PC market sinking even faster than first thought, thanks to Windows 10

The Register ^ | 10 Jun 2016 | Simon Sharwood

[george76]

The abacus-shufflers of analyst firm IDC have revised their 2016 PC sales forecasts downwards.

The firm now says PC shipments “... are forecast to decline by 7.3% year over year”. That's “roughly two per cent below earlier projections as conditions have been weaker than expected.” The firm names “weak currencies, depressed commodity prices, political uncertainty, and delayed projects” as the weaker conditions impacting sales.

Windows 10 isn't helping matters either, because lots of people are availing themselves of free Windows 10 upgrades rather than buying a new PC. The firm also says that “while a large share of enterprises are evaluating Windows 10, the pace of new PC purchases has not yet stabilized commercial PC shipments.” Which sounds like plenty of organisations just aren't pulling the upgrade trigger fast enough to give the PC market a kick.

IDC also blames Windows 10 for slowing workstation sales. Earlier this week the firm reported EMEA workstation shipment numbers, reporting sales of 1,170,000 in the region during 2015, down from 2014's 1,194,000 shipments. "It looks like Windows 10 migration has been the priority in enterprise infrastructure budgets this year," said Mohamed Hefny, program manager in the Virtualization, Systems, and Infrastructure Solutions department of IDC CEMA.

[McGruff]

Or maybe it’s the Obama economy.

[MayflowerMadam]

Yes; XP is still the best. And MS Office 2003.

[imfbi]

I have one windows 10 machine and three Ubuntu 14.04 machines.
I’m a retired software and electrical engineer so I have time and skill set to get Ubuntu or any other Linux system, up and running, to me it is like a puzzle, or a game of chess. It is not for the general public. But the price is right, and when it is up and running it will beat any Windows or Mac hands down. Most of the cloud is Linux based.
My windows machine is only used for resetting codes on my cars or the wifes facebook games. My big complaint with Mac is I want a VW, and they force me to buy a Maybach with full armor.
My advice is to stay with Win 7, and save for a Mac,
Stay out of the clouds, and keep your stuff local.

[Cold Heart]

Amazon has Windows 7 laptops. Some new some refurbished. I have one coming. Didn’t check to see if there were any regular PC’s

[upchuck]

And MS Office 2003.

Yes! 2003, the last version before the rise of the dreaded ribbon. 2003 forever!

[SharpRightTurn]

“A woman I could barely understand named, “Bob””

I usually get “Steve” from Bangalore.

[Organic Panic]

I have 3 CNCs, one inspection machine, and my print server all running on XP laptops. Until MS offers me a check to upgrate my CNC machines, plotters, and CMM machine, I’ll stick with that.

My workstation though... Windows 10, damnit! Hate it. Hate what they did with a passion. Cost me upwards of $11,000 in forced software upgrades that I didn’t want or need.

[B4Ranch]

When you call an 800 number the first words out of you mouth should be, “Are you in the United States?” If the answer is No ask to be connected to someone who is in the US. The law says they MUST abide by your request.

[PraiseTheLord]

Some time ago last I looked were lots of choices of Win7 etc

Any seller of, as Amazon, Staples, Walmart, TigerDirect etc

on line, down the left side all the choices for what you are looking for as size,make,internals, Operatingsystem, et al

[raybbr]

W10 ping

[georgiarat]

Anyone who allows Windows 10 on their PC or uses Google as their search engine cares nothing about their privacy and might as well be donating to the Hillary for President campaign.

[Cementjungle]

The days of wanting to rush out every year to get the latest, fastest, bestest computer are behind me. They're finally just fine for my needs... fast enough and all that so I no longer feel that urge.

When this one croaks, then I'll get another one.

[r_barton]

You can have multiple operating systems on a PC. On my Dell laptop I have 4. Windows 10, Ubuntu Linux 16.04, Cub Linux (Chromebook clone) and Android-x86 (Android that runs android apps on my PC laptop). All of the additional operating systems are free.

Add a solid state drive (SSD) to your PC to really increase speed. A 120-gb SSD is about $40. With it my PC boots Windows 10 in 15 seconds and Ubuntu Linux in 15 seconds.

[Auntie Dem]

I will say, despite Windows 10 uninstalling and trashing some apps I never used, it has improved some things I like a lot. I have a 34” 21:9 Ultrawide monitor that lets me split the screen into multiple windows—a little like a dual monitor setup. Under Windows 10 I can hover my mouse over any of the windows and scroll up and down without clicking in the window to make it the active window. Outlook 2016 keeps track of files I’ve recently opened, and if I want to attach a file to an email I can pick the file from a drop-down list. Windows 7 & 8 required me to use Windows Explorer through the Attach icon, taking a couple more steps.

[georgiarat]

I repeat, if you are using any Google products you are in bed with the Democrats. I was a CIo for a major entity for sixteen years. I served on boards that allowed me to see behind the scenes. They are evil, Period. Everything using Android, Chrome, and Google search is stored and big data used for advancing the socialist cause.

[r_barton]

If you have an old laptop sitting around, turn it into a Chromebook for free with software from Neverware CloudReady .

I had an old Dell Inspiron 1545 that I had upgraded the hardware on, to a Core Two Duo T9500 with 8gb memory and a 120gb SSD hard drive. It ran Windows 10 okay, but it was still a little slow. I upgraded it to a Chromebook with free software at the link below and I am very pleased. Runs really fast. Soon will also run android apps when Google releases a Chromebook update. CloudReady gets regular free software updates in the background.

Except for the bootup logo (CloudReady), this looks and works exactly like a Chromebook. Cub Linux (use to be called Chromixium) is a close approximation of a Chromebook, but CloudReady is closer.

Installing CloudReady will erase everything on your hard disk. You can install Windows 10 or a Linux distro later for dual boot. I have not installed dual boot on this old machine. But if you are interested in dual boot, Google “CloudReady, Windows 10 or Ubuntu dual boot” for instructions.

This would be a great OS to give to an older relative or a child on a laptop or desktop. It would require almost zero support, unlike Windows or Linux. Also a great use for an older laptop. It is free for individual use and gets regular updates. It’s being used and supported in schools (for a $49 per year fee). But an individuals download and use is free.

You have to create the bootable USB install stick on Windows or a Mac or another Chromebook. This is not a live distribution. It does not run from the USB stick, you must install it on the hard disk. You download the CloudReady .bin/.zip file and use a Chromebook restore utility in Google Chrome to create the USB stick using the .bin/.zip file. It takes about 20 minutes to create the USB stick and another 20 minutes to install after booting the USB stick. You then sign in to the Chromebook using your Gmail / Google login. Basically, think of a Chromebook as Google windows. Chromebooks usually require an internet connection in order to operate as most of its files and software are in the cloud, but you can save work to the Chromebook and work offline, if necessary.

Neverware - CloudReady Chromebook software for USB stick
http://www.neverware.com/#introtext-3

[Freedom56v2]

When you call an 800 number the first words out of you mouth should be, “Are you in the United States?” If the answer is No ask to be connected to someone who is in the US. The law says they MUST abide by your request.

---

I did not know it is a matter of law...interesting.

[Montana_Sam]

You're right - Fedora isn't perfect. But neither am I. This box I'm using at the moment is a Fedora 23 Mate box running Compiz. Lotsa fun. With LibreOffice and Firefox, it will do everything I need off the job.

At work, it is a Win8.1 jobber. The sup wants me to upgrade to Win10, but the replacement of the Explorer 'Favorites' with the new 'Quick Access' feature is a deal-breaker for me. Am guardian of over a dozen test servers, each configured pretty much the same with the same installation-folder structures, and the Win8.1 Windows Explorer 'Favorites' lets me give each shortcut link its own name. Not so with 'Quick Access'. And 'Quick Access' tends to move things around. Sure, you can temporarily stop that, but each time Win10 updates, it tends to flush settings. And having fourteen 'Quick Access' links all named "Product Name" (guess which is on which server? I don't have the luxury of a couple of minutes of opening folders to find the right one, since this is something I'm doing five or ten times each and every hour of every day.) I'm not the only one complaining about that gigantic leap backwards into last century, either. (My partner-in-crime at work has Win10, and so I am speaking from the experience of watching him have fun. Well, maybe not fun, exactly. At least, not for him. But it's a knee-slapper for me.)

So, here's to Fedora! And the future belongs to Linux and Python.

[Maelstorm]

I think something PC like will always have a place but I really see PCs eventually merging with tablets and phones especially as traditional bulky drive technology and other hardware components become obsolete replaced entirely by persistent memory technology. Eventually we will have one and only one computing device that we will use in even more varied ways. I recently tried out Android Auto in a rental and it worked surprisingly well. Instead of having an internal gps it just linked up to my android phone and used my phone to run the google gps app through the cars dash screen. I also had access to my audible books and other apps. It was perfectly integrated and that is really where technology is moving.

We don’t really need dozens of computing devices. We do need various screens so that we can work effectively with our primary computing device. No one is going to edit a word document directly on their smart phone. I personally would love if all I had to do is walk into my den with my phone press a button on the phone and it connect directly with the screen and then have everything I need immediately on the big screen. Sure I can accomplish that now but I’d have to go through a few more steps and buy a specialized monitor with widi support or a specialize receiver for screen mirroring. Eventually though the wireless screen sharing protocols will be integrated into everything. Clothes will have screens that you can interface with your phone, etc.

There will still be a place for persistent pc like devices but they will be very inexpensive and likely support protocols that make them inherently wireless processing extensible. Imagine not just doing a trick like sharing a screen across several phones but actually sharing processing so that the sum total is more powerful than each individual phone. Imagine a thousand people in a room each with a phone being able to connect together to become a virtual supercomputer. Right now the commercial technology isn’t there but some day it will be and with computer becoming exponentially cheaper those selling computing devices of any kind will have to keep pushing things to the next level to justify to the end consumer the need to purchase different variants of computing device when one will usually suffice.

[Trod Upon]

Install Linux along side or in place of windows. Mint is very user friendly.