US data suggests Windows 10 adoption in business is slowing

Windows 10's business push may be slowing, at least according to data gathered from visits to United States government web sites. Each month, The Register checks out StatCounter, Netmarketshare and the US government's analytics service to see how desktop operating systems are faring in the market. All count web traffic, the …

[Anonymous Coward]

If I were Microsoft, I'd be quite worried about the numbers of 7, 8, & 8.1 users. Those are people that have actively resisted the -frankly- underhand and overbearing attempt to push them onto 10. Sure they *could* be planning to go to 10 in the future. Wouldn't put too much money on it though...

[AMBxx]

Not necessarily

Large businesses have a lot more testing to do before they roll out a new OS.

I have Windows 10 on everything except the VM I run VPN connections from. With customers each having different VPN software, there's no way I dare upgrade as I don't know what's compatible.

Don't forget, you don't get a forced upgrade screen for Windows Enterprse Edition either,

[Bruce Ordway]

Re: Not necessarily - VPN

>> VPN connections, no way I dare upgrade

I discovered some VPN connections no longer worked in 10, while on the road of course.

Later I noticed that a VPN connection can be disconnected while 10 is downloading updates.

I finally installed kill switch software to handle applications relying on those VPNs.

Apart from some overzealous IT workers, I haven't seen any interest in upgrading workstations at businesses. People I speak with view it as an necessary expense or a disruption for no real benefit.

Aside from that, 10 seems to work.

[Trevor_Pott]

Re: Not necessarily

"Don't forget, you don't get a forced upgrade screen for Windows Enterprse Edition either,"

Don't forget, you're an asshole if you think that's an acceptable "solution".

Cheers,

Someone who works with individuals and companies too small to Enterprise Edition/Microsoft would you like to spend 6 months arguing about your licensing "position"/PAY MORE NOW FOR A SUBSCRIPTION "Software Assurance" THAT YOU DON'T WANT OR NEED.

P.S. And they STILL don't let Enterprise Edition "customers" turn off spying. So paying them more STILL doesn't get you control over your own OS.

[AMBxx]

you're an asshole if you think that's an acceptable "solution"

Bad hangover or something?

I wasn't suggesting it was a solution to anything, nor that it was acceptable. The point is that large businesses aren't being auto-upgraded in the same way that home and small business, so the stats don't reflect businesses refusing the upgrade, more that it's not being forced on them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: you're an asshole if you think that's an acceptable "solution"

With all the telemetry; I wouldn't think that corporations would show too much interest in 10...but everybody writes confidential documents in Office 365, so what do I know? I wouldn't let it near my business.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Large businesses have a lot more testing to do"

Granted that's the case, but what percentage of users do you think businesses, especially those running Enterprise Edition, represent? There is obviously tremendous consumer and small business resistance to the upgrade Microsoft is trying to force down their throats. That has to terrify them, complete 180 from 20 years ago when people waited in line at midnight to be the first to buy Windows 95.

[Tomato42]

any more of the malware campaign by MS for the 10 and people may really start going back to XP, as you won't get them there... security be damned ("it worked before, so why it won't work today")

[Anonymous Coward]

Have an upvote.

I still run one XP machine, and may well revert a 2nd, to run a superb old flatbed scanner. Despite all the scare mongering, I have not had a single security issue with the XP box online.

Like many others Win7 is it, my newest PC is Ubuntu powered, although the learning curve is steep and I feel very constrained by what it will let me do on the desktop.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Have an upvote.

Like you Ian, I have an XP machine running for one single job. Mine runs in a VM on OS/2 and, for some strange reason, when I was using it on Saturday it got a security update which was installed when it closed (I'll find out what that was when I run it again).

We have clients that are still using XP as well because their custom software won't run on 7 and there are no drivers for the specalist equipment attached either.

[Primus Secundus Tertius]

Re: Have an upvote.

@Ivan 4

Take it from me, another XP user: the update is very likely the malicious software removal tool.

I keep wondering when MS will consider anything other than Windows 10 to be malicious software.

XP is fairly safe if you run as a non-admin user. Fine, if you don't have to use some shoddy old in-house app that won't run unless it is an admin user.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Have an upvote.

Don't forget about the little registry hack that turns your XP box into a EPOS machine and will then allow you to download the latest batch of updates!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Have an upvote.

There's no rule saying you have to connect it to the internet.

[Richard Plinston]

Re: Have an upvote.

> There's no rule saying you have to connect it to the internet.

Which probably explains the drop in the XP stats - they have taken the XP machines 'off air' and now use an iPad to browse the internet.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Have an upvote.

"Ubuntu ... I feel very constrained by what it will let me do on the desktop."

If you're on Unity try installing XFCE,LXDE, Mate, Cinnamon or KDE. I really dislike the notion that a desktop should only have icons for "apps" on it.

My preference is KDE set to folder view with a Desktop directory as the folder, Classic menu, the irritating bouncing cursor turned off along with auto-maximisation of windows. This ends up with an interface which is very similar to pre-insanity Windows from W95 onwards.

[Saigua]

Re: Have an upvote.

So, KDE for Openbsd, or some other alternate dbus? tmux to the masses?

Elder WinScrolls are VM Windows from Citrix et al as 'installs' FTW?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Have an upvote.

"So, KDE for Openbsd, or some other alternate dbus?"

I'm not sure if this is a rhetorical question or a genuine query. Assuming it's the latter, I haven't tried OpenBSD but KDE is available for FreeBSD and works just fine.

[Carling]

Re: Have an upvote.

Quote :- my newest PC is Ubuntu powered, although the learning curve is steep.

Reply :- I you think Ubuntu learning curve is steep you should stay with the 16yr old Xp.

Quote :- I feel very constrained by what it will let me do on the desktop.

Reply :- Though I'm NOT a lover of Ubuntu in any way shape or form because Ubuntu is a commercial companies distribution, having said that, There is nothing that can't be done on the desktop. that any windows release can do, In fact more can be done with Linux desktops than can be done with windows,

You should take a look at the latest March 2016 ZorinOS 11 then you'll be right at home with your Xp or W7 desktop. You can switch between Xp or W7 desktop at the click of the mouse button, and all the software you'll ever need comes with it,

For Zorin Linux download from here

http://zorinos.com

For the latest April/May 2016 Linux releases can be downloaded from here

http://distrowatch.com

[Dwarf]

I wonder...

What could the "other" category be ?

Is there another desktop OS that isn't Windows or Mac based that accounts for this 5% voluntary increase in a month compared to 2% for pushy Windows.

Well done Microsoft, you are pushing people towards open source software.

Mines the one that's penguin powered.

[Pascal Monett]

Maybe we're simply seeing the start of a return to normal operations in businesses that gave 1 0 a whirl to see what if, and decided that no, no if, and back to previous, stable, environment.

If that is the case, I expect to see more of this.

In any case, for a free OS so heavily pushed, the results clearly indicate a failure to impress the masses.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hardware requirements, app compatibility and training requirements are the big three concerns for large businesses. Right behind that is the actual upgrade process for large numbers of desktops and, at release, it had a bunch of holes for Windows 7 upgrades. I think a lot of CIO's see the value of the platform, especially as it gets better over time, but its all economics and, for a lot of them, now just isn't the right time. Add to that a new release in the near future and that mix creates one big "postpone moment" for Microsoft.

[Hstubbe]

spyware

Maybe bussinesses are just not interested in giving microsoft and the US government such wide-open backdoors in their systems?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: I wonder...

"What could the "other" category be ?"

Android?

[Dwarf]

Re: I wonder...

Thought about that, but the article says "desktop OS", which excludes Android as its mostly focused around phone and tablets.

However, I understand that Android is Linux based anyhow.

[Carling]

Re: I wonder...

Check out Android x86 which is NOT Google Android

http://www.android-x86.org/

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I wonder...

The other category is just a hodgepodge of things that they aren't specifically looking for. So probably Windows 2000, 98, etc. Older versions of MacOS (often they seem to only check for the current and previous) Oddballs like me running a Linux desktop, Chrome, etc. Maybe some Android users running a browser that lets you set it to 'desktop' mode so their tracking thinks it is a desktop.

[a_yank_lurker]

Re: I wonder...

I am dubious of the statistics as there seems to a lot of noise and sloppy methodology. I tend to pay attention to what Slurp says or not says as my guide to how well Winbloat 10 is doing. At this point in time it is likely there is a natural drop off of installations. The initial blush is over. Most of the installs going forward will be new kit which is not doing well for anyone. Slurp is not been strutting like a hyper-caffeinated peacock which likely means they are nervous.

[Anonymous Coward]

did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

With the refusal early on to allow partners to resell and make a margin on Office 365, Microsoft may now be reaping the unexpected rewards of the seeds it sews.

There is no financial reward for an automated upgrade to Windows 10 in a maintenance contract just a load of work for no additional revenue.

Not to mention Microsoft's latest hostile attempts to lock out non Microsoft browsers and search engines.

This could be the beginning of the rise of Linux on a bigger scale...if it can be consumer friendly to deploy and mamage.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

This could be the beginning of the rise of Linux on a bigger scale...if it can be consumer friendly to deploy and mamage.

I use Ubuntu almost full time now, but I have to say there's still a fair bit of work to do on that and other distros before they could really be described as consumer friendly. The consumer expects to do everything through a GUI, and their are still plenty of examples in the mainstream distros where you have to resort to terminal and text editor to achieve something quite simple - e.g. the equivalent of persistently assigning a drive letter to a NAS share, which in Windows takes about 30s, in Ubuntu would involve plenty of Googling, firing up the good old terminal, editing fstab, ...).

[P. Lee]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

>the equivalent of persistently assigning a drive letter to a NAS share, which in Windows takes about 30s, in Ubuntu would involve plenty of Googling, firing up the good old terminal, editing fstab, ...).

Maybe you should run Suse... ;)

Yast->Network Services->NFS Client

or from the file browser, click on "Network->Samba Shares->(workgroup/domain)->Server->(share)

Admittedly, there is still work to be done. KDE (& probably Gnome) should push their file system configs down to the OS.

[Vic]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

The consumer expects to do everything through a GUI, and their are still plenty of examples in the mainstream distros where you have to resort to terminal and text editor to achieve something quite simple

Don't mistake advice to use the command line as evidence of that being the only way to do something; there's usually a GUI alternative, but the CLI is invariably a more effective way of doing something - as well as being a whole lot easier to descrive in a text-only forum...

e.g. the equivalent of persistently assigning a drive letter to a NAS share, which in Windows takes about 30s, in Ubuntu would involve plenty of Googling, firing up the good old terminal, editing fstab,

Or you could use the graphical tool that does the same thing. My distro of choice supplies fwfstab. I don't use it[1] - I edit /etc/fstab directly because it's easier and quicker for me to do so.

Vic.

[1] Indeed, I didn't even know of its existence until I started writing this reply. I can't imagine I'll ever use it.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

"e.g. the equivalent of persistently assigning a drive letter to a NAS share"

Maybe other desktops are different but with KDE it's a very similar process to Windows - open Dolphin, the file manager, click on Network, click on Add Network Folder & follow the prompts. This works for Samba/Windows connections - I don't have NFS client installed so I don't know whether that's supported.

[Carling]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

Quote :- I use Ubuntu almost full time now,

Reply :- If you use Canonical Ubuntu you need to stop making comments Period I have been using Linux for the the passed 14 yrs and NEVER once had to use the terminal

Quote :- Consumer expects to do everything through a GUI,

Reply :- With Linux there is NOTHING that can't done using the GUI

Answer :- Learn to use the Linux GUI

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

@Carling: Go on then, educate me - how do you persistently set a mount point for a NAS share, such that it'll be visible not just in the File Manager but also in file selection dialogues, in Ubuntu and using only the GUI? I'm genuinely interested, because I've never found a way of doing it, although admittedly I've resorted to the text editor before spending a massive amount of time looking.

In a way the "you should try xxx distro" comments reinforce my point - some distros have made that particular task easy, but they tend to do it in their own way and they'll have newbie usability shortcomings in other areas. I honestly don't believe there's any one distro that delivers the ease of use for the average consumer that Windows does, unfortunately.

[Vic]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

how do you persistently set a mount point for a NAS share, such that it'll be visible not just in the File Manager but also in file selection dialogues, in Ubuntu and using only the GUI?

I cna't help you with stock Ubuntu, since I don't use it very often.

But in a Gnome2-based system - such as the MATE desktop, I believe[1] - you can add new entries by dragging the directory you want over to the Places pane in any file manager window...

You can also do it programmatically by editing ~/.gtk-bookmarks if that's your thing.

Vic.

[1] I don't currently use MATE, so I can't be sure. But MATE is so close to Gnome2 it rarely differs.

[Chika]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

Quote :- I use Ubuntu almost full time now,

Reply :- If you use Canonical Ubuntu you need to stop making comments Period I have been using Linux for the the passed 14 yrs and NEVER once had to use the terminal

Fine. Mind you, that really depends on what you are actually doing with the system.

Quote :- Consumer expects to do everything through a GUI,

Reply :- With Linux there is NOTHING that can't done using the GUI

Not necessarily true, not in Linux or in Windows, but again it's down to what you are actually doing. In some cases, indeed, while you can perform tasks in the GUI, they get done quicker and easier in CLI. It's all a matter of what you are doing.

Answer :- Learn to use the Linux GUI

NB: Learn how not to make generalisations.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

@ Carling

"Reply :- If you use Canonical Ubuntu you need to stop making comments Period I have been using Linux for the the passed 14 yrs and NEVER once had to use the terminal"

Dont believe you. Sorry, but i simply dont.*

*unless all you ever do is surf the net and have never had to install a driver or do something slightly more complex. As a windows user of 20+ years, i still have to use CMD prompt to get some things done.

My mate is Linux god, seriously, what he doesnt know about Linux (any iteration) isnt worth knowing and even he agrees, you cannot use linux properly without it unless you just look at the web. In which case, you shoud just buy a Mac and have done with it.

[Vic]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

My mate is Linux god, seriously, what he doesnt know about Linux (any iteration) isnt worth knowing and even he agrees, you cannot use linux properly without it unless you just look at the web.

He's wrong. There are always GUI ways to do things, unless you're doing something particularly esoteric[1].

That said - if you're trying to use Linux for anything non-trivial, you'll end up at the CLI before you know it. It's a more expressive communication tool than a GUI, so it becomes the easy way to do things in short order.

And, of course, 14 years ago, none of the above was true.

Vic.

[1] I can't think of a way to manage sendmail.mc via a GUI at present. And that's probably for the best.

[Richard Plinston]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

> [1] I can't think of a way to manage sendmail.mc via a GUI at present.

Webmin

http://doxfer.webmin.com/Webmin/Sendmail_Mail_Server

[Vic]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

[1] I can't think of a way to manage sendmail.mc via a GUI at present.

Webmin

...Modifies sendmail.cf, not sendmail.mc, unless you use the text editor within.

Vic.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

All Satnad needs to do is release a fully featured (not the half arsed Mac offering)Office-365 for Linux and the $$$$$ will roll in

Isn't that what they are trying to do anyway? All this dabbling with Bash etc? Just preparing for the day when Windows is JALD (Just Another Linux Desktop)?

Oh drat that squadron of pigs that was going to fly today has been grounded (and ground up into burgers).

[Chika]

Re: did Microsoft kill it's cash cow?

All Satnad needs to do is release a fully featured (not the half arsed Mac offering)Office-365 for Linux and the $$$$$ will roll in

Maybe, maybe not. Considering that most Linuxen I've ever used have most of the kit offered by Office as an installation option (these days it's normally LibreOffice), then chances are that they won't.

My biggest concern is that too many companies these days are becoming hooked on the idea that everyone has to be on the net to achieve anything. There are all sorts of reasons why that sort of thinking could come to bite them in the bum if they aren't careful.

Oh drat that squadron of pigs that was going to fly today has been grounded (and ground up into burgers).

What a waste! A bit of back bacon in a couple of doorsteps would go down a treat about now!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a disgrace!

I caught Cortana singing the Internationale yesterday. I will not have a Marxist-Leninist OS in the house!

[Gray]

Re: It's a disgrace!

@JJ Carter: I turned on my Win7 machine this morning to see a figure appear on the screen that shouted at me: "You vill submit! Vindows 10 vill rule!" It dissolved in a blue Screen of Death. Shaken, I resolved that I far prefer the Marxist-Leninist OS to the Jack-Booted Fascist of Vindows Domination!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's a disgrace!

Given the methods Microsoft are using, you can see now why they didn't call it Windows 9 / ('Nein').

[MrTuK]

Re: It's a disgrace!

That's one of the best answers why they didn't called Windows 10 Windows 9 - hahhahahaha - Love that one :) - Nein - nein - nein - rofl !

[PNGuinn]

Re: It's a disgrace! @JJC

What did Clippy have to say about it?

[Captain DaFt]

Re: It's a disgrace! @JJC

"What did Clippy have to say about it?"

"I see you're running a computer. Want me to upgrade it to Windows 10™ for you now?

[] Yes

[] Yes

[] Upgrade when I least expect it"

[Charlie Clark]

Same old, same old

Each month, The Register checks out StatCounter, Netmarketshare and the US government's analytics service…

And each month the articles fail to drawn on The Register's own data and focus on changes the size of rounding errors.

[Gray]

Re: Same old, same old

"... fail to drawn on ... "

Fail to frown upon? to prawn beyond? to draw in one? to drone on? I ken your words but kinna grok your meaning.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Same old, same old

come on El-Reg, what are the stats for the data for connections to your 'esteemed' site?

How many are using the Penguin or Fruity devices rather than anythin that MS cares to release.(sic)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Same old, same old

meh... Looking at the data for El-Reg could be of morbid interest. This article, however, is trying to glean information on rate of windows 10 adoption in the wild. Analysis of one website is unlikely to be statistically relevant. When you consider that Reg readers are unlikely to represent a random sampling of the population of business computers, the data are even less relevant.

[Richard Plinston]

Re: Same old, same old

> unlikely to represent a random sampling of the population

Many of the usage stats are gathered using javascript linked to from self-selected site. There is nothing random about which sites use particular stat services, there is nothing random about which users visit which sites, there is nothing random about which users block javascript and/or monitoring sites.

It may be useful to look at which users of a particular OS upgrade [sic] to a new version because those users are likely to continue to visit the same sites and use the same add-ons. It is unlikely to give any meaningful information about different OS usage because those users will visit different sites and may block in different ways.

For example: my machines will not be in _any_ of those stats.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Same old, same old

"come on El-Reg, what are the stats for the data for connections to your 'esteemed' site?"

Given that the connections are via a CDN would the client ID actually be available or would Cloudflare have hidden it?

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Same old, same old

Given that the connections are via a CDN would the client ID actually be available or would Cloudflare have hidden it?

Virtually all CDNs make the traffic logs available to the original sites so the UA is available.

[Version 1.0]

RFC

Looking at the daily graph it strongly suggests that home users are moving to Windows 10 faster than businesses - this is not news, it's been this way for every release to date. I'm sure that MS interpret the data this way and this summers "update" will make Windows 10 more friendly in the business work environment.

PROS: Windows 10 is a decent operating systems and much more reliable of late.

CONS: It still feels like someones looking over your shoulder all the time and having "X-Box" on the menu at work doesn't look that good.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: RFC

That feeling that someone is looking over your shoulder - Yep, That's because they are.

Whatever you do for work, pleasure or otherwise is being uploaded, analysed and ultimately monetised.

You should be able that its not going to be for your benefit, but whoever pays for the data..

[Anonymous Coward]

Privacy & ..

Privacy and granular control of updates for the "Pro" edition. These are real concerns of business, and Microsoft needs to address both to the satisfaction of the business computing public. As it is, there's suspicion Windows 10 is backdoored spyware. 'And as it is, there;s concern that the next out-of-control update "shoved at you" installs drivers and or updates that break the operation of needed equipment

[Kobus Botes]

Re: Privacy & ..

@Rumble Jesus

"concern that the next out-of-control update "shoved at you" installs drivers and or updates that break the operation of needed equipment"

We see that regularly with Windows 7 lately (also 10) - especially with printer drivers. One would have thought that in 30+ years the printer driver problem would have been solved by now, but that is sadly not the case. Things were reasonably sane until a couple of months ago: where Windows did not have native drivers, we used drivers supplied by the manufacturers and everything was hunky dory.

But it seems that Microsoft have now decided to deem supplier drivers as PUP's (potentially unwanted programs), which need to be replaced by MS's own offerings. The problem we have is that the MS drivers do not play nice with Linux, with the result that print jobs sent from Linux servers just disappear into the void. You can see them fleetingly appear in the print queue, only to disappear without trace and the printer oblivious to the fact that a print job had just gone past. (I am talking about Epson - LX 300 and up to LX 350, as well as various models from Bixolon). The only cure is to uninstall the resident driver and reinstall the vendor-supplied driver to get things working again.

There is also no readily apparent rhyme or reason which machines will be targeted: a couple have had repeat changes, whilst others are still untouched.

[Captain DaFt]

Re: Privacy & ..

"There is also no readily apparent rhyme or reason which machines will be targeted: a couple have had repeat changes, whilst others are still untouched."

Twas ever thus. Back in The day we we called the phenomenon "Windows FM*"

*Fucking Magic

[Chika]

Re: Privacy & ..

we used drivers supplied by the manufacturers and everything was hunky dory.

Sorry, but I just had to laugh about that one! The state of some of those manufacturer-supplied drivers (they didn't always write them themselves) could really cause headaches!

[Captain Badmouth]

Re: Privacy & ..

<And as it is, there;s concern that the next out-of-control update "shoved at you" installs drivers and or updates that break the operation of needed equipment>

You only have to look at freecycle :

"Offered printer, fully working but not with new windows 10 computer" to see the carnage win10 is causing.

But the equipment makers are happy.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows 10 actually building a head of Steam

That's right, Windows 10 64bit is now the most popular OS on Steam at 38%. But wait, here's the plucky Linux underdog coming up on the rails at....0.17% (Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS 64 bit)

(Yeah, I know. Steam users are all n00bs who were fooled into upgrading to Windows 10 by dastardly MSFT)

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

[Dan 55]

Re: Windows 10 actually building a head of Steam

MS should have tied DirectX 12 to Vista, just for a laugh.

[earl grey]

Re: Windows 10 actually building a head of Steam

Oh, sorry...i thought you said, Windows 10 actually giving head to Steam

Never mind.

[MrTuK]

It will be more interesting to see the results once MS starts to expect users to pay for downgrading to Win 10. Will the numbers just fall of the cliff or with they continue to slowly creep as that are atm.

Also I would like to see the numbers of OS relating browsing, so we can see if Linux or OSX are climbing, static or falling !

Wow I just googled for it, take a looksy for yourself !

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

5.5% for Linux ?

That was higher than I expected ?

[azaks]

>> 5.5% for Linux ? That was higher than I expected ?

Now, now. Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Do you think a developers web site is representative of the computing habits of the great unwashed?

No chance of any over representation from university computers (primarily Linux)?

Even getting creative with your sampling doesn't do you any favors.

In other news, win10 is active on 270m devices (as per last weeks earnings report). Interpret that as you will, and let the down voting commence...

[Richard Plinston]

> representative of the computing habits of the great unwashed?

He made no claim that it was.

He was merely indicating that different measurement methods and sample bases will give different results. The ones in this article are measuring those who visit self-selected sites and don't care about privacy (or don't know).

> win10 is active on 270m devices

There were 214 million cases of malaria reported in 2015, that doesn't mean that I should want it.

[Howard Hanek]

Oh Dear

Despite MSs best efforts the iron fist within the velvet glove has been exposed too frequently.

[tempemeaty]

Re: Oh Dear

I think Microsoft traded the velvet glove for a elbow length rubber glove...

[Howard Hanek]

Re: Oh Dear

MS 'improves' Windows the way a dominatrix 'improves' her services.

[ecofeco]

No mystery

There is no mystery and no need for convoluted analysis if you actually work in hardware side of IT: Win 7 represented a huge and costly sea change from XP for businesses. The adoption had a very real price tag and businesses are in no hurry to disrupt their current systems and incur those costs again.

Many businesses, and rather large brand name ones, finally moved over only just last year or the year before which means they have finally and only recently ironed out the problems and have their systems running smoothly because there is FAR more to adopting new OS's than just installing the server and desktop environment and saying "done".

[Saigua]

ZorinOS, sure; maybe BlackLab for power users?

I really don't know how they emulate all these x686 on the ARM7 that should be enough for everyone?

Every 2 weeks a new USB OTG cable and fb emulation monkey for the desk set? STEAM for workgroups?

[Anonymous Coward]

The new XP

With WinXP smartwatch installations going up exponentially, it's only a matter of time before XP stages a comeback.

[Captain DaFt]

Re: The new XP

Forget XP, look what's jumped out of the grave this month...

Freakin' Win 3.11!

I hope that's just a nostalgia thing and not people that desperate to avoid Win 10.

[sikejsudjek]

I only use steam on windows 10 because linux can't use nvidia's drivers in stereoscopic. I hate windows 10. I've replaced the start menu with classic menu, got a hacked dll file to bring back windows aero (whatever happened to m$ listening to what users wanted and giving us aero back ? I guess they meant to say they just wanted to listen to users and spy on them not actually give a toss about what they wanted). I brought back the classic calculator because the flat one looks crap. Blocked automatic updates with win aero, blocked spying with spybot beacon. Its more like a kit of parts than an integrated OS.

Networking is still broken for me, bsod's happen often with nvidia drivers, I don't want edge or cortana but can't get rid of them. It tells me I'm not connected to the internet when I am. Settings are a mess and in two places. I hate the flat look - and of course we aren't allowed to change it easily.

Give me linux mint anyday. Unlike windows 10 it looks great and just works. I don't have to worry about activation when I change hardware, and I don't need a ton of proprietary software to keep it secure. Unlike windows 7 or 10 it installed perfectly on my laptop. Perhaps the most annoying thing about the win 10 nag screens is that the two pc's I actually wanted to update to 10 failed to do so after months of nagware. Typical...

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft running out of....

... low-hanging-fruit users to slap their Slurping-Malware on...???

[Snow Wombat]

Easy to explain....

All the low hanging fruit has been picked, and now you have all the businesses who don't want to go go through software and UAT AGAIN, so soon after doing it for windows 7. They will hold off on Win 10 until they can't any more.

Businesses see IT as a cost sink, and won't spend the money unless they absolutely have no other choice. Hell I am still picking up weekend deployment work where businesses are only NOW going from XP to Win 10, and even then they are virtualizing as many legacy apps as they possible can, because they don't want to pay anyone for new licenses or anyone to come in and totally re write the wheezing internal apps that only run on IE 5

MS moving to this rapid release model for end machine OSes shows they really don't understand how the majority of businesses handle their IT upgrades.

They move at the speed of a walrus, and while Microsoft can try and whip them to move faster, it's really not going to have much of an effect.

[Zap]

I will NEVER upgrade to Win10

What those figures do NOT tell you is how many were new PC's and how many were upgrades, if you deduct the new machines you are left with a disturbing number of people that have upgraded.

I installed a dual boot of Win10 on my Laptop

What I found was an OS that gave me no tangible benefit to upgrade and a lot of reasons not to.

It is slower to boot, slower to run, shit got moved around for no good reason and no benefit to anyone but Microsoft.

The ONLY benefit was a slightly smaller footprint in disk space which is probably due to the wasted space of WINSXS in older version.

Win10 is nothing more than an advertising and affiliate platform, pretty much the same as Chrome is for Google.

Now the biz version may be less so but still there is no compelling benefit and for a corporation there are all the costs of training, support and management.

I am happy with Win7, anyone can see by installing a fresh install of Win7 that it runs inside 2gb but add all the Windows updates, it then runs like a dog and needs 4gb. This is clearly Microsoft trying to force people to upgrade by messing with registry, (they were caught doing this before), but it is not going to make me shift to Win10

Even if Microsoft stopped providing updates I would stick with Win7, I would just make sure security around it is safer.

If Microsoft forces a move I am at the stage where I would rather shift to Linux (much as I hate it)

If Microsoft want people to upgrade they need to provide compelling benefits, there are none.

Win10 is a polluted brand for me, a bit like Windows Millenium was.

So they need to get the next version to be lean and mean, I suggest they give developers really slow PC's so they are forced to write efficient code.

[Richard Plinston]

Re: I will NEVER upgrade to Win10

> how many were upgrades,

It also doesn't say how many reverted back to 7 or 8.

[azaks]

Re: I will NEVER upgrade to Win10

>> It also doesn't say how many reverted back to 7 or 8.

Nor did it capture those that upgraded afterwards. Whats your point?

[BigAndos]

Windows 7 is still in support

My company (large household name UK retailer) only completed it's migration away from Windows XP to Windows 7 about a year ago. There is no way they will consider migrating to Windows 10 in the near future. The end of extended support for Windows 7 Enterprise is 14th January 2020. My company, and most large companies, will probably starting thinking about moving to Windows 10 (or 11 who knows?) sometime around 13th January 2020 and will then take another 6 months to plan and complete. Mind you since we moved to Google Apps for business, for about 80% of our users a chromebook would do the job now - were it not for legacy applications that need IE.

Many companies who have migrated to date are probably SMEs, who may not even use Windows enterprise/WSUS and so their users probably got the "do you want to upgrade" prompt and mindlessly clicked yes - upgrade by accident!

[arctic_haze]

Microsoft has still to explain what comes after the free 12 months

What happened to plans of "Windows as a service"? Are they dead or does Redmont wait for the trap to be ready?