Good luck displacing Windows 7, Microsoft, it's still growing

The Register ^ | May 3, 2015 | Simon Sharwood

[dayglored]

April desktop OS usage stats show XP's really sinking fast now

If it's the first Monday of the month, and it is, it must be time to have a look at desktop operating system market share as recorded by StatCounter and Netmarketshare.

It looks like the skids are really under Windows XP now. Netmarketshare has it down from 16.94 per cent to 15.93 per cent. StatCounter has a dip to 10.91 per cent, down from March's 11.21 per cent. We know there are still big corporate XP users out there, such as the operator of the infamous Fukushima nuclear power plant, and there are anecdotes-a-plenty to be had about pirated XP in developing nations.

Perhaps the move's finally on?

If so, the two click-counters' data doesn't quite explain where users are going. Both report a small spurt of growth for Windows 7, which StatCounter has at 53.81 per cent, up from 53.66 per cent. Netmarketshare records a similar jump, from 58.04 per cent to 58.39 per cent. Windows 8.1 is also growing, to 15.76 per cent market share according to StatCounter and 11.16 from Netmarketshare, up .61 and .25 of a point respectively.

Windows 7's dominance of the desktop shows why Microsoft will make users of the OS its first migration target for Windows 10 upgrades. But with Windows 7 still growing, will users want to make the jump? The XP experience shows that without a compelling reason to upgrade, plenty of users are very happy to hang on to operating systems that may not have all of Microsoft’s newest baubles, but do get the job done.

...

[rarestia]

Microsoft screwed the pooch on Windows 8

Have you actually used Windows 8? I mean actually used it for more than 2 minutes in a demo. If you had, you would grow to like the environment much more than Windows 7. Windows 8 is functionally more robust than Windows 7. There are more tools and functions baked into Windows 8 than there were in 7. Having been using Windows 8.1 for over a year now, I feel awkward in Windows 7. The environment is different and feels clunkier. Windows 8.1 is a polished OS with a much more feature-rich environment than Windows 7, and, quite frankly, if you're expecting Windows 7 out of 10, you're in for a surprise.

[TNoldman]

Agreed, Win7-Pro here and I like it to much. Win-10 would need to offer something
truly astounding to get my attention.

The new windows will have a different type of authorization code which will make pirating impossible.

[TomGuy]

MS should have updated XP. The redesign with ribbon menues (gosh-awful) and similar cutzie features made Win7-8 less productive.

I finally got a Win 7 laptop and desktop about 3 years ago. Took a while, but I got most of it to act and look like XP.

I did lose some software — no Win7 equivalents. I did jerry-rig some XP programs to get them to work in Win7. I did lose a laser printer that had no Win7 64-bit driver.

Many people wanted/needed productivity OS. Win8 was more of a kiddy program for tablets and smartphones, etc.

MS needs to listen to customers. Many of them still want/need productivity over cutzie.

[catnipman]

“the game will have changed again.”

The game won’t change again, at least in a good way for Microsoft: people fled from Microsoft PCs to android and iOS not just because they wanted mobile, but also because they were fleeing 20 years of horrible experience with buggy, balky, flaky, crashy, bloated, brittle, virus-prone,literally impossible to secure, constantly updating, constant browser and OS obsolescence Windows operating systems. The last thing these people want is to be sucked back into the Microsoft world for any reason.

I know all of this because I work for a living with Windows operating systems both for business and home users.