Windows XP usage finally falls below 50% mark

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Emil

Posts: 152   +0
Staff

At the end of July 2011, Microsoft can say that Windows XP finally fell below the 50 percent mark. In other words, Redmond's decade-old operating system is now used by less than half of all Internet users.

Windows XP's market share is eroding, and Windows in general is slowly slipping as well: between June and July, it fell 0.63 percentage points (from 88.29 percent to 88.76 percent). At the same time, Mac OS gained 0.22 percentage points (from 5.37 percent to 5.59 percent) and Linux gained 0.03 percentage points (from 0.95 percent to 0.98 percent). Unsurprisingly, mobile operating systems gained share.

In the same time period, Windows 7 gained 0.74 percentage points (from 27.13 percent to 27.87 percent). Windows Vista meanwhile slipped 0.28 percentage points (from 9.52 percent to 9.24 percent) and Windows XP fell 1.19 percentage points (from 51.13 percent to 49.94 percent). In about a year's time, we should see Windows 7 pass Windows XP altogether.

By the end of 2010, Windows 7 had grabbed 20 percent of the market and at the end of April 2011, Windows 7 passed the 25 percent mark. Last month, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 had sold more than 400 million licenses in the last 21 months. This means that Microsoft is selling just fewer than 20 million licenses per month. Back to school season is coming up, followed by the holiday shopping frenzy, so that number should remain stable till 2012 at least.

Although Windows 7 is growing its share very quickly, the ancient Windows XP is still dominating. Microsoft knows this and is making its own attempts to woo users off the platform. The software giant still supports those using XP, despite its hate for the ancient OS.

On April 14, 2009, Microsoft retired Mainstream Support for XP, and with it, support for IE6. The company is not planning to retire Extended Support for the operating system until April 8, 2014. If the company ends up releasing XP SP4 (highly unlikely), it will retire support for SP3 (released in April 2008) two years later, or in April 2014, whichever comes first. In short, Windows XP will continue to be officially supported by Microsoft for about three more years. Despite the support options, Redmond still wants XP and IE6 to die.

Three months ago, even the National Security Agency (NSA) began advising users to upgrade from Windows XP to either Windows Vista or Windows 7. Furthermore, the organization says that when possible, choosing a 64-bit version of Windows is recommended.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/44902-windows-xp-usage-finally-falls-below-50-mark.html

 
How about some numbers about how quickly the mobile market is going in comparison to the world OS market, so we can get an idea of relative vs. absolute growth? Otherwise, saying things like "Unsurprisingly, mobile operating systems gained share" tells us nothing, at best, and implies mobile growth at the expense of desktop growth when such is not the case, at worst.
 
I replaced my Windows 7 netbook with an Android tablet so it's happening...
 
Most people I know who have bought a NEW computer (ie: a windows 7 license) have upgraded back to Windows XP SP2 (SP3 is MS sabotage). Since you can't buy new laptops without Win7/vista, one just 'takes the one given' and reinstalls.
Look at the benchmarks XP sp2 is FASTER, the only drawback is it doesn't support > 4gb of ram... Someone should fix that issue in a SP2a update ;) . .
 
32 bit XP will never support > 4 GB of RAM. As for speed, my Windows 7 PC is quite speedy. While XP on the same hardware might be faster in some respects Windows 7 is a far superior OS. As for SP3 being sabotage I think your tinfoil hat fell off.
 
The only reason 32-bit Windows XP and above dont support >4Gb is a software restriction from MS. Have a look at Windows 2000 - 32-Bit Windows 2000 Pro with PAE enabled can access well over 4Gb RAM.

You can of source simply edit the kernel binaries to remove the restriction ;-)
 
I would love to install win 7 on my old laptop. Unfortunately, I can't. It does not support the chipset and graphic drivers.
 
I`m installing two new systems with XP Pro as we speak, I don`t want to but the customer REFUSES to get with the times, as do most of them sadly.
They want something instantly familiar, and oddly most seem to think that Windows 7 is too different for them to understand.

I do push 7 on them as much as I can, fighting the good fight.
 
I urge users to upgrade to Windows 7, because they eventually will have to anyway. Their computer running old faithful (cough) windows XP will give out eventually, and you're not going to run your new quad core on XP are you?

As for the >4GB on XP. I ran windows XP 64-bit for quite a while (certainty through the Vista age). As you can guess the 64-bit windows XP had support for over 4GB RAM, so if you're looking for a way around windows 7. The support (driver wise) is not bad either, but you do feel "special".
 
Accessing more than 4GB RAM with a 32-bit OS is possible with PAE support, but:

1 -- gives 64-bit addresses to the drivers, so you need different (often unavailable) drivers.
2 -- slows your system down (yes, worse than just running a 64-bit OS)

And I'm sorry, if you are running SP2, you're asking to be a part of a botnet. That tinfoil hat won't protect you from the internet, only good luck will :)

If you want to run an old OS, at least be smart enough to acknowledge that there might be a reason newer ones come out and updates are made (besides the obvious money-making).
 
Fighting the good fight? - surly that would be "Don't use Windows, use Linux or Mac"
 
"Windows in general is slowly slipping as well: between June and July, it fell 0.63 percentage points (from 88.29 percent to 88.76 percent)"

That looks like a gain to me.
 
I am using windows xp professional, I have athlon ii x4 645 (quad core), sapphire radeon hd 6850 and I see no reason to use windows 7 because my pc is running everything very very well :)
 
Guest said:
Hahaha, take that Windows XP phobics.
Click to expand...
What? It is still Windows XP > 7, and it'll probably stay like that in the next 5 years or so.
 
"Windows in general is slowly slipping as well: between June and July, it fell 0.63 percentage points (from 88.29 percent to 88.76 percent)"

Looks like a typo. According to the graphic, the market share for July was 87.66%, not 88.76%. This would be drop of 0.63 percentage points from 88.29%.
 
our office will also upgrade to windows 7 on first quarter next year.
sure that will continue to go down as they've discontinued their support.
 
That's why you should consider LINUX - Linux only has about 1 % of the market but 1 % is a lot of people using LINUX.

Operating System free
No viruses
Makes an old computer run like lightning
Free office, graphics, music, accounting and other software - 32000 free programs in all

go to youtube and check out some LINUX desktops like Ubuntu, Fedora or SUSE. You will be amazed what your 'old' laptop can handle.

www.opensourcesolutionsni.blogspot.com
 
And they know that, They want us in a fast paced buying cycle and I refuse to do that. Either use common sense hardware upgrade timetables or wait for me.
 
I was one that was holding on to my old XP, but eventually I decided to take the plunge and buy Windows 7 and I don't regret it. I partially done it because I am a programmer and some people that were playing a game I made were running Windows 7. I couldn't upgrade the game without having the OS. After looking into it I was pleasantly surprised at just how cheap Windows 7 was. Koodos to Microsoft for making it so affordable. I definitely love Windows 7 now. It's more secure without being anal about it. As for speed, I have no problems. Over time I expect to see more and more software made for 64bit and I expect they will run much better, but I don't see any problems.

This is the same old story we have seen time and time again, whenever we get a major upgrade and technology change like we have had, there is a settling in period. We no longer use 16bit, pretty soon 32bit will meet the same fate. Upgrade and get used to it, you'll have to sooner or later.

As for a "fast paced buying cycle" ummm, XP has been around for something like 10 years now, I wouldn't call that fast paced. And Windows 7 is probably the Cheapest windows I can remember while being the most impressive version.

As for Viruses, I don't even run a virus checker anymore, I just use common sense and I haven't had a virus in a very very very long time... in fact, I don't think I have EVER had a virus, so the old "Use windows instead of Linux and you'll be plagued by viruses" is a crock... Linux will never take off, it's simply not user friendly not matter how much you try and cover it up. There is no way I would recommend the average user at home install Linux over Windows 7.
 
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