1.5M regular users now testing Windows 10 preview

Computerworld ^ | 04/06/2015 | By Gregg Keizer

[SeekAndFind]

Although Microsoft has said its Windows 10 preview program has some 2.8 million participants, just over half of those are using the early version on a regular basis, according to Web metrics estimates.

For March, U.S.-based analytics company Net Applications pegged Windows 10's user share, a rough projection of the fraction of online users running the OS, at 0.09%, or nine PC users out of every 10,000.

That represented 0.1% of all Windows PC users, the slight difference due to the fact that Windows does not account for all personal computer operating systems, but instead about 91%.

Windows 10's user share of all Windows PCs last month was slightly less than Windows 8's 0.12% in March 2012, seven months before the latter's official launch. Microsoft ran a preview program for Windows 8 in the year prior to the OS's October 2012 on-sale date.

This time, however, Microsoft will ship the upgrade at least one, perhaps several, months sooner on the calendar than it did Windows 8: The Redmond, Wash. company has promised to release Windows 10 this summer, a wide window that could mean as early as June or as late as September.

Windows 10's user share translated into approximately 1.5 million users, assuming about 1.52 billion Windows PCs in operation across the globe.

Microsoft last gave an Insider participant count a month ago, when Stephen Elop, formerly the CEO of Nokia and now the head of Microsoft's Device and Services division, said there were 2.8 million registered testers.

[topspinr]

Been using it since it became available.

Had a big problem with the 10049 update. It did not recognize my video card/drivers.
Have it now reconfigured correctly.

Cortana does not work for me. Guess l need a webcam.

I like it too much, not ever going back to Win 7.

[catnipman]

Yep, and I’m one of ‘em. But just because so many of us are testing W10, doesn’t mean we’re gonna convert our businesses or our business clients. We’re EVALUATING whether we’re gonna convert or not, and more importantly we’re making sure our software will work on Windows 10 for those who end up buying W10, which will probably be mostly ignorant consumers who will have it rammed down their throats at Best Buy and the like. You know, like W8 was rammed down their throats, with that being the final straw that caused millions to flee Microsoft forever.

More importantly, peruse the many tech sites regarding W10 and you’ll see nearly dead silence, which is substantially different than the pre-releases of W8 when there were thousands of howls of “disaster looming for Microsoft” and thousands of paid MS trolls replying back with canned responses about how much their little daughters and their ancient grannies just LOVED W8.

Beyond just a smattering of posts, there is neither praise nor attacks on W10 at this point. My interpretation of that situation is that W10 is being seen by serious technicians as little more than W8 with a fresh coat of paint and is not being taken seriously enough to bother to criticize it, especially since it’s clear Microsoft has not listened to us in the past and is CLEARLY not listening to us now as they exclusively plow down the smartphone path unimpeded by any real concerns for the needs of their bread and butter enterprise and SMB customers as, once again, they believe they can take us for granted and that we have no alternatives.

I’m just now converting the majority of my business clients from XP to W7. I’ll keep them on W7 if/until MS produces something that is compatible with the hundreds of millions of current PC applications and user interfaces, and is substantially more productive for their users than Windows 7. Should that case not arise from MS, then there’s no business case for “upgrading” from Windows 7, even if it is “free”, as there will be no positive investment return from the massive costs of the change.

And based on working extensively with W10 TP releases, I can tell you W10 is NOT better than W7. W10 is nothing but a gussied up W8.x with nothing new in it that’s needed on enterprise or SMB PCs. There’s nothing new in W10 that’s not being put their solely to foster MS’s vain hope of growing their currently shrinking 3% worldwide smartphone market share. Cortana, Spartan, APIs for universal device applications, slightly improved (but still bereft) MS App Store, integrated MS cloud, integrated MS Bing, and all the rest are things for cell phones and/or things MS wants to try to trick people into paying extra money for. And not a single one of these things is useful for enterprise and SMB PCs.

Fundamentally, W10 is what Microsoft management is selling to its ignorant board of directors as the great mobile savior that will make Microsoft relevant in mobile. The problem is that Microsoft will never be relevant in mobile. That war was fought and lost years ago before Microsoft even understood they were in a battle, much less in a war for survival. W10’s sole purpose is really to keep the post-Ballmerites in their jobs for the few years that it will take the board to realize that they’re equally as clueless and impotent as the recently departed Ballmerites.

Before it was released to the public, I predicted W8.x was going to be a massive disaster for both Microsoft and the entire PC industry, and I predict that W10 will be little better. W10 is going to be almost as big a bomb for MS as W8.x.