Windows 8.1 finally takes off -- shows staggering market share growth

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Mayahana, Nov 2, 2014.

  1. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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  2. ArchiveX

    ArchiveX Registered Member

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    When Windows 10 will be officially released, what will happen to 8.1?
     
  3. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    I'm guessing the same thing that happened to Vista.

    Meanwhile, seeing things in perspective:

    'Windows 7 remains easily the top operating system, and despite Windows 8.x gobbling up all that share, it also managed to post some growth, going from 52.71 percent to 53.05 percent, an improvement of 0.34 percentage points (so better than Windows 8).' ~ op cit
     
  4. Mortal Raptor

    Mortal Raptor Banned

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    Windows 7 For life!
     
  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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  6. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    I would guess very cheap or free upgrades to 10. There are rumors of very low cost/free upgrades being available for a limited time when 10 is ready. But nothing confirmed that I can find.

    What people fail to realize is the driving force behind these numbers. It's not always the consumer, it's business. To migrate to a new OS costs a business a lot of money, and IT resources. Also there are compatibility issues that need to be addressed, and sometimes those can take months, if not years. A lot of firms use legacy software, or need to ensure full compatibility, and then any upgrades need to pass through the corporate structure from solutions to legal. Part of the jump we are seeing now is likely because the process of migration to 8.1 has finally reached a point where it can progress in a lot of firms. We still ship systems loaded with Win7 because some companies aren't confident of full compatibility, and error on the side of caution. Also right now due to the close update cycle many firms are waiting to evaluate Win10 in 2015 and 2016 as they view 8.1 as an interim OS. We monitor roughly 32,000 machines here, and the metrics don't lie - we have less support issues on 8.1 machines. So in the IT business, I tend to much prefer 8.1 over 7, the error handling is quite a bit better in it.
     
  7. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    There is this as well:

    "Microsoft sets Oct. 31 as stop date for Windows 7 consumer PC sales"

    http://www.computerworld.com/articl...top-date-for-windows-7-consumer-pc-sales.html

    Windows 7 is even less available now, so until 10 is released 8.1 is all there is in the consumer channel.

    On a side note I'm hoping the resellers will start offering free upgrades to 10 on new 8.1 machines soon. That would motivate me to upgrade before 10 is available.
     
  8. elapsed

    elapsed Registered Member

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    The fact that you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free has probably reassured a lot of people that were waiting.
     
  9. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    There's been a lot of talk about 10 being a free upgrade for users running 8, but I've yet to see an official statement from Microsoft.
     
  10. dogbite

    dogbite Registered Member

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    I will be glad to update to 8.1 when finally 8.0 will stop looping in installing updates that don't install. :mad::mad::mad:
     
  11. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    I believe you can download the necessary updates for 8.1 directly (offline installers) and try to get it done that way.
     
  12. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    I'll hazard a guess and suggest that these are very much like the rumours about Win 7 being a free upgrade for Vista users. I doubt M$ will give anything away for free. Especially not a brand new OS. Besides, I'd seriously wait at least a year after any new M$ release before actually purchasing it. I learned the hard way with Vista. I won't make the same mistake again. If I ever buy Win 10 it will have to have been on sale for at least a year before I even consider it.
     
  13. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Well, rumors are rumors and I am careful not to start believing them. That said we do have a precedent for MS offering an affordable upgrade for a new OS; IIRC 8 was initially available to consumers for $40USD. As for Vista I ran the beta for about six months before buying the release, so I didn't experience any surprises. I think by running the 10 Tech Preview now people can build confidence in the final product.
     
  14. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    Win 8 may have been available here for a limited time for 25 quid or so, but I don't recall actually seeing anything of the sort. I'd be very reluctant to swap Win 7 for anything higher anyway. I had a look at 8 when it was released and decided it wasn't worth it. I'd rather not be a test pilot for new M$ operating systems even for free.

    My brother's a software engineer and warned me about Vista. It was known in the industry that it was a potential turkey. Most of the real problems with Vista were fixed before it was released here. But its various irritating bugs, ridiculously high RAM usage, absurd slowness and drastically short laptop battery life between recharging cycles were never resolved. It was a half-baked operating system that should never have been foistered on the general public in that inchoate condition in the first place. Win 7 is what Vista should have been, and 7 was and still is an excellent OS. My brother never used 7, although he rated it quite highly, and changed over to Mac and Linux, something I will most probably do anyway.

    Ever since my Vista experience I think it prudent to wait at least a year before buying or upgrading a new M$ OS. This will include Win 10.
     
  15. elapsed

    elapsed Registered Member

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    Pretty sure they confirmed it during BUILD several times.
     
  16. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    See you back with Windows after your 12 Linux Distro swing, and abysmal OSX cruise.
     
  17. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    No, I changed my Vista laptop to Ubuntu and my only regret is that I wished I'd done it much sooner. I had been considering it for quite a while. It is a Belnea o.book with only 1GB of RAM. Vista would take at least 2 to 3 minutes to boot and even then I'd have to wait at least 15 minutes for it to page enough RAM to even use it. It takes about 40 seconds for Ubuntu Trusty Tahr LTS to boot and I can then use the computer immediately. Furthermore, I have virtually everything I had on it that I had previously run on Windows including: VLC, SMPlayer*, Marble, Google Earth, LibreOffice, AbiWord, Stellarium**, Celestia, GIMP, Pinta and Audacity. WMP wouldn't play any of my mp4 files and MPC-HC (inter alia) wouldn't play video and audio combined together on at least a fifth of my mp4 files. The native Ubuntu media player has no such difficulties.

    *SMPlayer actually works better on Ubuntu than Windows for me. It was temperamental and crashed frequently on Vista.

    *Stellarium actually works better on Ubuntu as it doesn't interfere with the BIOS clock on Windows (a known bug), although I don't blame that on Microsoft.


    My custom built x64 box still runs 7 at the moment but I have plans to upgrade the hardware soon and very probably change the OS to Ubuntu at a later date. My tablet runs Android, which I believe is based on Linux, and I am soon to order a Macbook. It's curtains for Windows IMO and almost certainly I personally will be Windows-free at some as yet unspecified time in the future. I have run Ubuntu as a cold boot on my desktop x64 box and it seems to work fine. Obviously when I upgrade some of the hardware I'll test it again with the eventual intent of replacing Win 7 with Ubuntu when M$ decide to cease supporting 7 or sooner.

    Far from swinging back to Windows I am preparing to depart from it for good. I am not going to undertake this in a hasty fashion and I will almost certainly miss Win 7, but the security benefits of Mac/Linux and many other factors have finally convinced me that this move is inevitable.

    I tend to see UNIX as the future rather an 'abyss'. Microsoft have drastically misunderstood the mobile market and have abandoned their traditional desktop customers. I fear they are the ones heading for oblivion.
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2014
  18. elapsed

    elapsed Registered Member

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    Running Vista on 1GB RAM?? That's a feat in itself.
     
  19. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Dave,

    I think Win10 will be popular with the desktop market and will put an end to the current Win8 type complaints. Win10 is the best OS I've used.
     
  20. syrinx

    syrinx Registered Member

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    Still using 7 atm but I tested 10 in a VM and while it still has some trimming of 8/8.1 that I am not fond of it holds great potential especially with the release of NTLite.
     
  21. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Yes, one of the reasons Vista "failed" is because ram requirements were set too low. Microsoft set the minimum requirement at 512K (unbelievable yet true) and when Vista was initially released many of the machines only had 1GB. No wonder people had a horrible experience. Vista 32 bit needs a minimum of 2GB for decent performance and 64 bit needs more. Now desktop computers typically come with at least 4GB and no one thinks that's excessive. In my experience Vista and 7 have essentially the same ram requirements; I wouldn't run either with less then 4GB. It's pretty much the same for 8 and 10.
     
  22. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    It sounds promising, but I'm pretty sure I'll be totally UNIX by then.
     
  23. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    Vista failed because it was inherently buggy and not properly finished. Microsoft should have finished the job before they released it.
     
  24. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    Yes, but it worked just fine with SP2 installed, and on some systems the original release worked fine too.
     
  25. Daveski17

    Daveski17 Registered Member

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    The original release was not fine. I ran it on two computers concomitantly for years; the Belnea and a Toshiba laptop with 2GB of RAM. Both have SP2 and both suffered from the same *bugs for years (systems tray problems at start up particularly affected Vista). The Toshiba still does have these bugs. I've recently given the Toshiba to a family member. It works most of the time, but I have recommended they switch it to Linux, preferably Ubuntu. Win 7 did not act like this and is far more stable than Vista.

    *A friend of mine has a HP Vista machine with SP2, it has recently gone into Vista bork restart hell again, this time probably permanently, I've recommended that she wipe it and install Ubuntu. She's had nothing but problems with it since she bought the laptop with Vista installed. It exhibits all the bugs that my two laptops had. This is not a hardware problem but the product of a sloppily coded inchoate operating system prematurely released to the public. Almost anything could BSOD Vista. The only BSOD's I have had on Win 7 were a result of malfunctioning hardware. Once the problem was realised and the faulty hardware replaced it has NOT BSOD'd since.

    Vista was, and still is, a giant turkey that has gone the way of the pterodactyl. Its only saving grace is that it's infinitely preferable to Win 8.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2014
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