Windows 8 Hits 100 Million Sales

SonOfVoorhees

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W8 would work better with a touch screen, but most people have a normal screen. So it doesnt work.
 

F1ak3r

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A lot of people just upgrade for the sake of upgrading, because surely it must be true that newer is always better. It's rather irritating fixing people's PCs where they messed up the Windows 8 installation somehow and would have had a perfectly serviceable Windows 7 had they not upgraded just to upgrade. I've always believed that if you're going to be paying for an upgrade, you gotta make damn sure it has features and improvements you really need/want. And I'm not getting 8 for the same reason I never got Vista -- it doesn't provide enough useful innovations over Windows 7 for me to spend money on it.

And even then I'm sure most sales come from new prebuilt PCs/laptops. I've heard Windows 8 has quite a speed increase over 7, but in my mind, that's really not worth the cost of a purchase, the pain of installation, and the need to learn a new interface which reminds me at every turn that it is so obviously not designed with a keyboard-and-mouse PC in mind. I don't even like touchscreens.

Also, Windows 8 is quite ugly. Switching between the normal desktop and the Metro interface is like switching between two operating systems with incompatible visual styles. And shutting down from the options menu? What the hell, MS?

When next I buy a laptop, if I can't get Windows 7 on it, I might just install Ubuntu and only Ubuntu on it.
 

Callate

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Dec 5, 2008
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Uh-huh.

And how many returns on systems with Windows 8? And how many new sales of Windows 7 because of Windows 8...?
 

Snow Fire

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Jan 19, 2009
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Adam Jensen said:
And how many people downgraded it back to Windows 7, I wonder?
Not me I guess, I upgraded to Windows 8 Pro from Windows 7 at the beginning of January this year, and despite having several physical copies of Windows 7, I'm still running with Windows 8. I even use several metro apps, and the Start screen. Waiting for a Chrome Metro to show up, curious how Google will handle things there, IE and Firefox Metro are both pretty cool though. :3
 

Not Lord Atkin

I'm dead inside.
Oct 25, 2008
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yes, well, that might just be because they shoehorn the bugger into everything nowadays. I bought a new laptop a few weeks ago, has windows 8 in it. I wasn't given a choice in the matter, it's just there. I remember the times when I could pick the system I wanted in a new computer.

the good news is that I still should have an unused licence for Win 7 I bought for my desktop. I just might reinstall one day...
 

Jaeger_CDN

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Windows 8 is just Windows 7.5 with a ugly, obtuse UI covering the whole thing. Yes Win 8 is a slightly better OS under the hood but Microsoft made it damn hard to do anything with it by purposely hiding tools and programs people have grown used to over the past 23 years of windows versions. Microsoft is just trying to catch up to Apple's way of running the world with it's walled gardens and more profit (app stores)on a previously open operating system.

Other thing is the only pieces of the overall pie that Win8 has taken have been at the expense of the XP and Vista userbase. The last group of sales data I saw showed that Win7 still grew (not by much considering Microsoft is making it harder to find copies but there was still growth) in userbase. [http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/windows_8s_market_share_coming_expense_windows_vistaxp2013]

The big swing will come when enterprise users fully migrate from the XP platform to windows 7. Windows 8 will require larger investments in retraining and new equipment than Windows 7 does so that sector will screw with Ballmer's plans as well. Hell, my employer (a provincial gov't) just upgraded my browser from IE 7 to IE 8 last month and are supposed to migrate to Win 7 from XP. Any of the IT people here I've spoken to just laugh when I mention the words Win8.
 

ResonanceSD

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Dec 14, 2009
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SonOfVoorhees said:
W8 would work better with a touch screen, but most people have a normal screen. So it doesnt work.
I'm using it right now on three normal screens. It uses a desktop UI like everything else.

I think every single one of the detractors in this thread hasn't actually used it and is going "WIN7 GOOD, WIN 8 BAAD" by default.
 

Elithraradril

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Jaeger_CDN said:
Any of the IT people here I've spoken to just laugh when I mention the words Win8.
And they work where ? Apple tech support ? Seriously the amount of bs I'm reading, about how bad this system is, is just ridiculous. Sure, the start screen is still far from being perfect, but the OS itself is fast, stable and simply better than any of the MS OS was less than 1 year after it's release.

Many of simple features that Windows 7 was lacking here are present at the first startup. ISO mounting, UI language change, multi-monitor wallpaper stretch etc.etc. Simple things, yet simply annoying when you have to install third party tools to do them.

And when I say faster - I mean it. Explorer is reacting far better than it was under Windows 7, so are basic OS tools. Win8 simply needs time, for MS to fix minor GUI issues.
 

Lance Icarus

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I work with technical support at a community college and I can tell you implementing that OS here would be a nightmare. I've played around with Windows 8 and on a touchscreen device, it seems to work just fine. On our desktop computers, however, it's an exercise in frustration. The cumbersome way it makes you get to any applications that aren't immediately on the initial load screen would flood us with calls and questions about how to reach this and that program. When you're dealing with the wide assortment of users and programs we use here, going to a new OS would be a whole new learning curve for an OS that probably won't be around much longer.

Basically, this OS looks very business unfriendly and that will be the death knell of Windows 8.
 

Jaeger_CDN

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Elithraradril said:
And they work where ? Apple tech support ? Seriously the amount of bs I'm reading, about how bad this system is, is just ridiculous. Sure, the start screen is still far from being perfect, but the OS itself is fast, stable and simply better than any of the MS OS was less than 1 year after it's release.
Nope, these are people that deal with a few thousand desktops across a provincial gov't network. My second sentence basically said that under the hood, Windows 8 is a upgraded version of Windows 7 and I agree that it has some improvements but that they tried to change 23 years of people using a relatively similar GUI style overnight. There was a similar hue and cry when Vista was introduced but that had the problem of lousy drivers at the beginning and not a major overhaul of the GUI over XP. Windows 7 was simply an upgrade from Vista with minimal changes to the GUI.

Windows 8 was Microsoft's attempt to do what Apple was doing by having a similar OS style across all it's hardware products (iPod, iPhone, iPad vs phone, surface tablets, xbox and desktop)as well as try and generate a revenue stream from 'Apps' which is what caused the blowback from Gabe Newell and Notch regarding a walled garden.
 

SpAc3man

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Ha! While everyone was busy complaining like little bitches who are afraid of new things I actually figured out how to use Windows 8 on my desktop just like Microsoft intended. By setting up my start screen perfectly for my needs I ensure I never ***** and moan about not being able to find something I want because everything I need is on my start screen. It serves its exact purpose: A full screen, highly customisable start menu with a very high visibility layout and icons designed to be fast to find and click on.

If you think people will find it hard to launch their programs you are forgetting that all their programs will be on their start screen.

Oh and it just so happens the interface works well on a touch-screen too. Who would have thought Microsoft would succeed so well at creating an actual proper unified interface that worked so well.
 

SteewpidZombie

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The numbers mean nothing when you consider that ALL machines by default will have Windows 8 installed. Which means that if I buy a computer for $2000 or so, and I get home with Windows 8 installed, I probably won't want to spend ANOTHER $70 or so to buy and install Windows 7 onto my system instead (Plus the time and ect. required is more of a hassle).

Overall it's just Microsoft trying to say that "HEY! LOOK! IT'S NOT SHIT! BUY IT!"
 

SpAc3man

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Lance Icarus said:
The cumbersome way it makes you get to any applications that aren't immediately on the initial load screen would flood us with calls and questions about how to reach this and that program.
Well not if whoever set up the PCs did their job properly and made everyone's programs visible on the start screen in an organised and properly grouped fashion. It's rather like setting up Windows 7 or Windows XP to have all the correct programs under the start menu in a properly organised way.
 

Bvenged

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This article's title is misleading to some degree, implying that Windows 8 has sold 100 million copies.

Licenses sold does not equal copies bought. They sold 100 million licenses to retailers out of assumption, and consumers didn't buy them.

"In the first six months since its release, 100 million licences to use Windows 8 were issued - on the face of it, this isn't a disastrous performance, although licences issued doesn't necessarily translate directly into copies of Windows 8 sold"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22439496
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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Deshin said:
DVS BSTrD said:
Genocidicles said:
Probably wouldn't have sold anywhere near that much if you could still buy pre-built PCs with Windows 7.

Everyone I know who uses it only has it because it came with the laptop they wanted, and they couldn't buy that laptop with Windows 7 installed.
So it's basically the Origin of OSs?
To be perfectly fair: The only reason I ended up installing Steam in the first place was because Borderlands 2 outright demanded me to. Not to say I wouldn't have done it eventually, I probably would have, but ya can't call out Origin on shit that Steam pulled too. It's actually worse because Origin is demanded for EA titles whereas I'm pretty sure Borderlands 2 doesn't have anything to do with Valve.
Actually Origin is a fair bit worse because an Origin account became a retrospective requirement to play online in EA games. The ones that didnt use Gamespy at least.

And an Origin account is required for online functionality on thier more recent console games (Dead Space 3), where it has no buissness being there.
 

Hero in a half shell

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Genocidicles said:
Probably wouldn't have sold anywhere near that much if you could still buy pre-built PCs with Windows 7.

Everyone I know who uses it only has it because it came with the laptop they wanted, and they couldn't buy that laptop with Windows 7 installed.
So much this, I'm considering buying a new laptop, and finding a Windows 7 for sale is rare, finding one that is also powerful and good value is downright impossible.

Luckily I still have my Windows 7 home premium disk from my last laptop, so if I buy one the first thing I'll do is wipe it. Even then I'd still count as a glorious Windows 8 sale, which is the problem with these figures.

Also I tried my uncles Windows 8 laptop. I don't think Microsoft could have created a less user friendly UI if they paid Apple to sabotage it for them. Everything takes about 3 times as long to achieve, even trying to shut down the thing is a user-unfriendly ride into menu madness.

I have no confidence in it after my dad downloaded an adware toolbar onto the laptop, and I found that it is quite literally impossible to get fully rid of because Windows 8 safemode is a bunch of balls that allows unnecessary programs to load during it's start up. I turned on safe mode, opened the task manager, and found that safemode allows loading Adobe programs, and the toolbar malware on it's startup, but does not load the floating icons on the pseudo-desktop screen that give you access to the start menu. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
 

cidbahamut

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Elithraradril said:
Jaeger_CDN said:
Any of the IT people here I've spoken to just laugh when I mention the words Win8.
And they work where ? Apple tech support ? Seriously the amount of bs I'm reading, about how bad this system is, is just ridiculous. Sure, the start screen is still far from being perfect, but the OS itself is fast, stable and simply better than any of the MS OS was less than 1 year after it's release.

Many of simple features that Windows 7 was lacking here are present at the first startup. ISO mounting, UI language change, multi-monitor wallpaper stretch etc.etc. Simple things, yet simply annoying when you have to install third party tools to do them.

And when I say faster - I mean it. Explorer is reacting far better than it was under Windows 7, so are basic OS tools. Win8 simply needs time, for MS to fix minor GUI issues.
IT professional checking in here. Windows 8 is perfectly fine from an optimization standpoint, but in terms of usability, it's a pile of shit. We regularly joke about it in the office. We're not putting that rubbish on any of the PCs we manage, it wouldn't be in anyone's best interests.