Posted on 07/15/2016 8:13:13 PM PDT by dayglored
All that nagware hasn't worked
When Windows 10 launched, Microsoft claimed it would have the new operating system on a billion devices by mid-2018. That isn't going to happen, however, Redmond has now admitted.
For the past year, Microsoft has offered the new OS as a free upgrade for both desktop and mobile users (provided the phone can handle it in the latter case), and has been pushing it for Internet of Things makers. However, so far the OS is only on 350 million monthly active devices, and Redmond says it needs more time to hit ten figures.
"We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 [the year to July 2018] for us to reach our goal of one billion monthly active devices," a spokeswoman told The Reg.
"In the year ahead, we are excited about usage growth coming from commercial deployments and new devices – and increasing customer delight with Windows."
The admission shows that the persistent nagware on PCs for users of Windows 7 and 8.1 hasn't worked, despite Microsoft attempting some fairly underhanded tactics to get people to upgrade, and may have soured some on the OS.
Enterprises, which were thought to be big believers in the new operating system, have also been unimpressed. Sure, there are pilot programs running in many companies, but IT managers have shown little willingness to do a mass upgrade when earlier operating systems are still working well.
The other failure point is with Microsoft's mobile strategy, or lack of one these days. Windows Phone sales are cratering, it's not a popular OS with vendors, and although Microsoft says it is still developing the platform, their OS is short on apps and customers.
Microsoft can expect an upsurge in Windows 10 installations from PC users toward the end of the month, when the free upgrade offer ends. But with PC sales disappointing, mobile users a dying breed, and enterprise not biting yet, it's clear Microsoft will need longer than two years to hit the billion mark. 2020 perhaps?
I'm running four Win10 machines at home and don't pay a dime for them let alone per month. Where did you get this notion from?
Nice try. MS pay its trolls much these days? Windows 8.1 was such a catastrophe that it is squarely responsible for the rejection of Windows 10.
After trying Windows 8.1, (which caused business programs to crash, stall, process more slowly than dripping mollasses on a December day), tens of millions of happy Windows 7 users like me issued a manifesto to MS when the Windows 10 harassment upgrade started: “Windows 7 - Forever!! Death to Windows 10!!”
I will never, never, EVER switch to Windows 10. After what I experienced with Windows 8.1, MS has lost me as a customer for anything other than Windows 7.
And I figure that Windows 7 should last long enough til I can (hopefully) retire.
Relax. This same article appeared in a lot of tech news, I just happen to enjoy the Register and posted it from there.
It’s not about the operating system, it’s about the fact that Microsoft was foolish enough to make a big freaking deal in public about their “personal goal”. If they’d merely been more subtle, these articles about missing the goal wouldn’t exist.
But they were unsubtle, and so they get to feel foolish now.
It’s not about the OS.
I have seen this “goal” garbage in other organizations.
Senior managers set goals and then the entire organization jumps through hoops, usually including unethical shortcuts (also known as cheating) to meet them.
Usually the goal itself is the problem, and the organization burns employee morale and its public image as a result.
The stupid do rise to the top.
I upgraded from 7 last week and haven’t had these constant upgrades. Maybe it was there for the very beginning of 10 and is fixed now.
Overall I like it. For example it fixed one annoying issue of volume being either too quiet or too loud with nothing in between and things seem generally faster.
To be fair, this is not by merit of the operating system. It is largely due to name-brand recognition among the unwashed masses.
Yeah, the thought crossed my mind more than once, that all these nagging, vaguely unethical tricks about upgrading from 7 or 8 to 10 were the result of middle managers having to "MAKE THE NUMBERS".
Arbitrary, unrealistic goal-setting is a pox on proper business and engineering practice.
My Win 10 conversion was seamless.
I even mentioned on FR how good it was.
Then on July 1 it auto downloaded an update that locked up my Office sw. Wouldn’t let me remove the Office and reinstall.
Now I’ll admit the Office copy I had was undocumented...but the one I tried to install was legit. Had to scrub the HD and start from scratch.
#39 it will be. Just like when Microsoft tested Office rentel in Australia.
They said it would never happen in the US.
They then started charging for here in the USA.
It’s only a bit of sarcasm. Though like any sarcasm there is a bit of truth in it. But understand people generally didn’t move to LINUX out of fear. They are not moving to Windows out of irritation. I loaded Windows 10 and there I was staring at it just like Windows 8. After playing around a bit and getting more and more frustrated, I went back to 7. My fundamental problems with Windows is the constantly changing operator interface and the somewhat strong arm tactics they use to force themselves on you. I am moving to Mint from 7 on my big machine. Don’t know if it is any better but but the interface is simpler. But most of my day to day activity is done on an iPad. Please not I am not an Apple fan either. Microsoft should go back to the XP interface for PCs and use whatever they want on portable devices.
I have never read this before. Where did you get this information?
A freeper told me about Never10, I very cautiously used it. It worked great.
I've spent days this week trying to get Windows Update to work again on two different computers and now a third was force fed the Update to Windows 10 yesterday and now all three are update hosed.
Yep, my past loyalty is over and done with and I'll be well on my way to pathological hatred for all things Microsoft, just as soon as I catch up on all the work I should have been doing this week instead of trying to fix the freaking update problems!
Grrrrrrrrr.....FUBG!! After all these years together since early days of MS-DOS, I thought we were friends. And then you pull this???
Nuc 1.1, you’ve encapsulated my exact feeling for the entire Windows 10 thing.
The interface from Win 95 to XP was fine. It was predictable, usable... it just worked. It was comforting in the fact that users could rely on things working the exact same way and seeing the same kinds of things in their interface for 20 years.
Like cars with steering wheels and 2 floor pedals. Put whatever you want under the hood; the user didn’t need to go back to school to know how to drive it.
I’m an old MS guy, used DOS back in the day, adopted Windows when it was 3.0 (remember File Manager and Program Manager? Those were the days...). Once I learned the ins and outs of Windows 95, MS could practically do no wrong in my eyes. It even dumped ideas and software that didn’t work without too much protest.
Then Gates left and Ballmer unleashed Windows 8.0. My God what a Charlie Foxtrot.
The Windows 10 interface was a compromise between 8 and the old 95-98-XP-7 interface. It, like all compromises, pleased very few people.
At least the codebase was slimmer and trimmer. Too bad it’s not 100%. I have yet to get DVD burners on any of my Windows 10 machines at home to work. I have to burn CDs and DVDs on a Linux box I have in a spare room. Before 10, the other machines burned DVDs just fine, then the 10 upgrade made it go BOOM! no more DVD burns.
I noticed copying or moving files and folders to other drives, even USB sticks, is much slower now too. Weird.
And after MS Edge decided it wanted to be the default browser, without the one feature that I loved on IE - the dropdown list of URLs most visited - I went over to Google Chrome, which has a whole other set of issues but is still preferable to Edge IMO.
“It isnt.”
No, not yet it isn’t. You did not read the whole post. I said that it would be on a monthly rental basis in a year or so.....and it will be. You already know that it is coming! ;-)
“I’m running four Win10 machines at home and don’t pay a dime for them let alone per month. Where did you get this notion from?”
You either did not read or did not comprehend the whole sentence. I said that Windows 10 would be on a monthly rental basis in a year or so. It is now only for Enterprise systems but it is coming for home users, too, and you already know that. ;-)
MS has already announced that Enterprise systems would be on a monthly rental basis.
Home users will not be that far behind, as I said in my post, in the next year or so. ;-)
DH’s new HP Envy laptop came with Windows 10. It’s a spawn of Satan. Plus, we decided to go with Office 365. Dreadful software from the bowels of Hell.
My own laptop is ready for pickup and I believe I’ll have Win 10 removed, Win 7 installed, and go find my Office Pro 2003 program.
Every time MS makes an “upgrade”, it’s the exact opposite. Uppity kid at local Geek Squad with a snooty attitude was making fun of me, and sarcastically asked me what I DID want, and I told him WordPerfect, Lotus, and Paradox — all for DOS. My husband was embarrassed and walked away. LOL!
I agree. MS-DOS I once had a book that taught one how to use it. Elephant drives, Osbourne’s, I’ sure you know the drill. We sure date ourselves FReeper. I guess I just don’t want to waste what is left of the rest of my life learning how to interface once again with a piece of electrified silicon. I am not going to do it. I’m not. God knows what Microsoft plans for enterprise work stations. At work we are using. 32 bit 7 and of course we are running out of memory for large documents and multitasking on individual work stations. It is a large company and going to 64 bit LANs and WANs will be quite expensive for them. Eventually everything will have to go to Windows 10 and the company will have to eat the lost productivity while everyone comes up to speed interfacing with the stuff. Hope I am fully retired by then.
It’s not even close, Windows 10 is by far the best and most secure Windows and the best and most secure enterprise and consumer client OS. Server OSes are fairly equal between Linux and Windows, depending on the application. I have been in IT since 1980. As of now it isn’t the best mobile OS, IMO, but it is on a path to be the best mobile OS in 2017-18.
Microsoft may not hit the 1 Billion ACTIVE (not installs or upgrades) devices (all devices: PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, etc.) over a sliding 30-day time frame metric by July 29th 2018, however, it is around 400 Million now, so to characterize Windows 10 as a “failure” is ludicrous. We should all be so lucky to have a failure like that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.