Windows 8 continues slow growth in global operating system market share

According to the most recent NetMarketShare figures, Windows XP remains relevant in the global market share in the operating system world.

Window 7 remained the leader, at 44.55 percent, followed closely by the ancient Windows XP at 38.99 percent.

Microsoft is killing support for Windows XP SP3 in April, 2014, meaning there will be no more tech support, no more hotfixes and no more security updates. Effectively, after 13 years, Microsoft is killing off the operating system. That should eventually lead to an exodus towards Windows 7 and Windows 8, but for now the OS remains incredibly relevant despite being outdated.

Windows 8 is now up to 2.67 percent share, growing just half a percentage point from January. Windows Vista remains with a 5.17 percent share, and Apple's Mac OS X 10.8 has 2.61 percent share, with older Mac operating systems amounting to another 4 percent.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 4 Mar 2013 23:32

megadunderhead

windows 7 start menu windows 8 no start menu and really complicated do i need to say more and i hate to tell you that microsoft may kill off updates for windows xp but you can still download firefox and safari and even opera for windows no need to worry about internet explorer 10 so microsoft is really going to be hurting when millions of xp users find out there machines cannot run windows 8 or windows 7 and are forced into purchasing another machine which will just damage there company more

5.3.2013 08:28 #1

aldan

not a whole lot of machines out there that cant run win 7,and most of the old ones ive put it on run slightly better than they did on xp.most need more ram to really help and that begs the question.is it really worth it? some older computers are painfully slow on xp.win 7 wont change that much.in my opinion,if your computer is that old that it wont run win 7 it really might be time to upgrade.

5.3.2013 15:59 #2

Interestx

Windows 7 will be the XP story all over again.....and why not?
Updating is fine but replacing an OS with a new one for the sake of it on a fixed timetable makes no sense.

Win 7 has a lot of business use now & the inertia to change that brings with it means the next proper Windows system most swap to eventually (no doubt along with some nice deal sweetners) will be Windows 9 or 10.

Microsoft might not like this but it seems to me the historic reality & the numbers out there will bear this out.

5.3.2013 19:39 #3

Mr-Movies

You all make great points and yes people that want to still use XP can just use it with a 3rd party browser instead of IE. But also true is that Win7 will run on most PC's that have XP provided they have at least 1GB RAM if not two. I personally could careless about most of the hot-fixes and updates so the browser would be the only issue.

Actually I'm surprised at how many people actually like Windows 8 and we see it in the pie above. I really thought that the percentages would be worst than they actually are.

There are ways to make 8 work for us who prefer 7 but why when 7 works so well overall. I think you're right and I've said it too, Windows 7 will be the next XP probably running for a decade or more before being put to sleep.

8.3.2013 10:18 #4

Virgil_B

Originally posted by Mr-Movies: You all make great points and yes people that want to still use XP can just use it with a 3rd party browser instead of IE. But also true is that Win7 will run on most PC's that have XP provided they have at least 1GB RAM if not two. I personally could careless about most of the hot-fixes and updates so the browser would be the only issue.

Actually I'm surprised at how many people actually like Windows 8 and we see it in the pie above. I really thought that the percentages would be worst than they actually are.

There are ways to make 8 work for us who prefer 7 but why when 7 works so well overall. I think you're right and I've said it too, Windows 7 will be the next XP probably running for a decade or more before being put to sleep. I'm not trying to contradict what you are saying but any operating system from Windows XP SP3 or later really needs a minimum of 2 GB of ram memory. Anything less and your system response is just too slow.

8.3.2013 10:54 #5

Mr-Movies

Originally posted by Virgil_B: Originally posted by Mr-Movies: You all make great points and yes people that want to still use XP can just use it with a 3rd party browser instead of IE. But also true is that Win7 will run on most PC's that have XP provided they have at least 1GB RAM if not two. I personally could careless about most of the hot-fixes and updates so the browser would be the only issue.

Actually I'm surprised at how many people actually like Windows 8 and we see it in the pie above. I really thought that the percentages would be worst than they actually are.

There are ways to make 8 work for us who prefer 7 but why when 7 works so well overall. I think you're right and I've said it too, Windows 7 will be the next XP probably running for a decade or more before being put to sleep. I'm not trying to contradict what you are saying but any operating system from Windows XP SP3 or later really needs a minimum of 2 GB of ram memory. Anything less and your system response is just too slow. You're wrong go look at the OS requirements for Windows 7 x86, it will say a minimum of 1GB RAM, but for x64 it is 2GB's RAM. I've built thousands of PC's so I have the experience to know.

8.3.2013 10:59 #6

Virgil_B

Originally posted by Mr-Movies: Originally posted by Virgil_B: Originally posted by Mr-Movies: You all make great points and yes people that want to still use XP can just use it with a 3rd party browser instead of IE. But also true is that Win7 will run on most PC's that have XP provided they have at least 1GB RAM if not two. I personally could careless about most of the hot-fixes and updates so the browser would be the only issue.

Actually I'm surprised at how many people actually like Windows 8 and we see it in the pie above. I really thought that the percentages would be worst than they actually are.

There are ways to make 8 work for us who prefer 7 but why when 7 works so well overall. I think you're right and I've said it too, Windows 7 will be the next XP probably running for a decade or more before being put to sleep. I'm not trying to contradict what you are saying but any operating system from Windows XP SP3 or later really needs a minimum of 2 GB of ram memory. Anything less and your system response is just too slow. You're wrong go look at the OS requirements for Windows 7 x86, it will say a minimum of 1GB RAM, but for x64 it is 2GB's RAM. I've built thousands of PC's so I have the experience to know. I know what the OS requirement says and yes, it will run on 1 GB of ram. It has just been my experience that it runs better with 2GB or more. That's just like the OS requirement that says Windows XP needs a minimum of 64K of ram. Try to run XP on that.

8.3.2013 11:13 #7

Mr-Movies

It is my experience that all things run better on more! That isn't the point and you were wrong. In fact I've run Windows 7 x86 on as low as 512MB RAM but it did run extremely slow compared to what is normal, but it did work and one could do so. This is the last I will say on this as it doesn't need to be argued.

8.3.2013 11:31 #8

moleculo

i'll still use windows xp either way, because i use quite a few programs that are important to me and are not supported on windows 7. if security is an issue, i'll add another affordable laptop witn windows 7 just for the internet and xp i'll just keep disconnected. hopefully that won't be necessary, and even more hopefully microsoft will finally overturn their decision to kill xp given its continued popularity. xp just won't die, and rightfully so.

9.3.2013 11:13 #9

Mr-Movies

MS won't change their minds this time around as businesses have moved on to 7, granted there are still some using XP and in fact I know of some businesses still using 2K, 98 and even believe it or not 95. The reason these are still being used is the same reason you won't move on to 7, as they have extremely old programs they don't want to let go of. There is no reason you can't still use your XP online even with the lack of hotfixes.

9.3.2013 12:54 #10

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