Windows 7 overtakes XP - finally

[echrada]

Windows 7 has, finally, become the world’s most popular desktop operating system.

It overtook Windows XP in the first ten days of October with a 40.18 per cent share of the market, according to statistics gathered by Statcounter. At the latest measurement, 38.66 per cent of desktop computers in use online are powered by XP while Vista limps in on 11.21 per cent.

XP became the most popular operating system by quantity in 2003 after being released in 2001. Windows 7 adoption has been quick since it hit the shelves in 2009.

What's obvious from the Statcounter charts is the fact that Win 7 has grown at the expense of XP and Vista.

Still, with Mac OS X only commanding 7.27 per cent of the market, it’s not surprising that Microsoft is retaining customers rather than luring new ones. Linux, on the desktop, has all but flatlined.



Windows 7 overtakes XP - finally - The Register

 

[Beta]

The data on Linux is always wrong. These reports on go by how many copies where sold and how many of them have been active in the past 3 months. This is a bad way of gathering data. How about you go by how many diffrent installations have looked for updates in the past week. This would give you a real number. Linux has around 4% of users as a main OS and as a secondary it is around 12%. Mac OS X is around 18% if you go by how many have been updated in the paast week.

Most Linux users did not pay for there OS and this is why they always get over looked in these reports.

 

[echrada]

As this isn't about Linux I don't really care how many Linux machines there are. I am only interested in the Windows 7 v XP results.

 

[Big Tom]

nice. i was wondering which one was really more popular now. Win 7 FTW

 

[Beta]

What I was trying to point out is that these numbers are not always true. Also I think if you take away china the number of users of Xp is less the 20%.

 

[Blockland]

Windows 7 has, finally, become the world’s most popular desktop operating system.

It overtook Windows XP in the first ten days of October with a 40.18 per cent share of the market, according to statistics gathered by Statcounter. At the latest measurement, 38.66 per cent of desktop computers in use online are powered by XP while Vista limps in on 11.21 per cent.

XP became the most popular operating system by quantity in 2003 after being released in 2001. Windows 7 adoption has been quick since it hit the shelves in 2009.

What's obvious from the Statcounter charts is the fact that Win 7 has grown at the expense of XP and Vista.

Still, with Mac OS X only commanding 7.27 per cent of the market, it’s not surprising that Microsoft is retaining customers rather than luring new ones. Linux, on the desktop, has all but flatlined.



Windows 7 overtakes XP - finally - The Register

Heh, maybe more popular, but it wont be the most used...unless it becomes free.

 

[ddadda82]

But ironically it won't happen under smaller environments, such as my company for example.

In this building, there are 45 machines (including Servers and Laptops/Netbooks). 90% of them are using Windows XP SP3, and no plans to upgrade them to any other OSs anytime soon. =s

 

[cluberti]

The data on Linux is always wrong. These reports on go by how many copies where sold and how many of them have been active in the past 3 months.

Actually, this particular metric vendor uses web traffic to a number (very large) of customer sites that provide them data, and a good deal of these sites large, well-trafficked sites. However, StatCounter seems to show Windows 7 percentages a bit higher than other metric counters (such as NetMarketShare or W3Counter), which means you should never use just one as your only source. I personally prefer NetMarketShare's numbers, because they seem to a good number of the largest web sites, as well as good geographic dispersion of trackers, in their pool.

Using NetMarketShare, it shows (as of September 2011) XP still at just over 50% of the installed base going to their trackers, with Windows 7 at 32.4% and Vista at 9.09% (Linux, any version, is 1.11%), as worldwide numbers. If China is indeed removed from this pool (and China only), those numbers become more understandable:
43% XP, 36% Win7, 11% Vista

If you filter out Asia (given the vast majority of installations in Asia are XP, and a lot of those are suspected to be pirated by the vendor themselves):
39.7% XP, 37% Win7, 12% Vista

For reference, Asia shows up as:
62% XP, 27% Win7, 5.8% Vista

China specifically shows up as:
75% XP, 18.6% Win7, 2.5% Vista


Interesting, indeed. Windows 7's trend (adding about 1.2% worldwide a month, and slightly higher at 1.3% a month with Asia filtered out) would indicate that if trends stay roughly as-is, sometime in November Windows 7 will surpass the Windows XP installed base everywhere but Asia (where piracy is indeed rampant, especially in China and southeastern Asia).

 

[Maguscreed]

No matter what they do to linux I have actually begun to believe it's just impossible to dumb it down enough for the common user to be comfortable with it.
Even many of the people I know that have used it exclusive for years still don't have it completely figured out.

 

[serpentracer]

The data on Linux is always wrong. These reports on go by how many copies where sold and how many of them have been active in the past 3 months. This is a bad way of gathering data. How about you go by how many diffrent installations have looked for updates in the past week. This would give you a real number. Linux has around 4% of users as a main OS and as a secondary it is around 12%. Mac OS X is around 18% if you go by how many have been updated in the paast week.

Most Linux users did not pay for there OS and this is why they always get over looked in these reports.

I don't mean to get this thread off track but, I don't see what everyone likes about linux. other than it's "free". all it has is a bunch of fluff that no one needs and linux nuts act like it's the greatest stuff since sliced bread.
ooohh, you have a useless 3d cube.
well I can add and remove icons from my desktop. you can't. a way more useful feature that everyone would use.
back to back ubuntu vs windows 7 everyone I've let use both said the linux sucked. (average joe public user)

and I pretty much agree. it lacks so much actual useful features out of the box that it's like playing on a windows 95 machine. and getting everything up and working takes hours of downloading missing packages and software to get stuff to work. for example, to get a firewire port to work you have to download ubuntu studio controls. some program that sounds like it has absoutly nothing to do with a firewire port has the only control to enable it. (roll eyes)
one look in a control panel of a windows 7 computer and you'll find 75% more settings than a linux installation offers.
and at least a windows install I can choose from hundreds of drivers for hardware. linux one or two.

 

[Maguscreed]

I quit using linux distros after spending nearly 2 months trying to keep a stable wireless connection on my laptop with it.

Following massive amounts of assistance from the linux community trying everything I was directed to do verbatim then being told it only didn't work because I was doing it wrong. ...no never again. I have never encountered a problem in windows I couldn't solve within a matter of hours.

There is also the matter of me not owning a game console and thus my computer is my gaming device. Linux kind of kills that as well.

 

[serpentracer]

I quit using linux distros after spending nearly 2 months trying to keep a stable wireless connection on my laptop with it.

Following massive amounts of assistance from the linux community trying everything I was directed to do verbatim then being told it only didn't work because I was doing it wrong. ...no never again. I have never encountered a problem in windows I couldn't solve within a matter of hours.

There is also the matter of me not owning a game console and thus my computer is my gaming device. Linux kind of kills that as well.

holy cow I thought mine was the only one. If I leave it sit for 30 min it lost the connection and I can not get it to connect again unless I restart the computer

and not to mention the fact mine has a broadcom wireless card (pretty popular I'm told) and I had to spend days looking for and downloading packages after packages to get it to work.
pretty pathetic considering the computer came originally with xp home and I put pro without any service packs on it and I never had to download any special driver for it.

 

[Vertex]

Linux gets overlooked on the market shares because its mostly free and don't require you to buy a license which is the basis of sales which then becomes the basis for market shares.

I'd assume when you guys talk about Linux, you are most likely talking about Ubuntu. I have quit on using Ubuntu cause the system on how I'm supposed to navigate through it doesn't suit me. I'm a Linux user as well as a Windows 7 user and first of all, I agree that Linux is no match to the feel of Windows 7. Its miles and miles away from the complexity and on how well Windows 7 is polished. But still I can't shake the feeling that other Linux distros, some with rather good or decent features often get overlooked. But Linux starts up and shuts down faster than Windows (Mine would shut down in 6 seconds).

However, I found a Linux distro called Linux Mint, from a source I read, its users are only 1/3 the number of Ubuntu users but this one is so much friendlier than Ubuntu for Windows migrants. I made a dual boot between Linux Mint 9 and Windows 7. I have a DSL connection and it works well with this distro as long as I follow the rules or else my connection would be so slow I can barely go to sites beyond Google. Here are the rules:

1. If I want to use Internet on Linux, I have to boot Linux first before Windows since I turned on the computer.

2. If if boot up Windows 7 first, but then I want to switch to Linux Mint, after I'm done using Windows 7, I have to shut down the computer, unplug it, unplug the power of my MODEM. Plug them again, turn on my computer then boot to my Linux Mint 9 then the Internet connection would be smooth.

I have observed the same rules if I want my DSL Internet to work on Ubuntu and other Linux distros as well.

Newer versions of Linux distros now come with the Software Manager that installs apps much easier than doing a lot of tricky installations of tons of packages and stuff. But this requires Internet connection of course cause the Software Manager downloads and installs apps automatically for you. This is another aspect about Linux that is often overlooked.

I have learned to deal with the Linux Mint distro and I use it almost everyday cause it also produces a slightly louder sound output than Windows. I listen to songs and if I need louder sound output, I use my Linux. Its not as good as Windows but for a free OS, its pretty decent so I don't bash Linux right now.

 

[echrada]

I think we all know that Linux and all its distros 'suck', even though the Linux world out there refuse to believe it. :devil2::devil2::devil2:

 

[Maguscreed]

Linux has a purpose, one which it is uniquely suited for, and quite possibly better at than any alternative available free or otherwise.
It's just not as an operating system for a home computer.

 

[ACR731]

I don't mean to get this thread off track but, I don't see what everyone likes about linux. other than it's "free". all it has is a bunch of fluff that no one needs and linux nuts act like it's the greatest stuff since sliced bread.
ooohh, you have a useless 3d cube.
well I can add and remove icons from my desktop. you can't. a way more useful feature that everyone would use.
back to back ubuntu vs windows 7 everyone I've let use both said the linux sucked. (average joe public user)

and I pretty much agree. it lacks so much actual useful features out of the box that it's like playing on a windows 95 machine. and getting everything up and working takes hours of downloading missing packages and software to get stuff to work. for example, to get a firewire port to work you have to download ubuntu studio controls. some program that sounds like it has absoutly nothing to do with a firewire port has the only control to enable it. (roll eyes)
one look in a control panel of a windows 7 computer and you'll find 75% more settings than a linux installation offers.
and at least a windows install I can choose from hundreds of drivers for hardware. linux one or two.

I don't think Linux sucks. I have used an Ubuntu distro on numerous occasions and think its rather decent. However, the problem I have with it is that it is totally useless to me for everyday use. Every application I use is Windows based, and I also play games downloaded from GFWL or Steam. For those reasons a Linux CD would be used as nothing more than a coaster for my coffee mug.

Decent OS, but have no use for it. Same goes for running Mac OS in a virtual window. I've done it, but I have no real use for it and it isn't worth wasting my time tinkering with it.

 

[lhorwinkle]

The problem with Linux (on the desktop) is that it has no significant vendor push.

Microsoft and Apple are tuned into their customer base, and they try to cater to it. That's what any business tries to do.

What company is the proprietor of Linux? There isn't one. That's why it has gone almost nowhere (at least on the desktop).

 

[Vertex]

Well, I totally disagree that Linux ultimately "sucks" because that's an understatement. I even use it if I'm handling potentially dangerous operations like removing malware from USB flasdrives because its immune to most malware. Believe me I've done that many times to rid off malware from my own flashdrive or other people's flashdrives. I just let the explorer on Linux show hidden files I manually delete these bad stuff without even using an antivirus. Its way too overlooked by many people.

 

[serpentracer]

Well, I totally disagree that Linux ultimately "sucks" because that's an understatement. I even use it if I'm handling potentially dangerous operations like removing malware from USB flasdrives because its immune to most malware. Believe me I've done that many times to rid off malware from my own flashdrive or other people's flashdrives. I just let the explorer on Linux show hidden files I manually delete these bad stuff without even using an antivirus. Its way too overlooked by many people.

that is one of the 2 or 3 useful things it's good for. lol
the other one I use it for is torrenting. I don't trust windows to not catch a std from another computer lol

 

[Maguscreed]

Funny I use the commonsense security suite with window (see - no active antivirus)
I have not gotten infected in nearly a decade.
I don' t know why people act like viral infection is an issue for anyone with any real level of computer experience.
...and yes I was even a member of the torrent community for awhile. Though admittedly it was mostly to support distros of open source stuff I liked.
Kind of got out when I realized how criminal the community really was.