Windows XP market share GROWS AGAIN, outstrips Win 8.1 surge

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This is how a lot of people have learned to use computers, most real life users don’t even know the difference between the OS and some bit of software that come freely installed with the PC, or was installed from a cameras setup disk (that they no longer have) 3 cameras ago.

So even giving them a new XP machine will totally confused them, as something will be in a different place or will not be the same.

However give them an apple tablet and they understand that as it is not “windows” they will have to make an effort to understand how it works. As everyone tells them how good apple is they will also be more likely to want to learn it.

At home I have an 8 year old PC running Windows XP that I have absolutely no intention of replacing/upgrading any time soon. If need be I'll disconnect the thing from the internet seeing as it's mainly used for developing, listening to music and watching videos anyway. I'll just use my netbook (running Windows 7) for web browsing/downloading.

To everyone wondering why people with ancient hardware don't simply upgrade - my answer would be that I can't justify shelling out for functionality I either already have or don't need.

It is high time that companies were required to provide access to software maintenance for as log as a product is in use, this could either be inhouse or they could simply publish the source code and allow others to do the job for them. It would be interesting to see which way Microsoft jumped.

Only yesterday night I managed to reset password for my WinXP JP edition using live-build, ntfs-3g and chntpw, and today I get the news that "Windows XP market share grows again"

What are the other 10% not shown in those stats?

Server versions I suppose?

Or quite a few people on older than XP still?

Hoorah for Linux!

http://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpaf=&qpcustom=Linux&qpcustomb=0

Oh dear. It looks like their home-made hobby system is even more fooked. 1.48%, down from 1.7% a couple of months back.

No doubt the Reg commentard zealots will be explaining this away as bad data.

Easy fix MS

Kill TIFKAM. You'll get a lot of XP holdouts to jump. As it is, they're going to 7 if they can, staying on XP if they can't.

Windows 8.x is a disaster. Kill it.

The final update

...to Windows XP will just disable all your networking. Nice incentive to upgrade. And, sure, there were viruses long before the internet, but I don't recall any botnets from that era.

Not much to do with Windows 8 (or 8.1)

I mostly use Linux. However I have Windows 8.1 for my CAD machine. I also look after Windows XP which runs Windows games and graphics software, mostly for my Grandson. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong with Windows 8.1 as long as you configure out the MS GUI and put on Start8, Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP etc. So why am I so reluctant to either ditch the £1000 computer running XP or update it to Windows 8.1?

Because of course there is no upgrade from XP, it is erase everything and start again. I have been putting off the hassle of re-installing dozens and dozens of games and other software (e.g. Paint shop pro) for months (years?). I suspect I will need 3 or 4 weeks of solid work to get back to the same state where most software runs smoothly on Windows 8.1 and some software not at all. I think I will put it off until June, (August?).... I know I cannot escape for ever as games manufacturers abandon XP totally. Apart from the security issue I see absolutely NO advantage to me or my grandson from doing all that work - it is just a Microsoft tax. Maybe I will put it off until Windows 9 is on offer to put off having to do it all again by a year or two.

Had MS made an upgrade path, maintaining installed software, I would have done that in a flash.

Measurement Error, guys

At best these are very scientifically calculated estimates based a sample of machines, not by measuring every machine in the world. If we new the sample size and/or measurement methods we could get the measurement error, likely to be more than 0.5%

Anyway, if Microsoft had any real sense they would just branch off XP. It makes sense. First we had Windows-NT ("New Technology") now we can have Windows-OT ("Old Technology")!

XP is the number 1 selling item of Office software on amazon uk....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Professional-Service-OEM/dp/B000JTDV6M

Just a long line of (arrogant) mistakes from MS

We all took to XP because it was a dependable, reasonably reliable OS to replace 95/98/2000/NT ... and it still is.

Then they brought out Vista. Vista didn't support all the existing hardware ("Not out fault", MS). It was buggy and resource-hungry. The effect on productivity & cost meant the business world largely ignored it. Only consumers were duped. If you don't like the look of the bus, wait for the next one.

Windows 7 arrived. A much better OS than Vista, but still didn't address the XP legacy ("Not our fault", MS). With a bit of fiddling, it can be made to look enough like XP that there isn't a signifcant re-learning effort. But, oh dear, there's still the hardware issues ("There isn't a driver for your hardware? Tough - buy a new computer", MS). And suddenly, some of my applications won't run (even in any compatibility or virtual mode).

For at least 90% of business tasks, an older PC with XP is more than adequate to do the job, especially with so much stuff moving online.

Next, Windows 8 comes along ... huge interface changes ... the world is up in arms ... MS backs down (a bit). Why do they want to change the look so dramatically (with no 'legacy' skin), when they should be concentrating on functionality, security, and making it easy for folk to upgrade?

All the while (Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8), the world is in an extended economic slow down. Result? People don't want to spend on new kit, the installation costs, and re-training staff to do the same thing with a different version of Windows.

Everyone leading MS's marketing since 2007 should be forced to use Windows 2 (in 640kb). Or even MS-DOS.

Instead of leading us by the hand, helping us move from one version to the newest, removing obstacles (surely what any company would do if it cared about its customers) ... MS have at every stage ignore its customer base and tried to force us to move up and buy again.

It's sad there isn't a viable alternative - I'd love to install a non-MS OS which would run all the apps I've accumulated and rely on.

Do we use XP? Yes, and Windows 7. Are we going to rush out and upgrade? Oh, we can't - we have to buy new kit, each with a new OS, and new versions of Office (and a few other things). This is an expense we cannot afford, not at this time.

Are we worried XP is no longer going to be supported? Not really. We protect ourselves and we're careful what sites we visit and emails we open. It's not as if moving to Windows 8 would improve our security more that just a bit.

Dear Microsoft - if you'd like to talk to us about your marketing and customer care strategies, our rates are very reasonable.

If every geek just pitched in...

...and installed Linux on a couple dozen PCs, this nightmare would be behind us.

What is a good Android tablet, so can use instead of Windows XP?