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.
Data 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.
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And rightfully so. It is a great OS.
lol@ vista's numbers. win 7 should take away vista users too.
"about 650,000 million licenses sold per day"
good lord that's more than the entire population of Earth!!!
joking aside, Windows 7 IS great OS overall...easy on the eye and almost no crashes...probably THE best OS ever from MS besides Windows 2000....
If the economy's not as bad as it had been the past couple of years, companies would have long ago upgraded to 7.
May be its gaining because now you can buy it pirated.
Great news. XP was good in it's day, but it really needs to die already.
I work for a fortune 500 company and we are just now finally upgrading to Windows 7 from XP.
Windows 7 FTW!
I was very reluctant to move from XP to Win7, especially after I had to use the mess known as Vista on my laptop. I moved to win7 recently...mainly because of BF3...and I have to say I really like it. With decent hardware, it seems to be much more responsive than XP and has a few nice things XP doesn't (ie. theme/bg profiles, system tray icon control, etc.). The only annoying thing about win7 is the icons seem to be a lot larger than on XP. Basically, if you are still using XP or XP 64-bit like I have for a while, you will like win7 as long as you are open to it.
Slow vista take up was primarily down to driver issues.
Windows 7 is a debloated vista pretty much.
If windows 8 changes the game again, it'll be Vista all over again.
To be honest, i'd like a quicker (cut the fat) and more customisable version (add the fat back in how you like it) made available. Instead of a limited features version and a full featured version.
"or about 650,000 million licenses sold per day"
Good golly those aliens love our operating system! Or are people buying licences by the thousands as collectibles?
Windows 7 is great for personal use, but until Windows 7 drivers improve, it becomes more compatible with other software, and it becomes more secure then the company I work for will use it. Until then, it will be Windows XP, RedHad, and centOS.
Slow vista take up was primarily down to driver issues.Windows 7 is a debloated vista pretty much.If windows 8 changes the game again, it'll be Vista all over again.To be honest, i'd like a quicker (cut the fat) and more customisable version (add the fat back in how you like it) made available. Instead of a limited features version and a full featured version.
^^This.
From the day it came out, I've said Windows 7 is basically Vista 2.0. MS tried to revitalize Vista with the whole Mojave Project. Unfortunatly, it was way too late and the damage was already done. So they slimmed it down a bit, gave it a few tweaks and rebranded it as Win 7. That said, I love it. It's easy to use and easy to support.
Windows 7 is great for personal use, but until Windows 7 drivers improve, it becomes more compatible with other software, and it becomes more secure then the company I work for will use it. Until then, it will be Windows XP, RedHad, and centOS.
drivers improve? what are you using 30 year old hardware? neither I nor anyone else i know has had any driver problems with windows 7 and if there are any it is not MS fault but the hardware manufacturers. people seem to forget that
Vista + Service Packs = Windows 7
lol@ vista's numbers. win 7 should take away vista users too.
Windows 7 is Vista with a facelift, aka Vista SP2
drivers improve? what are you using 30 year old hardware? neither I nor anyone else i know has had any driver problems with windows 7 and if there are any it is not MS fault but the hardware manufacturers. people seem to forget that
If you're running a network with 100+ computers on it, it is a massive jump to update to a completely new OS - even getting a service pack to run with current hardware/software is tricky enough.
Until a network manager is happy the software and current hardware (usually printers and old scanners/fax machines) is either compatible or has support/fixes that can be implemented, they won't upgrade. Thats why XP is still being used by a lot of businesses.
Vista + Service Packs = Windows 7
Umm.... No it dose not
If you're running a network with 100+ computers on it, it is a massive jump to update to a completely new OS - even getting a service pack to run with current hardware/software is tricky enough.
Until a network manager is happy the software and current hardware (usually printers and old scanners/fax machines) is either compatible or has support/fixes that can be implemented, they won't upgrade. Thats why XP is still being used by a lot of businesses.
like i said it is not MS fault it is the hardware manufacturers responsibility to release drivers for there legacy equipment. every company cannot wait for businesses to find a budget for them to get a new copier/printer/computer or whatever you are talking about. if business are stuck with nothing but old hardware and software then they should not upgrade at all and reimage any new computers they get with XP.
simple as that and still no reason to bash windows 7. and if you have an attitude like this toward something then i fear for the company that would actually let you handle there equipment
I was very reluctant to move from XP to Win7, especially after I had to use the mess known as Vista on my laptop. I moved to win7 recently...mainly because of BF3...and I have to say I really like it. With decent hardware, it seems to be much more responsive than XP and has a few nice things XP doesn't (ie. theme/bg profiles, system tray icon control, etc.). The only annoying thing about win7 is the icons seem to be a lot larger than on XP. Basically, if you are still using XP or XP 64-bit like I have for a while, you will like win7 as long as you are open to it.
uh, just hold the CTRL button and roll the middle wheel on your mouse up or down. This makes your desktop icons bigger or smaller. The taskbar also has an option for small icons but it is only for the taskbar.
Slow vista take up was primarily down to driver issues.Windows 7 is a debloated vista pretty much.If windows 8 changes the game again, it'll be Vista all over again.To be honest, i'd like a quicker (cut the fat) and more customisable version (add the fat back in how you like it) made available. Instead of a limited features version and a full featured version.
Vista was a fuckup on microsofts part when they tried making a single opearting system with half of the programmers working in one programming language and the other half working in another. Then they had to meet a deadline and connect the dots. It couldn't be good. Eventually they worked it out to what it is now. Windows 7 is a complete new build, simple and elegant, with some Vista features.
I am gonna have to agree with drivers being the big issue with Vista
I waited until SP1 for Vista came out. everything seems quite good(it was still smoother then 98 to xp was). Once everything was set to my liking, I got to gaming. crash..... try another game....crash.... many games still worked, but lots of them crashed in the most wonderful ways. Figuring damn you Vista, I was all ready to go back to XP.
Last shot was to try a different video card since other reported having similar issues. My old X1900XT in place and my 8800GTX out, all the sudden every game(I mean EVERY) worked for hours on end(with much worse performance mind you.). E-mailed Nvidia they said it was driver regression and to try a older driver.
Older drivers fixed some games and broke others. By this time, the 8800 series of card, while not old, where on a rather poor driver release schedule. It took over 9 months for a more stable driver to be released. Imagine that, 9 months even after Vista SP1 for a stable driver for a 500-600 dollar video card. I put that card into an XP system and picked up a 4870. Never had an issue with Vista again.
Now I am on 7, mostly since I just pass along my old computers as they are to others when I build a new one.
That said, Windows 7 is just a SP upgrade away from Vista on almost all levels.
Vista was a fuckup on microsofts part when they tried making a single opearting system with half of the programmers working in one programming language and the other half working in another. Then they had to meet a deadline and connect the dots. It couldn't be good. Eventually they worked it out to what it is now. Windows 7 is a complete new build, simple and elegant, with some Vista features.
vista was only a fuckup because the morons who didn't know crap about a computer tried to upgrade to vista when there computers were like 10 years old. yea try running vista on a Intel celeron 800mhz with 256MB of ram ans see how it runs.
I had vista when i first built my PC back in 2007 and used it for 2 years with no hardware or software issues and that was before the service pack 1
Windows 7 is Vista with a facelift, aka Vista SP2
i guess you could say that. both vista and 7 share a lot of features. 7 had more than a facelift, it had the antivistaphobic stuff mixed in it so that pc makers install it in their pcs with out fear.
i hope win 8 doesn't turn into vista. ms makes every other os bearable while its predecessor makes users suffer.(win m.e. -> xp, vista -> 7, 98 ->98se?, win 8.0 -> hope this doesn't happen.)
vista was only a fuckup because the morons who didn't know crap about a computer tried to upgrade to vista when there computers were like 10 years old. yea try running vista on a Intel celeron 800mhz with 256MB of ram ans see how it runs.I had vista when i first built my PC back in 2007 and used it for 2 years with no hardware or software issues and that was before the service pack 1
Vista was definitely not as bad as the rep it got. I had the same experience, I used Vista for a couple years without any issues at all. It really was a resource hog though, which they have addressed with Windows 7. The UAC was also a total fail and a good example of how trying to lock Windows down to be secure, comes with a price of constant annoying popups. The interface was also really clunky in some areas and you had to keep clicking and drilling down into menu after menu to find what you needed. Overall I would say Vista was "good" and Windows 7 is excellent.
Windows 7 is Vista with a facelift, aka Vista SP2
People thumbed you down, but I decided to thumbs you up because I am filled with optimism.
Surely this is you noticing that Microsoft has done something to improve and better themselves.
It's nice that someone acknowledges that.
Well done Microsoft, even Reggieray thinks you did a great job and that's a tough sell.
"about 650,000 million licenses sold per day"good lord that's more than the entire population of Earth!!!joking aside, Windows 7 IS great OS overall...easy on the eye and almost no crashes...probably THE best OS ever from MS besides Windows 2000....
I'm still using Win2K most of the time. I have to work with XP/Vista/7 but, when I go home, Win2K is still my favorite. I still haven't seen anything they do that I need. Slower, convoluted, and buggier memory hogs don't really do it for me.
Probably when Windows 8 comes out I'll switch to it; by then it will be difficult to get any support for Win2K, but until then, I'll save the money and enjoy a better OS.
Of course, with Apple eating Microsoft alive, Windows 8 better be something good. If not, the rotting cadaver known as Microsoft will probably go through a lot of pain. It's probably time they get a new CEO before Apple completely consumes Microsoft's market share, just like Google is also doing. Everyone is eating Microsoft alive. Even OpenOffice is gaining market share.
What a choice, Apple or Microsoft. Bring back OS/2!!!!
You can have my XP when you pry it from my cold dead PC.
Windows 7 is the best OS I've ever used its Fast and simple and never messes up on me and when it does windows explorer comes right back unlike xp where you have to go to the task manger and re-run Windows explorer.exe to get it back.
As for Vista, Its was Microsoft's,Companies, Drivers/Software, And most importantly Users.
Microsoft's = Did vista really need 2GB to even run "ok" Windows 7 even runs on just 1GB fine, And Vista did take a little more CPU cycles to do the same thing 7 does. Also why put such low requirements on the box of vista if some one ran vista on those spec's their PC could barley run wordpad.
Companies= When i say this i don't mean little companies i mean HP Intel DELL. Intel fault for making bad integrated graphics that could not even run Aero. HP/DELL fault for giving users 512MB of ram on a vista machine with only a single-core(yes they did it).
Drivers/Software= You have to give software and driver developers time you do but Vista went through Beta for probably 1 year before release and you know they sent copy's to Big corporations such as Intel/Nvidia/AMD. It was probably their fault more then anything when it comes to game compatibly issues.
Users= We've all seen it Users going to bestbuy asking them if their PC can run this with a peace of paper in their hand with the system components listed. And we all know Bestbuy would give them a thumbs up to sell them a copy. This is how Users are when it comes to PC's.
A lot of them expect to run things made in the 90's on a 2011 PC. Some times it does still run but other times it does't unless its a game or custom made software they need to get something else.
Well, which is it?
One day my company will let us migrate to Win 7. I just formatted my dev machine and begged IT to allow me to use Win 7. I told them I would do my own support so they wouldn't have to worry about it but they still said no. So I have a clean install of XP again which should be ok for a few months before it starts to crap out again. Development on XP sucks compared to 7.
i was planning to dual boot 7 and xp, xp being the main os, and 7... just for its 64bit and dx11 capabilities, but hdds went through the roof, and i cant afford to put 2 of the size i want in my system.
This is going to cause Windows 8 to become stale in sales. The vast majority of people don't upgrade just because something is new out, they upgrade when they have to. Since almost everyone is happy with Windows 7 a lot of people won't upgrade to Windows 8 unless they are buying a computer that comes with it etc. Besides that Windows 8 will be short lived, so it won't have the time to surpass Windows 7 anyhow, because Windows 9 will come out a little over 2 years after Windows 8 is released. Windows 7 is the new new XP in terms of popularity and I see it staying that way for a long time to come.