Gregg Keizer has the details: According to analytics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10 lost eight-tenths of a percentage point in user share… duri
[See the full post at: Win10 usage share drifts down in March, Win7 goes up]
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Win10 usage share drifts down in March, Win7 goes up
- This topic has 61 replies, 24 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 11 months ago.
AuthorViewing 18 reply threadsAuthor-
It would be interesting if someone were to make a Linux interface called, say, “Seven”; and release a distro of Linux (say, Mint) with the “Seven” interface that would look and feel exactly like Windows 7, and would have Wine and other similar programs installed which would allow the user to run Windows software. I wonder if it would catch on prior to January 2020?
Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server2 users thanked author for this post.
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@MrJimPhelps and all
funny you ask… 🙂
its already out there and I wonder why nobody said anything (or discover it yet)
out of respect to woody and many experts here I didnt mention it back then… when grp L was born 😀
also you can imagine the unfriendly reaction from the higher ups billy and frens
anyway you can try Zorin – its exactly what you want for XMAS!!!
Get the Ultimate to get the whole lot…. its only EUR19 anyway 🙂 FOR LIFE!
They just recently updated the ver so you are lucky to be in on the STABLE version.
p/s its pretty much install and use but good to learn abit more before you decide to ‘kill’ your old OS 4ever… or you can go dual-boot or VM or run on disc/USB/portable or whatever suits you
good luck hv fun 🙂p/s im staying w w7 until unless they really really [edit] – that be sad… but I have a WORKING standby win-like interface OS to switch over ALMOST seamlessly 🙂
back to fishing for better dreams1 user thanked author for this post.
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Yep, Zorin felt to Macintoshy (restrictive) to me. “Do it our way or look for some thing else” is not for me. That is the reason I used to use Windows for over 30 years not Macs. Same feeling happens on Windows 10 (an alphabetical list is NOT the start menu), Elementary OS (no icons on the desktop??) and Gnome/Cinnamon based distros. I’m sure there is a way to customize it but it is not easily found and I’m not going to edit text files, install classic starts, or mess with the registry just to get my task bar to look right. Closest to usable if not better than Windows 7 have been KDE based distros for me. Currently trying KDE Neon since Mint KDE is discontinued.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Agreed, Windows 7 is not the holy grail of GUIs and if anyone comes up with something better I’m all for it. Still it is better than OSX and the “you don’t need to know concept” it uses which most Linux DEs try to emulate. Every time someone shows up with a Mac complaining that it is slow they have all the apps the ever used open and running on startup. The little dot indicators in the dock just are not good enough to let most people know that that app is running. Also, closing an app window(s) does not quit the app. As for Cinnamon how do you add a custom program or script that was not installed via repository in the um… “start” menu? If I remember correctly I had to create a .desktop text file somewhere.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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I think it is great to have a group “C” for Chromebook. As for group “L”, it could be Group “Lx”, the “x” being the letter of the distro you are using. For example, Group “LM” would be “Linux Mint”.
In one way, Group L and Group C are alike – they are both part of Group NM (non-Microsoft)!
But Group L and Group C are fundamentally different at the most basic level — With Linux, everything you have and everything you do is installed and run locally (and privately), whereas with Chromebook, everything you have and everything you do is “online” and is being monitored by Big Brother Google.
Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
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My observation is the users who have the most trouble transitioning between OSes are the ‘power users’. The average user, as long as the OS obeys basic principles, seem to need a brief tutorial about how the GUI is organized. Once they get the hang of it, often they do not need much help. What I have noticed about people I help who have moved away from Windows is a dramatic drop in support required.
As far as what I would recommend someone consider is for a new device look at a Chromebook or Mac depending on budget and for an existing device Linux Mint unless it is very old then a distro designed for aged hardware. I would not recommend Arch Linux to a new Linux user because it requires more willingness to learn the inner workings of an OS and I use Manjaro/Arch and Linux Mint.
2 users thanked author for this post.
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So true! Users often don’t see a lot of the subtle differences that power users tear their shirt over. But of course they often look puzzled when a power user do the same job more than 4 times as fast. Still, it is great that Linux can be a good facebook machine without much support. Since I installed Mint to my computer illiterate (with all respect) aunt about a month ago, she seems happy and I didn’t hear about any issue. She is not scared of Windows 10 updates no more.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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This whole situation reminds me of the images of people jumping to their deaths from the burning World Trade Center towers in NYC. Forced with the prospect of being burned alive they chose to jump.
2020 is a meaningless number for the people who correctly perceive Win 10 to be the equivalent of stepping off the ledge. Win 7 is the safety of the ledge. 2020 is not the fire and all too many people (for Microsoft’s plans) will not leap. It will take a real fire, like stuff not working in Win 7 and only working in Win 10 to force that jump. That was what forced most of the Win XP holdouts to Win 7. And Win 7 was actually a usable operating system unlike Win 10.
Right now, everything works in Win 7 and a whole bunch of stuff either doesn’t work or keeps breaking in Win 10. Talk about a disincentive!
So far not a single client in my user base has either plans or a desire to move to Win 10 and I’ve been asked to make plans to address the continued use of Win 7. Interestingly enough, the hardest hit are my health care customers, who can’t move to Win 10 because it isn’t HIPAA compliant (Win 10 home and Pro are defined as not HIPAA compliant – Win 10 Enterprise is claimed to be configurable to be HIPAA compliant but has failed security testing even when configured “properly”, if there is such a thing). HIPAA security audits in 2020 will be quite interesting.
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I raised this point a few months ago: Annual financial audits of publicly traded companies are required to include sworn verifications by officers that their internal processes under control, including security.
Businesses involved in activities that might attract terrorists–airlines, railroads, trucking companies, shipping companies, airport and port authorities–are expected to meet even higher expectations. Railroads, for instance, are required by regulation to have a separate security plan. Computer systems that casually allow outside parties to access sensitive user data do not meet that test.
I’ve been wondering when the tech world is going to get serious about this. So far it seems that there are no grownups in the room.
2 users thanked author for this post.
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Too many industries have strict data protection requirements not just healthcare. Also many in these industries work in small shops that typically use the Professional version not the Enterprise. If they get caught leaking data to a third party it is not pretty for them as the law does not care how it happened or who the third party is.
2 users thanked author for this post.
I got a chuckle out of 33-1/3 (approx.) broken record but I guess I’m just showing my age!
1 user thanked author for this post.
Interesting article thanks, and not remotely surprising.
Yet still Microsoft stumbles on, its corporate head firmly buried ever deeper in the sand…
3 users thanked author for this post.
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Sand. That is not the word I thought I would find at the end of that sentence. You are a kindhearted person.
3 users thanked author for this post.
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Moonbear,
It is evident that Microsoft no longer considers Windows to be a key product. Windows used to feature prominently in their presentations and “where we’re going” kind of statements, but now it isn’t even mentioned, or if so, only in passing. In the last few days, we’ve seen reports of how Windows division leader Terry Myerson is leaving MS, and his department is being eliminated. Windows isn’t important enough to warrant its own division anymore.
In short, the Microsoft business model of which you speak simply doesn’t include Windows. In this “mobile first, cloud first world,” Windows is legacy baggage from the old Microsoft that they would probably just as soon get rid of, and I’ve long suspected that their aggression toward their Windows-using customers is a means to that end.
I really wish they’d instead sell Windows to some company that is still interested in such things, or even to open-source it, but neither of those gives them the hedge that keeping Windows does: if something changes and someone realizes that Windows is actually important, they can always go back IF they still own Windows. Selling it or open-sourcing it is so… final, and in the case of open-sourcing, it’s essentially giving away an asset that still holds considerable value, which is not Microsoft’s style.
This uptick in Windows 7 share is a tiny positive sign, as I see it; any sign that Windows 10 is being rejected is positive, and I do think that anyone who isn’t happy with this new “Windows as a Service” schema ought to reject 10 rather than use it and try to mitigate the worst of it, but it’s important to keep things in perspective. Registering our disgust by keeping away from 10, in the hopes that MS will one day see the error of its ways, is a long shot, and that’s probably understating it by a good bit. This is, after all, not the first time this downturn in Windows 10 usage (with a commensurate uptick in 7 usage) has happened since the release of Windows 10. It’s always been just a blip, sometimes lasting a couple of months, but eventually the slow march toward Windows 10 dominance continues.
I hold out very little hope that Microsoft will see the continued avoidance of 10 and have a eureka moment where they decide to finally give us the Windows we want. For that to happen, Microsoft would have to start caring about the long-term health of Windows as a platform and the satisfaction of Windows users, and I do not see how they’re ever going to budge on that. Not with Mr. Cloud at the helm, certainly.
I’ve come to miss Steve Ballmer.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)8 users thanked author for this post.
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I’ve come to miss Bill Gates.
Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server1 user thanked author for this post.
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I can give you one explanation from real life experiences. Most people didn’t want Windows 10 and in their minds, it just installed itself one day. They complain to people that they have it and want it gone, and eventually, someone knows someone who knows how to put Windows 7 back on their machine.
I did it for someone I didn’t even know not to long ago, they complained to someone, who pass the story on to a friend of mine, who then said they knew someone who might be able to get Windows 7 reinstalled for them. They even gave me a $20. Hey! Maybe that’s Microsoft’s plan: Windows 10 is free so people like me can make money/food/etc helping people reinstall Windows for them. Great way to stimulate the economy of me. 🙂
1 user thanked author for this post.
Don’t let this fool you. Windows 7 is almost dead just like MS and her fanboys continuously say even though it couldn’t be more obvious that they are completely and categorically wrong.
This report is really no surprise at all. The people are speaking loud and clear here. Too bad no one wants to listen. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Windows 7 still around 40% after EOL and still be ahead of Windows 10.
As someone with a math and physical sciences background, I have to wonder about reports like this. Always left unstated is the measurement error in these statistics. Seems likely that it’s in the range of plus-or-minus a couple of points (at least). If so, then a month-to-month change of less than a point or two is statistically insignificant, “in the noise” as we used to say, and therefore quite meaningless.
(Perhaps that explains why the Wall Street Boys aren’t concerned; they understand the math.)
7 users thanked author for this post.
As a snapshot, yes, absolutely meaningless. Particularly following a month that moved in the other direction. The value could sit there bobbing up and down indefinitely. But.
But string together several months of 1% growth successively, well then, that’s something very significant. And if we have two steps back, to one step forward, to one step back, etc. well then we’re line dancing our way into a direction known as a trend.
My predictive ability is not all that good. But it is entertaining to watch.
1 user thanked author for this post.
Interestingly enough, the hardest hit are my health care customers, who can’t move to Win 10 because it isn’t HIPAA compliant (Win 10 home and Pro are defined as not HIPAA compliant – Win 10 Enterprise is claimed to be configurable to be HIPAA compliant but has failed security testing even when configured “properly”, if there is such a thing). HIPAA security audits in 2020 will be quite interesting.
Good point. If Windows 10 is not HIPAA compliant, I wonder what dentists’ offices and doctors’ offices, which can’t afford to shell out thousands of $$$ for Enterprise licenses, will do in 2020. I also wonder about those offices that got caught in the GWX campaign and have no way of going back to Windows 7 now.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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That was a real problem for my in-single-practice. When GWX hit, he had just upgraded his niche software (works with all the dental equipment, gives real-time look at x-ray, etc) from XP and had to replace all the computers as well. When I saw the GWX icon in the tray, I warned him to get his computer support person immediately. He would have been up a creek to come in and find Win10 on all his computers. If the machines were not borked, the software would surely have been.
Same scenario at my veterinarian’ office.Older equipment and niche software.
1 user thanked author for this post.
Here’s an article that depicts the slow but sure decline & dismantling of Windows as a division: https://stratechery.com/2018/the-end-of-windows/.
That’s what we plan to do…We need to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows to loving Windows…We want to make Windows 10 the most loved release of Windows.
Where’s the “loving Windows” now, Satya? Feel free to comment, Loungers… No wonder people here have moved or are researching a move from Windows. And probably Microsoft as well…
Bought a refurbished Windows 10 64-bit, currently updated to 22H2. Have broke the AC adapter cord going to the 8.1 machine, but before that, coaxed it into charging. Need to buy new adapter if wish to continue using it.
Wild Bill Rides Again...1 user thanked author for this post.
Very Interesting.
From Nadella: “At our core, Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world.”
The problem is the world is not mobile first when it comes to business. A lot of essential serious work is done on the desktop and this is not about to change. In my business, only 6% of customers access our web site with mobile devices. We are B2B, our clients work on desktops. Mobile simply can’t fill this need as well and I don’t think it ever will.
If Nadella was selling games to the mobile-first world, maybe it would make sense, but productivity? They might get a good chunk of market with on the road people, but focusing exclusively on mobile and cloud, they risk loosing a good part of market they had so easily locked in.
I find the author’s thoughts interesting, but I am not sure he is right. It is easy to say Windows is less important because it fails when maybe the reason it fails right now is precisely because the focus is wrong and they did all kind of things that are cloud-first, less privacy, mobile first on it, starting with 8 and its one interface for all. Stabbing the cow and then saying, we are right to just feed the pig because the cow is dying anyway might not be that great as a strategy.
No doubt there is a future for Microsoft in the cloud and services, but does it really need to get rid of the rest to do that? The problem is there is no easy substitute for Windows in many cases so they risk having a ton of unprotected Windows 7 running past 2020, and might end up acting irresponsibly as a corporate citizen when it comes to ensuring their products don’t end up lowering the global security of the Internet if they stop patching and Windows 10 isn’t adopted. People need Windows and destroying it is going to hurt lots of businesses.
However, reading the article made me realize maybe pushing Windows aside might end up being a good idea, because it looks like maybe it won’t have the pressure to tie everything together. Maybe as a more independent project, there will be less pressure on it to tie and sell the rest and it might end up getting developed in a way that is closer to what the people who are attached to what Windows was want.
2 users thanked author for this post.
I have worked, and even labored, under several not quite user-friendly operating systems: PDP 8, PDP 11, IBM JCL, CDC KRONOS and NOS, VAX, UNIX, etc. so am not hung up on loving, or even much liking, the OS in my machine: I want to use it to do what I need done and, as much as possible, without hassles.
And without the system being changed time and again, because someone that does not even know I exist, not to mention what I use the system for, thinks it is cool, forcing me to keep on re-leaning how to do things with it and to keep on modifying things I had made and were already running just fine under its previous version.
And, of course, without virtual hands coming out of the PC either to take the money I must pay to be allowed the continuing use of my own machine, or else to switch it off in my face and hide the CPU.
But then again, no one has ever accused me of being cool.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AVThere seems to be a lot of negativity in many of the responses. I suggest that everyone get with the program by wholeheartedly embracing Microsoft’s vision for Windows. This is easy to do, if you are willing to mentally adjust your thinking to be in line with Microsoft’s vision:
Everyone is supposed to love Windows! You are supposed to enjoy the Experience of updating Windows and helping Microsoft to figure out their own inept Windows Update programming bugs so that Microsoft can make Windows better! You are supposed to enjoy uninstalling bad Windows Updates so that Microsoft can then fix these bugs and eventually make Windows a better Experience for you to enjoy! You are supposed to enjoy having to take the time to periodically make full backups of your Windows OS hard drive partition so that you know that you can recover your beloved Windows installation from botched Windows updates which either brick your computer or which fail to properly uninstall! This is all part of Microsoft’s newly proclaimed goals for the Windows Experience — that users should both want and love Windows instead of actually simply needing Windows to merely work reliably.
Again, this is all part of the Windows Experience! Microsoft wants all Windows users to focus on Windows itself, such that Windows is always at the forefront of your thoughts. Mundane things such as actually getting work done on your computer, in which the Windows operating system is merely in the background and out of the way, is not part of how Microsoft has newly re-imagined the Windows Experience.
Get with the program and enjoy the Windows Experience! If you do so, then your life will be so much easier. Forget about work. Forget about bonuses for actually getting things done while at work. These things are NOT part of the Windows Experience since the Windows Experience is supposed to be all about Windows and nothing else!
4 users thanked author for this post.
Perhaps this MS blog Microsoft will invest $5 billion in IoT. Here’s why. will explain why/where MS’ focus has changed.
IMO the whole gamut of IoT is still fledgling and not proven as either beneficial or secure. I would have more confidence in Microsoft’s $5 billion commitment to IoT if it had a proven track record in ‘stuff’ other than Windows, Office and, more recently, Azure. Unfortunately its history is littered with failure other than these 3 core areas.
If the company cannot keep its own products stable and secure (and welcome/popular) then I have my doubts – particularly with its (past?) love of developing proprietary ‘standards/protocols’ and, perhaps more importantly, the recent controversy about Windows 10 now losing share to Windows 7 in terms of usage – that this is anything other than a ‘We can do it’ puff piece to keep investors from dumping stock.
I suspect Microsoft’s day of ‘global relevance’ has come and gone, thanks mainly to the direction it has been led since the days of Bill Gates then Steve Ballmer.
Surgeons know that when the rot sets in, they need to to be brutal with the scalpel before gangrene kills the patient. In Microsoft’s case it’s happened over the last three and a bit years. How much longer before Satya Nadella is cauterized in order to save Microsoft… or is it just too late?
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