Report: Windows XP is Still The Dominant OS
Despite the success of Windows 7, the legacy Windows XP still rules the world.
Despite our love for Windows 7, the latest Microsoft OS still isn't the #1 platform on the market. Instead, Microsoft's opus Windows XP is still the reigning champ, claiming 47.19-percent of the market as of January 31, 2012. Strangely enough, the first month of the year actually saw a resurgence in the legacy platform, slightly higher than December 2011's 46.52-percent market share.
Since March 2011, Windows XP's lead has slowly given way to the more powerful and slicker Windows 7 platform. During that month, Windows XP seized a market share of 56.78-percent while Windows 7 only claimed 25.23-percent. By the time Jane and Marcus dressed up as Mario and Luigi for Halloween (aka October 2011) [Ed. note: This didn't actually happen, but it's a great idea for 2012], Windows XP had dropped to 48.03-percent while Windows 7 had slowly climbed up to 34.62-percent.
For the last few years, Microsoft has insisted that Windows XP customers upgrade to Windows 7. It's not necessarily a revenue issue, but rather from a security standpoint. Official support for the legacy OS will come to a close on April 2014, giving consumers just over two years to move away from the elder platform before security updates come to a halt. And while XP's market share does continue to drop, the slow progression may be due to countries with low economies unwilling to make the financial move.
Of course, the slow drop in Windows XP numbers may also signify a reluctance to upgrade period. Thanks to a struggling economy, consumers short on cash simply may not have the funds to upgrade their laptops and desktops, or even simply the operating system itself. What will be curious to see are the numbers of both Windows XP and Windows 7 towards the end of the year once Windows 8 enters the market. The new OS will have the upper hand of residing on both x86 and ARM-based hardware including notebooks, desktops and tablets.
In the overall OS sector, Microsoft's Windows-based platforms remain the champ. In March 2011, Windows Vista saw a 11.02-percent market share, and then a 8.22-percent market share in January 2012. Mac OS X 10.6 and 10,7 saw 3.65-percent and 0.01-percent respectively in March 2011, and then 2.95-percent and 2.18-percent respectively in January 2012.
An "other" category also reveals a 3.31-percent market share in March 2011 and a 3.06-percent market share in January 2012. This category likely includes Ubuntu, Chrome OS and a few others. To see the full chart, head to NetMarketShare here.

that way I may reinstall windows next to ubuntu
i ask about how to fix things, like being able to click a file in any column, and not just on its name, and when i asked if there was a fix, i was told to use a 3rd party file manager... im sorry but that sounds like you are telling me that windows 7 has problems and there is no way to fix it, but here is a work around...
that is just my most recent gripe with 7, but is so not my only one. ill get down voted i know... but i can say this at the very least, when i went from 98se to xp, there was nothing that xp couldn't do that 98 could, but going from xp sp3 to win 7 sp 1 (i believe), i was bombarded with so many things that are just missing, and may never be able to get them back... like the tile commands, and folder sizes in explorer.
I think that the concept of a new OS taking up more resources is plain bullshit. Why should new functions, that are not/should not be running in the background all the time slow down the computer?
I mean, what essential upgrades are there in windows 7 compared to windows xp ? Most are under the hood and most shouldn't be "felt" whilst using the pc everyday. So why does it use more resources to do the same job ?
Unfortunately this problem isn't only evident in Windows, it's the same for MacOS, linux and others.
Newer kernels should have support for more features and hardware, but they should never use more resources than the last version whilst doing the same workload. There is no rational reason for that.
The only reason it is that way is because people tend to rush new features into new versions before fixing the old features, this is the main problem in linux development as of now. Even Linus acknowledges the fact that the linux kernel has become bloated.
microsoft thought that limiting the compatibility would make people to upgrade. it's a marketing tactic. too bad it worked the other way around. programs are incompatible so people who them won't upgrade.
Paying for Windows 7 isn't really an issue. What is an issue is paying for upgraded copies for all of that older software that only runs on Windows 2000/XP. When you add it all up, the price Windows 7 actually pales in comparison to all of the other software we had to purchase due to upgrading the operating systems.
But Mac OS X is the same way. We were just starting upgrading everyone to Snow Leopard as Apple was releasing Lion.
Can this be any MORE confusing?
Understood, there will always be programs that get lost as the OS moves along, I have an old DOS game that will not work for love nor money even with DOSbox, in the end I have partitioned one of my hard drive to have Wndows 95, 2000 Pro and XP Home, then which I switch on I choose which OS to boot and run my older games/programs etc
...
But to choose not to have Windows 7, or 8 when it arrives will also deny users access to software that is currently released, IE9 being a case in point but not a very good example
...
So instead of moaning about not being able to run old software, just have a multi-OS system and you can always go forwards and lose nothing from the past.
If that's the case, why not offer cheapest upgrade price for XP users, like $10.00???
I understand that this is a business and we all need to make money.. security is important and you don't want to be using an OS on the network that has more holes than swiss cheese. But all in all my XP machine does what it needs to do and does it well. My decision to change OS depends on my hardware and that is that. After Windows Me and Windows Vista. Windows 7 is a breath of fresh air but I refuse to upgrade unless absolutely necessary.. for me security is not an issue on my XP machine.. the hardware I use does make a play in what I choose to use in a platform.