Windows 7 Has Now Become The World's Most Popular Operating System

[Sonic 296]

The long decline of Windows XP continues, about damn time. Windows 7 is now taking over as the worlds most popular OS.

 

Windows 7 Passes XP, Now Most Popular OS in the World

 

Exactly two years after its launch, Windows 7 has now become the world's most popular operating system.

 

ZoomData provided by StatCounter indicates that Windows 7 had an average market share of 40.5 percent in October, up from 39.0 percent in September. Windows XP fell from 40.6 percent to 38.5 percent in the same time frame.

 

Windows Vista is somewhat stale at 11.2 percent and does not seem to be retreating much these days, while Mac OS X made a jump to 7.2 percent share. Linux has an estimated market share of 0.8 percent.

 

The market share data released by StatCounter highlights the strong presence of Windows XP in enterprise environments as XP share during the week is on the same level with Windows 7 at about 39 to 40 percent, but dips as low as 35 percent on weekends. Windows 7 climbs to close to 43 percent on weekends.

 

Last month, Microsoft announced that it has sold 450 million Windows 7 licenses, which keeps it close to 20 million units a month or about 650,000 million licenses sold per day, which is a pace Microsoft has maintained since the launch of the OS two years ago. In comparison, Microsoft in its Q4 2008 report that it had sold 180 million Vista licenses by the end of 2008 - more than two years after launch, if we count in the Express Upgrade marketing campaign that allowed retailers to pre-sell Windows Vista before it became available in January of 2007.

 

This is according to StatCounter, however, as Net Applications still sees Windows 7 behind Windows XP at 34.6 percent versus 48.0 percent.

 

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/msft-windows-xp-windows-7-market-share-win7,news-36905.html

[Plok 327]

I'm still on WinXP. Even though I'd like Win7, I don't see many important changes other than the fancy interface and WMP 12 compatibility.

[Malevolence 6]

Quite interesting to see how the market versus Apple Mac OSX Lion.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

About damn time. XP is a pile of garbage. Even Vista with all of its nonsense early on has it all over XP. SP2 really made Vista usable, but 7 trumps it in every way. Those of you on XP, join us in the real world.

[Plok 327]

About damn time. XP is a pile of garbage. (...) Those of you on XP, join us in the real world.

Okay... why?

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Because 7 is far better than XP in every way.

[Luk3us 63]

XP was a solid operating system, but come on guys, it was released back in 2001! That's TEN YEARS AGO.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

And XP has the security of a cardboard box.

[PurpleGaga27 40]

XP still has the advantages of running older programs than Win7 does. Of course Win7 is epic, but I still use XP anyway.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

I can run everything in Windows 7. The only thing I can't do is natively run 16-bit applications, but I have DOSBOX for that.

[Plok 327]

Because 7 is far better than XP in every way.

Okay... in what IMPORTANT WAY, not including the fancy interface and the fact it's newer? Win7 can also be unsafe if you don't know how to use it.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Windows 7 is far more secure based solely on the fact that your accounts are not full administrator accounts. Means things usually won't run as root by default, thereby rendering some spyware much less effective. It can still strike Vista and 7, but it seems to be far less common. In fact, the ratio of computers that I remove spyware from is heavily in favor of XP because of its very, very poor account setup. Not to mention, 7 just runs a lot better than XP and actually makes more effective use of older hardware (you can completely disable Aero and the DWM, then use Windows Classic or something). Hell, you can ghettorig flash drives with ReadyBoost to gain even more performance, which you really can't do that well with XP. Everything is just a hell of a lot more streamlined in 7 versus XP. Oh, the taskbar is so much better than XP's. The Superbar alone should be more than enough for an upgrade.

[Inferno 22]

I upgraded to Windows 7 a while back. To be honest, I don't see a whole lot of improvement. And most of the arguments DD gave, I don't care about anyway.

[Luk3us 63]

Its like cars, they might be the same model but with ten years between them, you miss all the neat little gizmos and subtle differences and improvements.

 

Plus that hot twenty something car model who used to stand beside the car is now ten years older and is slightly overweight and has had two kids, and isn't worried so much about her personal appearance.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Plus that hot twenty something car model who used to stand beside the car is now ten years older and is slightly overweight and has had two kids, and isn't worried so much about her personal appearance.

or she has six STDs and a welfare check.

[TheBlackOut 7]

If you have or are planning on getting a SSD soon too, Windows 7 will definitely be needed (or well, very much desired).

 

The ability to type into the Start menu a program I'm looking for is great, that's what made me switch to Vista early on.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

If you do get an SSD, Windows 7 is really the best consumer OS to use since it has SSD support by default. XP and Vista do not; XP can work with an SSD, but it takes more work (slightly less so than with Vista).

 

I actually have an SSD and installation was smooth as can be and it runs like a champion.

[Saracen 16]

There's no irony that this has occurred through lack of consumer choice. As new PCs are purchased pre-loaded with Win7, the percentages are going to change, and it will happen again in the future with Win8 as the UEFI BIOS becomes more mainstream.

 

Sure, while I champion Linux as a whole, and use Linux Mint (The world's 3rd Most popular OS) as the only exclusive OS on my system. I still will not deny that Windows still is best for gaming solutions. However, this is only because of positive feedback loops have caused DirectX APIs to become the most popular. However it is only PCs and the X-Box 360 that use it... Where on the other hand Linux, Mac-OS, PS3, Wii, and most smaller mobile devices related to these (Linux Android, iOS, PSP/VITA, DS etc.) All use the OpenGL API format.

 

But give it another 5-10 years. Microsoft will begin to lose a sizeable grip on its market. As OpenGL is more widely used. Plus with Linux now being the number 1 OS for solutions in mobile devices, and server hosting (as it's always been), and it's now more user friendly than ever for the PC user... Freedom of choice will play its hand in the coming future.

[pichorra 4]

Windows 7 Fails in everything that is less than 2ghz... It is pretty slow also in my 3ghz P4 prescott. Windows XP is pretty unstable now, i get a BSoD after sometime, freezes from nothing, etc. That's why i switched to linux, i've never got a Kernel Panic yet, and it is pretty stable. The problem is that i need to switch back to XP to play some games that run poorly on linux. It is a mess!

[Saracen 16]

That's why i switched to linux

 

Have you played with the Mint 12 RC yet? If so what do you think of the MGSE beside Gnome 3?

 

I quite like it personally, although it's a little rough around the edges. Still offers that Gnome 3 support, but with more subtle flavourings of 2.32. Plus they're implementing MATE into it as well for all the hardcore old school haters. Wouldn't call it polished. But it certainly has bags of potential for the 13 LTS. Plus MGSE can be exported to the likes of Fedora, SuSE etc... Probably even Ubuntu I read somewhere too. So it's quite universal. Beats Unity in my book, but then again... what doesn't?

[Nyerguds 102]

I can run everything in Windows 7. The only thing I can't do is natively run 16-bit applications, but I have DOSBOX for that.

Okay. Try running the RA1 CD installer with that.

 

Oh wait. It's a 16-bit Windows program

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Oh har har.

[TheBlackOut 7]

Linux has other hurtles it will have to overcome before anyone ever takes it as a serious platform for game development. 5-10 years ahead and we still probably won't see <5% Linux rollout on desktops.

 

Mobile devices? A whole another ballgame, you might be absolutely right on that end.