The UNTOLD SUCCESS of Microsoft: Yes, it's Windows 7

Do they include enterprise licences in those figures?

We're on a volume agreement and get a significant number of Windows 8 licenses, along with 7, XP, Vista and the like, but we won't be using them.

open goal

The new Microsoft guy must be rubbing his hands. It's an open goal in front of him.

After Vista, MS just had to do a bit of tinkering to produce Windows 7 which is generally regarded as the best ever.

It's pretty obvious what changes Windows 8 need, if MS had have listened to feedback on the pre-release versions, they'd have done this from the start:

1. Put a proper start button back

2. Have a proper start menu

3. Don't force anything to full screen, don't split settings between desktop and full screen places.

Basically if they really must have these Windows apps things, then just have it as something that can run in a Window within the normal desktop environment so people aren't forced out of their desktop.

It doesn't need a huge amount of engineering or research to know what the problems are or to fix them. And as with Vista -> Windows 7, if they do a decent job, then they'll be able to sell it.

Windows 8.1 isn't bad with a touch screen

I find Windows 8.1 to have a split Metro/desktop personality, which is annoying at times. But my new notebook has a touch screen AND a touch pad. My wife, who is not very computer literate, took to the Metro interface right away using this notebook PC. When I use it, it's the best of both worlds -- I can just swipe to navigate as designed, yet I can also use the touchpad for accuracy and right click when I need to.

One of my desktop PCs has Windows 7, and I'm not going to upgrade it to Windows 8 because I can't imagine navigating Metro without a touch screen while maintaining my sanity.

The other desktop PC is happily running XP and will continue to do so until it stops working.

meamwhile... xp growth beats windows 8

At least according to netmarketshare, which can't be said to be anti ms to what I understand.

Of course this is a ripple in the downward trend of xp, but still, it's telling... (xp usage is 5 times higher than win 8).

Now we hear Nokia will do an amazon and release an android phone. Linux and chromeOs are free, OEM get paid for android (they receive part of google stores revenue). OSes are free like browsers now. For enterprise web apps becomes the norm. Services are king.

It wouldn't surprise me if, in a few years, android or chromOs *hardware* is given for free, embedded with the ISP router, tv, nas, or even chromeboxes.

yes but

I really don't like the Modern UI (or whatever they are calling it now) on a desktop, it's a mess.

That said if you circumnavigate the tiled interface the new desktop style makes windows 7 look old.

Win 7 is good enough. Why spend on new OS? Microsoft's idea -- we'll come up with something that means you have to unlearn everything for a decade or more -- and for non-touch desktop owners is incredibly inconvenient. This is our usp. We can't be bothered to implement improvements in speed, stability or security (Win 7 SP2) And now they wonder why Win 8 is seen as a rat sandwich (and death to many PC manufacturers).

are they going to fix security permissions not being inherited from the parent soon

replace all permissions on child objects, only half works, and any directory that is a child you make a new file is will have no permissions

I have to use Windows for my work, having to run several stupidly expensive software packages that cost me several thousand pounds a year to keep licensed and updated. I don't have the time or inclination to learn a whole new set of shortcuts, commands or whatever just to do my work.

I am far from being stupid or dumb, before the usual commenters come up and tell me it is so easy to just learn dozens of shortcuts, install a pile of thirs party apps etc. I have several qualifications, including some very technical design stuff, a pilot's license and some medical qualifications. I have learnt how to deal with software through necessity as I am self emplpyed and don't have recourse to a huge IT department.

The change from XP to Win 7 meant I had to spend days finding and testing a variety of solutions so that I didn't have to scrap a perfectly working A1 format colour plotter. This lost me hundreds if not thousands of pounds, for no reason other than having to buy a new pc.

Microsoft are in the business of selling software, that is fine. I don't have an issue with them making billions of profit year after year if they can. I have to use their stuff for my work because so many of our governments have rolled over and let them get away with murder in their monopolistic practices in the last 20 years.

For this reason, I accept, reluctantly, that I will have to give them more money when my PC next needs replacement. The issue I have is that they are forcing me to spend thousands on unneccesary hardware or software just to keep working.

The final straw is this abortion of an OS that will cost me a small fortune in lost productivity, trying to resolve driver and hardware issues. Just make a basic OS and let me pay for it. I am happy to do so just in order to get on with my work.

If I could get all of my software to run on Linux I would have done so but currently that is not possible. Roll on an alternative OS that can work with windows based software. either that or roll on retirement so I can dump the whole lot and buy a nice cheap laptop and an open source OS for basic email and browsing.

I have used 8.1 on a laptop with a touch screen and a desktop without a touch screen. It's just about bareable on the laptop but on the desktop, frustration kept smacking me up the side of the head as even simple tasks were needlessly complex. For anyone using a PC for work, I'd avoid like the plague, particularly if you don't have a touchscreen.

Windows 8 natural home might be those 8" tablets that are coming out now. The messed up interface might work on a small touch screen. Put in a 64-bit copy with 4GB of RAM and a 2.5" SSD with at least one USB 3 port and they could be on to something.