Microsoft EVP Yusuf Mehdi said in a blog post last week that Windows powers over a billion active devices globally. This might sound like a healthy number, but according to ZDNET, the Microsoft annual report for 2022 said that more than 1.4 billion devices were running Windows 10 or 11. Given that these documents contain material information and have allegedly been pored over by the tech giant’s lawyers, we can safely assume that Windows’ user base has been quietly shrinking in the past three years, shedding around 400 million users.
Just want to say, Google Docs is NOT free. Just because you don’t send them money doesn’t mean you aren’t paying.
What is free though is LibreOffice, or some Nextcloud document addons (to a degree) if ”cloud” is the thing.
It sounds like a mixture of Chromebooks, and people simply not owning a traditional computer.
Either way, it seems to be mostly Google that’s winning here.
And Apple, with people replacing traditional computers with Android and iOS devices.
These 2023 stats have Chromebook sales at only ~25M units globally, so this is probably the second scenarion, people decommissioning Windows computers and using the phone and/or tablet instead. https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/global-tablet-market-share-Q2-2023
For most people, a tablet is a direct replacement for a laptop anyway, especially with a wireless keyboard. I run software for work that, as far as I know, is Windows only, but most people will be fine with a tablet, or even just a phone.
A tablet is not a replacement for a laptop, its just a secondary “big phone” for watching videos because its more confortable for the eyes.
And sending emails, social media, video calls, taking notes, pretty sure they can even run things like power point presentations now.
Chromebooks went from “What is that?” To literally everywhere in schools.
Android phones are everywhere.
Google and the Chrome browser really ate into Microsoft’s dominance.
I know everybody’s here to rag on Microsoft, but I honestly am quite pleased with Windows 11. I comfortably do software development in an Ubuntu shell using the Widows Subsystem for Linux and it honestly works like a charm. Then I can unplug and play video games in Steam and everything works great, there, too.
Of course this is all possible on Linux, but my point here is that Windows really isn’t as awful as everybody makes it out to be.
Meanwhile, MacOS enters into a second decade of no innovation. It still relies on Homebrew for developer tools, still lacks any substantial improvements to Xcode and only ever receives iterative cosmetic changes like video lock screens and the new bundle of desktop backgrounds for its latest “update.”
You’re trying to paint windows in a positive light when Microsoft is desperately trying to spy on us and force more advertising on us even though we really don’t want it, and the only reason they can do that is because they have a monopoly. So yeah, it really is that awful.
And if we want to do side by side comparisons of the available software packages, most things that you would need for your average office setup are free and come by default on your major Linux distros. On Windows, you have to install them manually, and the default options are mainly commercial. So you’re paying more and possibly getting something worse, depending on your personal preferences about each software package and its alternative. That’s pretty bad, my friend. Windows is competing with free and losing, but they have inertia and a monopoly.
My personal experience with Windows has been different. I’ve not seen advertising anywhere in Windows so far; where have you seen that? I’m a bit shocked about Microsoft spying on me, too. Do you have any sources on that? It feels like that should be illegal in Europe and would make headlines.
I don’t use desktop office software and haven’t purchased any desktop software in probably a decade. My business makes heavy use of Google Workspace and uses online services that are agnostic to the operating system. The only things I’m really installing on my machine are developer tools through
apt-getand games through Steam.Open up your start menu and start typing, what comes up? Is it just apps or in other words program within your local hardware? Are there suggestions from the Internet or in other words an advertisement.
The results are honestly pretty spot on, at least for my use cases, and this isn’t different from how Chromebooks or MacOS does it (although for the latter, Spotlight results are hilariously terrible). Even Linux distros often combine on-device and online search results—are those also advertisements? I’m puzzled why Windows is called out in particular on this.
If my Linux distro searched the internet, when I opened my launcher, I’d be finding a new Linux distro.
I distinctly recall a version of Ubuntu that not only showed search results, but Amazon shopping links.
And i no longer use Ubuntu. I remember that too. I also remember such large push back that it was removed
When you install windows from fresh, you have a bunch of “suggested” apps on you task bar which are ads. Then you also have Notifications that tells you the news, which are sponsored news. Then you have other notifications telling you to use this or that Microsoft service (eg. oneDrive), another form of ads. If you use a browser that isn’t Edge, you’ll be routinely “reminded” how amazing edge is. Also, Edge reinstalls itself after every update even if you uninstall it.
All of these are forms of ads and outright abuse. Maybe you don’t care, but this is definitely happening. I’m also in the EU, my laptop was bought in the EU.
You’re right that Edge routinely attempts to make its return—that’s annoying alright. Microsoft is skirting a fine line here since they were found guilty of antitrust practices for this very thing. (Tangentially, I wonder if iPhone users have the same complaints about Safari.) In Europe, at least, those updates prompt you whether to make the switch, and the user remains in control. It’s been many years since Microsoft changed my defaults.
You’re also absolutely right about the attempted upsells for Office 365 or OneDrive or whatever. I agree they’re ads and that they’re annoying, but not more so than how my MacBook constantly nags me about iCloud or how iPhone consumes it with app data, or how Google leverages its surfaces for Photos, Drive, Workspace and Gemini upsells.
In the end all these companies arrive at the same challenge: converting a one-time purchase into regular payments through subscription models. I had honestly forgotten about these prompts until you reminded me of them, and so long as they’re irregular and easy to ignore, I feel like Microsoft isn’t doing anything outright awful.
I often think communities like Lemmy choose to disproportionately hate on things. In this case it’s Windows, which I really don’t think is warranted.
I often think communities like Lemmy choose to disproportionately hate on things. In this case it’s Windows, which I really don’t think is warranted.
But it is, though. You just choose to not see it that way. Laptops aren’t cheap, and you already paid the brand for it. Windows comes priced in into the purchase, you just don’t see it because you’re used to the price being combined. But its there.
For me, if I already paid for the product, that’s it. The company loses the right to advertise to me and milk me for further revenue, and just because its industry standard it doesn’t make it okay: the law should be tighter around this. Full stop.
I wonder if consumers would choose to pay more to opt out of this. Surely corporations have done their research, because none of them have chosen to offer a buy-out option. To be perfectly frank, I wouldn’t pay more for a laptop for a guarantee that I’m not prompted for any up-sells, and it’d only make the consumer offerings more confusing if such an option existed.
All these companies are forcing themselves into the corner of offering the one-time fee to be as low as possible, preferably free, and find other revue channels after the purchase. I hold them all equally guilty of this: why pay $100 for Windows when there’s no such fee for a Chromebook or MacBook? Microsoft is forced by competition to reduce the fee and recoup it elsewhere, and they’re in my opinion not even the worst among those examples.
It’s odd that Lemmy directs its anger at an individual company, while they’re all guilty of the same practices, instead of towards their government representatives who are actually able to take action against it.
It’s odd that Lemmy directs its anger at an individual company, while they’re all guilty of the same practices, instead of towards their government representatives who are actually able to take action against it.
What? Lemmy fucken hates the government dude. People here absolutely rail against the government to take action against these practices and companies.
It feels like that should be illegal in Europe
If you’re in Europe you need to STFU because your experience has fuck-all in common with the vast majority of Windows users.
I didn’t mean to have upset you as I wasn’t aware that European users weren’t allowed to comment here. I only ever meant to speak to my own experiences and not on behalf of anybody else.
I reviewed the community rules and didn’t see anything about Europe, so I’m left confused about what I’ve done wrong.
Check the part about misinformation.
Kindly reference the sections where I’ve provided misinformation and I will add a correction.
I see my comment about advertising and will clarify it.
That guy is a jackass. Probably an American upset that he’s a minority on Lemmy. Don’t mind him.
I log into a windows 10 server and see system notifications ads pop up. Here is an example of one i’ve seen several times across multiple windows 10/11 boxes.
I don’t think the biggest concerns about Windows are about functionality. It works perfectly well and even has some neat features. I’m using Linux and I miss the sys + v for clipboard history. The biggest gripe themes I see are the loss of privacy coupled with increasing sales pressure for everything Microsoft.
Edit: I looked it up, of course there’s a Linux equivalent to clipboard history. Added!
sys + v can be bound to bring up clipboard history if you are using KDE!
Yes, I probably use this hundreds of times a day! This is a perfect example of something missing from Mac that requires an App Store purchase to fix—same for better window management. I suppose Apple prefers this situation because it allows them to both monetize on a lackluster OS and avoid making investments to fix anything.
I think you nailed it. There are definite upsides to macOS, especially for less tech savvy users, but they gouge the hell out of the denizens of their walled garden.
Because they made it shit…
This aligns with statcounter data here: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/#monthly-200901-202505
Windows market share on desktop has been slowly but steadily declining. From 95+% in 2009, to almost 70% today. In the same time period Linux went up from 0.6% to 4%, which is not bad.
So this is just an apple victory or is Android to blame?
Android is not on this plot, it’s desktop only.
The 2nd place is interestingly not Apple, but Unknown.
Kids mostly use mobile devices and don’t even know what a folder is, so both.
Yea, people don’t even have computers now. Its happy tap the phone and love the Google, return to monke. We are the .00000001 percent.
And that’s honestly why this story isn’t the good news it appears to be. An entire generation growing up used to (or rather, used by) locked-down devices designed for consumption is a goddamned disaster!
But if you say something like People should have basic IT knowledge you get called an elitist.
And yet people are fine with:
People should have basic cooking knowledge
People should have basic financial knowledge
Can’t use a computer when you’re tired and wanna lay in bed, or just browse memes on transit to work, or have a GPS in your pocket, or a camera in your pocket, or a portable communication device… etc
Strap a minisfourm pc and battery pack to your back, run a usb cable up to your AR glasses. Strap a Svalboard to each hand and run the cables up your arms. Easy problem solved.
It can also be noted that the trend over time for the “unknown” category (which stands for 8 % today) follows the same trend as Linux. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that Linux is over-represented in the “unknown” category, and may actually be closer to 5-7 %.
Apple Silicon goes absolutely BRRRR
Three points four percentage points. Not great. Not terrible.
It sounds much better when you say 1 in 167 people then vs 1 in 25 people today.
It was unthinkable 10 years ago. I call it a win.
Apparently Linux have 20% market share in Norway. That is… I don’t really believe it, but really cool if true.
I wonder how cloud accessibility plays into this. In the past if I had a dedicated windows app I might typically have maybe a hundred windows desktops accessing onsite servers. Nowadays I can replace that with thin clients and cloud based RDSH servers.
switched to Linux and don’t regret it. fuck copilot, laggy ass UI, terabyte of ram usage, forced updates and any other bullshit they can come up with.
I’m about to make it one more…
What a well earned drop. They keep forcing their bullshit on us, of course we’re interested in other OS’s as a result.
I do use windows for most things, but my servers will never run anything but Linux at this point.
Funny thing. Back in the day, and possibly today, all windows Hotmail/Livemail servers were Linux.
Hotmail ran on FreeBSD when Microsoft acquired the company in 1997. They started the transition a few years later and it was entirely hosted on Windows by 2005.
Requiring 50x the hardware no doubt
Outside of the biz world, people aren’t buying as many devices that would use the os. Or not replacing the ones they had that can’t upgrade?
I was one of the 400 million.
I began using Windows in 1992. I switched to MacOS this year and I’m never going back.
As someone who has had to use Windows, OSX and Linux as a daily driver at different points, OSX was by far the most challenging to work with. Every few months something broke. Fully on Linux now.
As someone who has used Windows, OSX, and Linux as a daily driver at different points, Windows was by far the most challenging to work with. Every week there was some problem.
In recent years, my company provided Dell with 32GB of memory running Windows would blue screen practically weekly. Most of the time it struggled to run more than one instance of an IDE. Windows finally crashed to the point that the only option was restore the OS.
I requested a different machine and have been running macOS with less memory. Have actually been able to run more IDE instances than the Windows machine would run. No crashes.
Completely Unix based OSes now. Linux servers. Linux desktops. Mac laptops.
Your windows problems weren’t brand new problems and likely from there systems or integrations.
When I say there were issues with OSX, I mean brand new problems stemming from updates breaking compatibility with systems and software. Nothing like getting to work one morning and every single employee lost the ability to screen share, or suddenly the file system for your virtual machines was broken, etc.
Finally! Someone said it! My company changed my work laptop to a Mac. It’s been a couple of months, and I still haven’t got used to the desktop environment. Navigating between open windows with regular mouse/keyboard is a pain.
I find window grouping very annoying (this is also true for Gnome). What makes it even worse, is that the tilde is next to the left shift, instead of being above Tab. I think that’s because we have British keyboard.
I never got used to it. Always felt gimped using it. At least with Windows I had shortcuts and virtual desktops.
I wonder if there’s any correlation with AI killing the office job market.
