, I say "touchy-feely is for girlfriends, not computers".

  15. Brian Allan 1

    Statistics...

    Statistics can be used to show almost anything you wish to "prove"...

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still running XP here...

    I keep all the software I use updated, including realtime a virus app, never log in with admin rights and sit behind a comprehensive firewall.

    Are there any known critical vulnerabilities to the OS itself that could take me down, despite my precautions?

    1. Gordan

      Re: Still running XP here...

      It is plausible that something may sneak past your defences, but the good news is that 2K3 server patches do work on XP. Or at least they do on XP x64, I don't have 32-bit XP so haven't tried it.

      Using 2K3 patches will only keep you going until July next year, but at least that's that's another 8 months you don't have to worry about.

  17. boba1l0s2k9

    Vista

    You've got to feel a little sorry for those Vista users. XP, sure, W7 okay. W8.1 I guess....but Vista? Kill it with fire! Reminds me of Windows ME, and CE.

    1. Eion MacDonald

      Re: Vista

      Has MS given a cheap upgrade to Win7 to Vista and Win XP users, theywould have kept the market.

  18. nobodie

    I still have students coming from China with MacBooks that they have dumped OSX and installed Windows XP:Pirate edition (One of the Russian pirates because they are "the best.") and I am not sure if they make it into the stats.

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