back to article Windows 10 claimed another point of desktop share in February

Windows 10 is still growing, but its rate of growth has flattened to about one per cent of market share per month. El Reg makes that assertion on the basis of our monthly look at three sources of data: the ratings firms Netmarketshare and StatCounter, plus the US government's analytics dump of 90 days of windows-sourced …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Windows 7 is most-used OS then

    Windows 1 0 is slowly taking from 7, but Vista and XP are neck-to-neck at the bottom of the race. 8 is all coked up in disappointment and going nowhere fast.

    If that continues, then 1 0 might actually overtake 7 by the time it is EOL'd. That would be fun to watch.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Windows 7 is most-used OS then

      Whats with the 1<SPACE>0 thing? Is that meant to mean something? A meme you picked up on a snarky site somewhere?

  2. Timmy B

    Whaaatt?

    That's an odd way of looking at it. Just traffic to US government web sites? Not really a lot of interest to the rest of the world. Also the drops seem to be roughly the same across all versions of Windows with 7 having possibly the largest drop. Seems like a bit of a non-story really.

    1. Paul Shirley

      Re: Whaaatt?

      Can only work with the available data. If there an equivalent covering more of the world I'm sure the vulture want to know. I'd like to see a few more tends yanked out of it, like the Windows (all versions) share trend, currently only 52%.

      1. Timmy B

        Re: Whaaatt?

        Sorry but that doesn't work. If the only available data was for internet activity going into and out of my house then it would all be Windows 10. But just my house isn't a sensible measure to use so anybody using it would be daft. GIGO.........

      2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Whaaatt?

        If there an equivalent covering more of the world I'm sure the vulture want to know.

        What? You mean like Akamai's Internet Observatory?

        Mentioned it several times to no effect. Probably because you can't just cut & paste the data into a spreadsheet.

    2. Naselus

      Re: Whaaatt?

      "That's an odd way of looking at it. Just traffic to US government web sites?"

      That would be a very odd way of looking at it, which is why they take the data from 3 separate sources for the bigger picture. Netmarketshare and statscounter use different methodologies. The .gov visits is basically just an anecdotal trend watching thing.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Whaaatt?

        It would be interesting to see if US gov website traffic profile also shows up in the detailed (and unpublished) Netmarketshare and statscounter data.

  3. AMBxx Silver badge
    Windows

    Windows Server?

    Anyone know why Server 2003 is included, but not the more recent releases? Do they masquerade as a desktop OS, or is the data so limited, that one hobbyist has entered the stats on his own?

    1. Halfmad

      Re: Windows Server?

      Probably as 2003 is EOL already isn't it? Doesn't really make sense when not including Server 2008 etc though.

      1. tsf

        Re: Windows Server?

        Probably XP64, not actually windows server 2003

    2. Naselus

      Re: Windows Server?

      Think it's an element of 'jesus christ, look how many people are still using a defunct OS that's older than some high school kids'

    3. Adam Inistrator

      Re: Windows Server?

      "Anyone know why Server 2003 is included, but not the more recent releases? Do they masquerade as a desktop OS, or is the data so limited, that one hobbyist has entered the stats on his own?"

      because IE's "user agent" string identifies itself as running on 2003 but running on server 2008 and Vista cannot be distinguished ... so the Vista numbers will be including Server 2008.

      I guess the vertical axis is labelled wrong. It should be market share FRACTION, not percentage

  4. bombastic bob Silver badge

    How's that "GWX shoving" working out, Microsoft?

    It wasn't that long ago that Microsoft re-classified their GWX update KB3035583 as "Important" and made it show up AGAIN in my Windows Update list o' things I need to approve before installing. I had to mark it "Hidden" *YET* *AGAIN*.

    Pushy Pushy Microsoft, SHOVING Windows 10 up/into/down whatever orifice they can find, and yet... only a 1% growth in the last month?

    So, how's that FORCE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT or UP SOMEPLACE ELSE policy working out, there, Microsoft? I'd say it's *NOT* !!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How's that "GWX shoving" working out, Microsoft?

      So you're saying that Windows 10 would have a bigger marketshare by now if there was no GWX. What the hell have you been smoking / injecting?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How's that "GWX shoving" working out, Microsoft?

        Well, judging by the downvotes people actually believe that without the GWX updater Windows 10 would have a bigger marketshare by now.

        Some of you guys are pretty deranged or really think that downvoting that post really makes it untrue. Really sad.

      2. Pompous Git Silver badge

        Re: How's that "GWX shoving" working out, Microsoft?

        So you're saying that Windows 10 would have a bigger marketshare by now if there was no GWX. What the hell have you been smoking / injecting?

        Certainly true in the Git's household. I had no machines running Linux prior to MS using up all of my mobile data and most of my FW data to push seven redundant copies of W10 onto my four W7 machines.

        Now there are three machines running Cinnamon Mint and shortly there will be four as Mrs Git has announced that she too would prefer Linux to the W7 that hitherto she was more than happy with. It's entirely conceivable that if the bugs that prevented W10 from being usable have been let out since last winter that some of those four machines would be running W10.

        I suspect that it's you who have been smoking/injecting nefarious substances.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: How's that "GWX shoving" working out, Microsoft? @Git

          True for you then.

          For the general public -- non-tech people who'll never venture into this website -- GWX has most likely just updated their computers.

          I use Linux as well, but I have no problem accepting that the GWX system has updated plenty of people into W10 whether they wanted it or not, or whether they even liked the upgrade or not.

          I myself hate the GWX system in its current incarnation because of the sly methods and the background data usage you mentioned.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: How's that "GWX shoving" working out, Microsoft?

          Hey! Gather round everybody. Another "we've left windows for Linux" story on the register!

          a) no-one cares

          b) this is hardly representative of the real world, or win10 wouldn't gain more share per month than Linux (desktop) has gained ever

          c) no-one cares

  5. Dwarf

    Forced upgrades distort stats

    Given that the way this has been done is via a forced upgrade, then it follows that he easy ones have already been "upgraded" *, so the adoption rate will presumably drop off sharply as people flee to other vendors offerings or dig in with the OS versions that they are happy with / need

    * if you believe that 10 is actually an upgrade

    1. Timmy B

      Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

      It is NOT a forced upgrade. If somebody asks you if you want some free cake then it's not forced cake. You don't have to take it. Equally is somebody offers to punch you in the face for free it's not a forced beating. You can reject it.

      Every time somebody says this I ask for a concrete example of somebody having Windows 10 installed without their permission. It may be permission out of stupidity - clicking on a button where you don't read the details - but that's still permission.

      <sigh>

      1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        clicking on a button where you don't read the details

        That would be the button that says "click here to upgrade", where there is no button that says "No, thanks" ? Sure, if you know enough to realise that closing the window acts as "not now, nag me again later" you could argue that it's not forced, but without a "Just STFU and leave me alone" button it most certainly does seem like a forced upgrade to must of its victims.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        It may not be truly forced but it feels like someone is knocking on your door everyday offering to punch you in the face and even when you take many steps like removing your doorbell and knocker they still come and offer you that punch. They even give you face cream for windows 7 that makes you feel like they have already punched you in the face or are getting ready to punch you regardless of whether you want to be punched in the face.

        You may be able to dodge the punch for now but eventually you will get punched in the face.

      3. Captain Badmouth
        Gimp

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        "It is NOT a forced upgrade"

        Yeh, right, short memories some people have.

        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/15/pushy_windows_10/

        I stopped the bastards installing 10 on my daughter's pc just in time last October.

        Yes, of course, it was a mistake.

        1. Timmy B

          Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

          If you stopped it then it's not forced. All of the pcs I have updated I specifically chose to update. The way people are acting and speaking you'd think that they just turned on their pcs and "wallop" there's windows 10.

          1. Captain Badmouth
            Windows

            Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

            @ Timmy fanboy

            It would have been the case with my daughter's pc if I hadn't been there to stop it. How do you justify that, fanboy?

          2. Pompous Git Silver badge

            Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

            The way people are acting and speaking you'd think that they just turned on their pcs and "wallop" there's windows 10.

            That is indeed what happened. Several gigabytes of bandwidth and SSD space used up. MS claimed it was "for my convenience". Having to purchase an additional block of mobile data was far from "convenient". After deleting the redundant files MS changed the name of the updater that "conveniently" managed to use up most of my FW bandwidth thus rendering that service shaped to 256 k for three weeks. And the SSD space was reoccupied. All without my permission! My god there are some stupid fuckers in this world!

          3. Roland6 Silver badge

            Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

            @Timmy B - "If you stopped it then it's not forced. All of the pcs I have updated I specifically chose to update. The way people are acting and speaking you'd think that they just turned on their pcs and "wallop" there's windows 10."

            What a sheltered life you lead...

            I've just had, once again, GWX Control Panel flag that one of the non-descript Win7 updates (ie. one with the typical MS disinformation stated purpose) installed and has changed MY settings to ALLOW "Automatic install of Win10 updates". I would describe that as forced, regardless of whether or not at some future date MS give me a choice to actually update to Win10.

            But as we already know because MS now regard Win10 as a important update to Win7/8, it is only a matter of time before they perform the same trick as they did with the Win8->8.1 update and forced it upon Win8 users. Yes it was forced - it borked 2 laptops and a third was 'saved' because it happened in my presence and hence I could intervene and nurse it through the traumatic upgrade.

            I've also seen instances where the user had Win7/8 x64 install and been auto upgraded to Win10 x32 for reasons win10 doesn't report...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

              Just wondering:

              If MS is force upgrading every windows pc, and it is only the quick intervention of you geniuses that can prevent it, then why is win10 only growing at the rate of 1% per month?

              Is everyone blocking those updates?

              Are they going to win10, and then being reverted back in time for the next survey?

              Or are you a bunch of whining OSS fucktards that need excuses to pretend that win10 is the outright failure you predicted it to be and is heading for oblivion?

              1. Timmy B

                Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

                Exactly.

                If it was forced then why aren't all Windows 7 and 8 PCs now running 10? Or 50% or 25%?

              2. Roland6 Silver badge

                Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

                If MS is force upgrading every windows pc, and it is only the quick intervention of you geniuses that can prevent it, then why is win10 only growing at the rate of 1% per month?

                From what I've seen of the way GWX works, if you leave it alone it quietly installs and goes about it's business of analysing the system, creating an archive nd downloading Win10 etc. this seems to take some time and is controlled by daily polls to the MS Store.

                So my expectation is that it is the daily polls and the differing responses given that largely determine the rate at which any particular system reaches the "ready for upgrade" point. There is also a user variable in that how they dismiss the Windows "limited time free upgrade" prompts that also plays a role.

                The growth rate can be put down to MS finessing stuff at their end - I certainly will not be surprised if this summer MS announces that Win10 is the supported update to Win7/8 (ie. equivalent to a Service Pack), just as they did with the Win8->8.1 update. As someone else has observed, what will be critical in assessing the success of Win10 will be the change in installed base this coming year.

                As for Win10 being an outright failure, well MS are doing a good job at trying - Got a Win10 system (auto updated from Win7) where the auto updater has applied an update that has caused a critical error that Win10 is unable to recover from - the MS recommended solution: re-install Win10 and applications...

                This is 2016, there is no real reason why the Win10 auto updater on completion of the update can't create a full recovery image of itself, particularly given it (sort of) creates a pre-updated recovery image in the Windows.Old folder.

                1. azaks

                  Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

                  >> There is also a user variable in that how they dismiss the Windows "limited time free upgrade" prompts that also plays a role.

                  So its not a forced upgrade then? I wish you folks would make up your minds.

                  >> The growth rate can be put down to MS finessing stuff at their end - I certainly will not be surprised if this summer MS announces that Win10 is the supported update to Win7/8 (ie. equivalent to a Service Pack), just as they did with the Win8->8.1 update

                  Why are you mixing current growth rate with what may or may not happen in the future? Whether they do this or not (which is pure speculation on your part), they are committed to providing updates for the published support lifecycle of those products. A service pack is just a rollup of individual updates - its hardly a gun to the head to upgrade the OS (and btw - XPs last SP was in 2008 and that hardly triggered a mass exodus)

                  >> As someone else has observed, what will be critical in assessing the success of Win10 will be the change in installed base this coming year

                  Your assuming that non-technical people give a shit what version of OS they are running. I think the vast majority of those update their OS when they get new hardware.

      4. Mark 85

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        It is NOT a forced upgrade

        Not forced... hmmm.... They pushed it out to everyone without asking and popped up a nagware button. I believe the button now says something like "upgrade now or tonight?". Right, so it's more like walking down the street and suddenly someone runs out of a building yelling "I can punch you now or punch you later but you will get punched.

        I do believe "forced" is maybe too harsh a word... maybe "blindsiding"? Unethical? Sleazy? in the "we'll just slide this in here under the door and see if they catch us and toss it to the curb". Many didn't catch it. Many don't care. There's too many who have caught it and keep tossing it to the curb.

      5. Captain Badmouth
        Coat

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        Well Mr. Mallett, I've given you an example of how I stopped a forced win10 installation - it would have gone ahead if I hadn't been watching. The only stupidity involved is in your post.

        How about a retraction ? - and I don't mean play with yourself.

        Mine's the one with GWXcontrolpanel.exe on a flashdisk in the pocket.

      6. Pompous Git Silver badge

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        Every time somebody says this I ask for a concrete example of somebody having Windows 10 installed without their permission.

        I most certainly did not give MS permission to download another seven copies of W10 onto my machines! I'm not a complete fucking moron. I only needed one copy from which I made a bootable USB stick as per MS advice. MS seem to think they own my bandwidth and space on my SSDs. They don't!

      7. Captain DaFt

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        "If somebody asks you if you want some free cake then it's not forced cake. You don't have to take it. "

        But if they keep knocking on your door everyday asking,"Now?", and leaving one on your doorstep in a FedEx box, or sticking it in your mailbox in a UPS box daily when you're not looking, labeling it, "Open Now, Important!".

        Would that count as forced cake? If not, it'd at least be a major PITA.

      8. BitDr

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        Clicking on a button to give permission and not understanding the details is a stupid thing to do, yes. Signing ANY legal document without understanding what you are getting yourself into is a stupid thing to do. Creating an EULA that people need to be run past a lawyer before agreeing to its terms is also a stupid thing to do.

        Rule of thumb: If the wording of the EULA is overly complex then they are trying to screw you.

        Microsoft is telling people that Windows 10 is going to be installed by asking them if they want it now or later.

      9. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Forced upgrades distort stats

        Gotta love the number of down votes on that simple truth :-)

        I wonder if they put "Linux/OSS" as a religion choice on the next census, what % that would make up...

  6. Roger Greenwood

    1% rise is a jump?

    More of a crawl in my world.

    1. Halfmad

      Re: 1% rise is a jump?

      More interesting tbh is the fact Windows 7 share has dropped, I use 10 at home (along with Linux) and it's fine - but at work we're still very much on Win7 and have no intention of moving for several years.

      Not so much an anti-Windows 10 thing as concerns around legacy apps etc.

    2. Naselus

      Re: 1% rise is a jump?

      1% is about half the total number of users of all versions of Linux combined, or about 1/5th of all Mac OSX users combined.

      So while 1% doesn't sound much, for 1 month it's a pretty good score. Win 10 is approaching 20% penetration before most businesses are ready for refresh. I don't think anyone at MS is going to be overly upset with the rate of progress tbh.

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: 1% rise is a jump?

        "1% is about half the total number of users of all versions of Linux combined,"

        Hmm, Sez here that Linux use is 5.6% as of last month, putting it ahead of Chrome OS, WinXP, and Vista combined, by more than 2X. It's even a bit higher than all mobile OSs combined. (5.2%)

        Thanks for the help Microsoft, keep on pushing!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 1% rise is a jump?

          great analysis - so the number of people visiting a web developers resource is representative of the computer-using population then?. Its there in black and white you numpty - scroll down to the heading that says "Statistics Can Be Misleading"

        2. Timmy B

          Re: 1% rise is a jump?

          Yes but if you look for a fairly fixed 1% increase in Linux usage you have to compare 2015 back to 2010. So Linux has increased 1% in five years. Windows 10 seems to be doing that every month....

          Though the interesting thing I found is that overall Windows, Mac and Linux percentage of share doesn't really alter that much so I thing we're more in a state of balance. Me - I'd rather see a more equal split as I think a diverse, competing but compatible OS ecosystem would be nice. I'd like the chance to take a Linux app I like and *easily* install it on Windows, or a Mac, etc.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So Slurp OS V1.0 is a fantastic success then?

    If it was then why is it not appearing on everyone's PC then? We are now more than 6 months since its release. Shirley, it should have a wider use than this by now.

    Slurp OS V1.0 === Windows 10 (IMHO)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Traffic counts cant tell you

    How many of those people actually LIKE Win10, or how many are just unable to figure out how to upgrade back to Win7 after a sneaky M$ upgrade.

    Before the stampede of people saying "It is easy to go back", please remember I am talking about the users who dont know where the "Any Key" key is.

    1. Pompous Git Silver badge

      Re: Traffic counts cant tell you

      how many are just unable to figure out how to upgrade back to Win7 after a sneaky M$ upgrade

      After the entirely voluntary initial install of W10 all those months ago, the test computer became unstable. W10 said graphics issues of some sort; I don't recall the exact details. Consequently I decided to roll back to W7. The machine slowed to a crawl with delays of up to several minutes following a command. It's possible that this was being caused by my being shaped to 256 kB/s, but a fresh install of W7 fixed the problem.

      Then I downloaded and installed Cinnamon Mint whose creators seem to have no interest in forcing me to purchase more Internet bandwidth for no discernible rational purpose.

  9. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    I'd like to see a statistic like this based on a traffic count for El Reg. But I absolutely insist on pie charts.

    1. AceRimmer
    2. Loud Speaker

      I absolutely insist on pie charts.

      Damned right - make that steak and kidney pie charts. With real ale.

      1. Captain DaFt

        Wouldn't beer work better with bar charts?

        1. Pompous Git Silver badge

          Wouldn't beer work better with bar charts?

          Only if the bars are not in "The Pub with no Beer":

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E0aZ387M_I

  10. Arctic fox
    Windows

    The statistics are interesting

    Let us say, as a working hypothesis that, roughly speaking, Win 10 traffic doubles at the weekends and indicates a market penetration of the retail sector of somewhere between 25 and 30% in the US market as indicated by the graph of the US government's figures. If we then also accept (again, roughly speaking, as a hypothesis) that the ballpark figures provided by Netmarketshare and StatCounter are a reasonable indication of reality as far as the overall average for the combined retail and enterprise markets then the implication is that Win 10's penetration of the enterprise market at present is approximately half that of the overall average. With Netmarketshare's figure for February at at just under 13% and StatCounter's figure at just under 15% this suggests that the degree of penetration of the enterprise market is in the range 6 - 8 %-age points (again, in the US market). These figures (if they reflect reality) would seem to suggest that at this stage in the release cycle of a new Windows interation the figures are, from Redmond's point of view, respectable (given that enterprise always adopts at a much slower rate that private customers and we are only 6 months or so into this release cycle). However, the coming 12 months will be key. If we do not see an enterprise share of about 15 - 20 %-age points in a year's time then Redmond has a problem.

  11. Primus Secundus Tertius

    Presenting results

    Why did the article give a clear table for the US Gov results but not for Netmarket and Statcount?

    And what was the actual XP number for Netmarket?

  12. Elmer Phud

    W10 when?

    I've still not been 'asked' to update to W10.

    Hopefully it will be sorted by the time it rolls out in my direction.

    1. Mikel

      Re: W10 when?

      Me either. They need to figure out how to get that "upgrade now or upgrade later" question onto Android and Linux to get me, as I don't use Windows. I hear they are working on it.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    The stats can't lie!

    This could be the year...Oh, OK I'll get my coat.

  14. Mage Silver badge
    Linux

    Stats from Browser

    I have to use a plug-in on Firefox because of MORONS coding websites.

    People like Amazon ONLY put the download links for the browser stats detected.

    1) You might be downloading for a different OS to what you are running, dual boot or multiple computers.

    2) You might want to run a Windows application on Wine on Linux (The kindle reader works fine on Wine as does Notepad++, Orbitron, Digiguide and other windows stuff.)

    So often my Linux Mint (Mate desktop) system reports Windows.

    I still have two windows laptops for very occasional older apps, that are not used on the Internet, one is Win3.11/Win98/Win2K multiboot and one is Windows XP SP3.

    My video media PC has 2x DVB-S2 sat PCI cards and 2 x DVB-T tuners on Windows XP with MHEG5 support. I can't get the required HW / SW support on anything else reliably. It's not used on Internet either.

  15. NanoMeter

    Windows 10 increase will slow down

    the moment people no longer will be able to upgrade for free.

    1. Pompous Git Silver badge

      Re: Windows 10 increase will slow down

      upgrade for free

      I guess it's free if you don't have to pay for Internet bandwidth, or SSDs/HDDs. Sadly, they aren't handed out for free in Australia.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Windows 10 increase will slow down

      The telemetry and cloud stuff and data mining ensures that upgrading will be 'free'. Already Microsoft has had a trial run of the 'software subscription' scheme with Office 365.

      Microsoft is also fond of imposing planned obsolescence on its software, the psychological fear of missing out on patches will coerce most to pay.

      Satya has also recently been hyping the slurping of Big Data for both consumers and the enterprise. You can see where that is going.

  16. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Stop

    Microsoft's real fail…

    …is the continued ignominious demise of Internet Explorer as a browser. Looking at the Top10 of browsers on non-cellular networks we see that IE (13%) is now behind Safari mobile (14%) all the time and may soon fall behind Chrome mobile during the week as well as at weekends. And this desktop and desktop replacement traffic.

    Edge is stuck around 2% and unlikely to gain relevance because: people are sticking with Windows 7; and Microsoft refused to backport Edge to Windows 7.

    IE 11 is a reasonable browser but is going to fall behind the competition in increasingly important areas as things like Flexbox (supported by IE 11) become the "new normal". It means that, while corporates are keeping IE around for legacy, they must provide alternatives for every day use of the interwebs. Whether it's Firefox ESR or special Google builds or simply I-Pads, it's all not Microsoft. Once everyone has moved all their bookmarks to browser X, it's going to be very hard to get them back.

    And Microsoft is betting the farm on the best HTML/JS/CSS runtime.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Microsoft's real fail…

      IE11 may be part of the reason. There's an awful lot of forums that IE11 won't work with. Copy/paste, image uploading, even some forums function such as "quote" don't work. The people with these issues have moved over to Chrome/Firefox and many think Edge won't be any better than IE11. MS refuses to even acknowledge there's a problem with IE11 and suggests you "upgrade" to Win10 and Edge.

      I'm seriously wondering if IE11 was broken intentionally.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Microsoft's real fail…

        IE11 may be part of the reason. There's an awful lot of forums that IE11 won't work with.

        Interesting. That sounds to me like poor programming of the forums presumably using IE specific workarounds for all versions of the browser rather than feature detection. However, as you note users no longer blame the website owner as they know they can just switch browsers and website developers know that they no longer need to worry.

        IE 11 really is okay as a browser: it does a lot of things correctly and has a fast JS runtime. It's just not enough and it's not going to any updates.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I hope that the authorities step in...

    ...and force MS to fully support Win 7 until it's official support ends in 2020. The trial balloon that MS launched in Jan. stating they would not support any new AMD Zen products, nor Intel/Qualcomm processors released in 2017 is unacceptable to most people using Win 7-8. Authorities need to act now to force MS to provide the simple patches for Win 7-8 to use the new X86 based CPUs. Deciding to not support any hardware or software during the defined O/S lifespan is unacceptable and cheats consumers out of the value they paid for when they purchased Win 7-8.

  18. Ramon Zarat

    Unwabnted black sheep

    LMAO... At this rate of "adoption", or lack thereof, NSA approved Windows 10 will reach the critical mass market share of 50% in another 30 months...

    That's exactly another ***2.5 YEARS*** from now!!! Add to this another 7 months since it was launched in August 2015 and when Windows 10 finally reach 50% market share more than 3 long years after its launch, or about when windows 11 will be around the corner...roughly around the first quarter 2019!!!

    All this is *ASSUMING* Windows 10 will keep this puny 1% a month growth, which I seriously doubt. A vast quantity of this currently so called 20% market share numbers are coming from licenses per-bundled with corporate PC and Laptop (HP, Lenovo, Dell), the vast majority of which were DOWNGRADED to Windows 8 or even Windows 7! Roughly 95% of the time in fact, which is consistent with the deployment rate I personally see in SMBs and medium size business, and I'm confident those numbers also hold true for large size corporation too. Windows 10 is simply too problematic on too many level. Metaphorically speaking, the endless list of headaches outnumber the few advantages by a ratio of a 1000 to1.

    Even if you add the fact M$ gave Windows 10 ***FOR FREAKING FREE*** for over 7 months now, the growth line is *STILL* flattening out! Why? Becasue of all those artificial licenses making up this 20% figure, reality is now catching up to M$. Even after M$ forced the win10 upgrade down the throats of millions of users with the KB3035583 update gate fiasco! Polish a turd all you want, it is STILL a turd!

    BOTTOM LINE: When you give your stuff for free AND relentlessly shove it down people throats and you STILL have a flatting growth curve, even 7 months after launch, you know you product is doomed and you did it 100% WRONG.

    PS: This is the list of KB update I have to permanently ban to avoid M$ pushing is UNWANTED bullshit on my system! And even worse, despite I have hide KB3035583, it came back, by itself, 7 TIMES!!!:

    KB2952664

    KB2977759

    KB2990214

    KB3021917

    KB3022345

    KB3035583

    KB3046480

    KB3050265

    KB3065987

    KB3068708

    KB3075249

    KB3075851

    KB3080149

    KB3083324

    KB3083710

    KB3123862

    1. Timmy B

      Re: Unwabnted black sheep

      You have kind of proved the point about it being forced haven't you? If it was forced then it is forced really really poorly. If it takes 3 years to get 50% share how is that forced?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    US holidays

    What holidays are you Brits expecting will occur in March in the US? The only ones until Thanksgiving that have a chance of moving the needle are the big summer holidays: Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day. However, they are mostly about doing stuff outside, not cooping yourself up with your computer.

    Unless it is raining all day on one of those three days in most of the US don't expect to see a spike in computer usage. Do expect a spike in alcohol sales and fireworks accidents!

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