Windows 8 continues to gain market share, closes in on Mac OS X 10.8

It was recently revealed that Windows 8 was running on 1.64 percent of all computers worldwide as of December according to data from Net Applications. Here we are just a couple of weeks later and that figure has already jumped...

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I love windows 8. I installed start dock 8 and been happy ever since.

It all depends on if corporations adopt Win8 - which seems unlikely.

Wow! It almost as as much of a market share as Linux. Good going Microsoft.

Linux market share is 1.19% so it's actually getting closer to doubling Linux's share. http://www.netmarketshare.com/linux-market-share

The 2.35 mentioned includes 2000, NT, and 98 as well.

Companies will probably adopt windows 10 or whatever it will be called. 9 will just be 8 fixed, and ten will be an optimized 9 with some nice new features, at least hopefully.

Well my university which was slow to adopt windows 7 over this weekend installed windows 8 for all the computers at the school. and since we can't customize, it totally sucks

It's almost impossible to actually give real numbers of GNU/Linux usage as we're not dealing with the quantity of a product sold. People freely download it from various locations and there is no way to quantify this. linuxcounter.net attempts to try to do so, but with ~100,000 registered users we know this is nowhere close to the total amount of users. We're confident that GNU/Linux usage ranges in the millions.

There's no compelling reason to switch to Win 8 on desktops. Touch surfaces is another story entirely.

I've been using Windows 8 since the beta release in Feb 2012 and now we have 5 computers running Windows 8 exclusively on our home network. We have had no Problems or BSODs and everyone covered the learning curve in less than two weeks. So I'm not surprised that Windows 8 is gaining market share. I believe Windows 8 will continue to gain market share. Windows 8 boots faster than its predecessors, it is much more secure, easily managed using the traditional keyboard and mouse, and it offers more and better features for using computer workstations with multiple monitors.

Windows 8,...yeah, yeah,

This is to all ya two-bit screen readers
and them Windows 8 boyas...

I'm a tech-spot resident, mind my bashing,
I ain't here trashing, I'm the geek-world president,

If you hear my word, you'll know I'm for real,
So you better listen up, there will be no appeal,

Welcome new MS-OS, Ballmer's child abortion-
Windows 8, just like before, the bathroom-tile version,

Jerk it to the left, jerk it to the right,
Sliding fingers on them screens blurry,
Desktop got shifty, better hold it tight,
Colors from a wet dream, ...the kind of story.

Where to surmise, in my blazing hit, not to be modest,
Windows 8 is a shittt

I find nothing intrinsically wrong with Win 8 as I also use it. It's kinda like kissing your sister, it does nothing to excite you.

I own Windows 8 Pro, but choose to use Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1 instead because pretty much the network devices here is all Windows 7 supported. Once you add the Windows 8 into the mix then you have get like MCE which MS did try to charge me but the Sale Rep told me I could get it for free which I did under the $14 bucks deal.

To me it still looked the same under Windows 7 MCE. I feel if you want to use Windows 8 you need to buy a touch screen monitor if your going to use it on a desktop system. Windows Tablets which I was testing Windows 8 Preview for many months was okay still not 100%. Windows 8 and TCP.sys still about the same as it was with Windows 7. You can fix it so it can have more Sessions Connections instead of the default 10.

I set it to 50 on this system. Also 8 has RTO set 3000 you can have the same feature on Windows 7 but I had wrote a script to change the settings in Window 8 and also in Windows 7 do RTO in 7 is set 1000 instead of 3000 like it was in Windows 8. So now 7 is as quick as 8 is. As too boot times will vary when you start off with 8 and 7. Again all of that can be fixed too.

Windows 8 leaves behind Windows 7 GUI and gives you some different, just have to get use to the new different way to move around in Windows 8. But for me I am sticking with 7 until I see better improvement in files system and clean-up of files, registry, and fragments seems to be the same in Windows 8 like it was in Windows 7. Microsoft needs to have a Smart Clean-up system to keep Memory, VRM, defrag and other junk files clean-up. This issue hasn't gone away folks and you need programs to clean-up after Windows Updates. Just gets too messy still.

Recommend programs that freeware are:

1. Slim Cleaner
2. Jet Clean
3. UnCleaner (this one gets to the root of Windows sub system junk files)

Manually run the 3 except for the first 1 will run automatically the other 2 best to run them by manual control.

Keep Windows 7 or 8 clean and your system will run like it should alway. Forget to do the clean-up and Windows 8 will start to slow down.. Like it does in Windows 7. But my system is quick and Windows 7 is kept clean.

Downtown Pittsburgh James has been testing the reliability of Windows 8 for about a year and I must say there is a learning curve but, the enhancements over Windows 7 should not be overlooked. I am starting a list of these enhancements and here is what I got so far:

Improved Windows Defender
Windows 8 UI (Metro) & Apps
New Task Manager
Microsoft Drive Optimizer
File History
Create Wi-Fi Hotspot Natively
Start Screen
39.99USD Upgrade
Built-in Adobe Flash
Lock Screen
Internet Explorer 10
Enhanced Download Manager
Advanced Sign-in Options
Touch Interface
Social Integration
Excellent Backward Compatibility
File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer)
Faster Boot
Sync Settings across Devices
Boot from USB Flash Drive

What am I missing?

One of the lines on the list will soon need to be edited.

39.99USD Upgrade

To be honest, I didn't think booting to a USB flash drive was anything new. For the other options on the list, I personally don't see anything compelling me to try Windows 8. Maybe that will change, once I finally decide to fork out the cash for a touch enabled display.

Like he said (especially if u have an SSD, only W8 offers full TRIM support) with stardock8 u have windows 7 interface + latest OS, all in one.

Bullshit, every OS with a browser can be identified which OS is installed and that feedback is send back to these sites, just like your TV channels are giving info automatically back to distributor.

I dunno... Maybe something really useful like a media player.

I like the improved USB file transfer user interface.

"There's no compelling reason to switch to Win 8 on desktops. Touch surfaces is another story entirely."

There's no compelling reason for touch surfaces either imho. Neither OS's are good for tablets.

The only positive differences I've noticed over Win 7 on my tablet are: Faster wake up from sleep, Wifi connects fast and it detects the keyboard fast.

Other than that, Boot times are about the same once programs are installed, start screen is pointless and creates more problems than it solves, easiest apparent way to turn off wifi is with AMD Vision, OS maintenance/updates without user knowledge, which is a problem because it causes your tablet to slow up and there is no obvious reason why, Windows 8 keyboard is missing Ctrl, touchscreen isn't as responsive as it is in Win7, possibly do to loading....probably a few more things.

Neither OS has many playable games in tablet mode and the few there are mostly suck. Also there is no way to have an on-screen controller.

This is just off the top of my head for the 2 weeks I've been using it.