Windows 10 Market Share Drops Between March and April

[timta2]

Where is the source you're looking at? I don't see any link in the article.

NVM found it. But ehh... where do you see the share increase for 7? I'm looking at a decrease...

View attachment 153982 >>> View attachment 153983

There is nothing here that speaks of increased popularity for 7. Everything points at people moving to other OSes non-MS. Or new customers not choosing Windows over any alternative.

I'm not so sure this is anything new, to be honest. The most noteworthy bit might be the increase of Linux share, in a relative sense it exploded. The shift to a more diverse range of OSes at large is not new, despite Windows 10 growth at the cost of 7. The net market share of Microsoft OSes is not necessarily getting bigger.

Operating system market share

This report lists the market share of the top operating systems in use, like Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.

netmarketshare.com

I don't know if I could trust anyone that can't get something as basic as the name of the operating system correct. It's been macOS since 2016. https://www.wired.com/2016/06/apple-os-x-dead-long-live-macos/

 

[windwhirl]

I don't know if I could trust anyone that can't get something as basic as the name of the operating system correct. It's been macOS since 2016. https://www.wired.com/2016/06/apple-os-x-dead-long-live-macos/

Then you better start with Apple, because they haven't changed the user agent according to their new (old?) brand name.

For example:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:77.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/77.0

 

[zlobby]

And that’s just basic information needed to solve issues like log entries, crash/memory dumps, and other associated debug data. This is no different than the crash dumps that Mozilla Firefox collects to solve crash issues.

How else do you expect developers to solve issues? Debug data and crash data. As a programmer myself, small time I may be, I very much understand the necessity of debug data to solve program issues and that’s exactly what that telemetry is.

Eh, can you maybe design your software in a way, such that debug is turned on by the users only when needed? A single crash is not much of an issue if we're talking browsers and such. On recurring crashes users can just tap debug, recreate the problem and call it a day.

 

[trparky]

crashes users can just tap debug, recreate the problem and call it a day.

You forget that most people who use computers today wouldn't know what that means and just dismiss it as just another annoyance and thus the problem would never be solved.

 

[zlobby]

I love how those who are on the Microsoft hate train get their post voted up yet me, who has actually explained what telemetry really is with actual freaking logic gets nothing but crickets.

Gave you a like since it seems to... like it! I don't agree with your statemsnt, though.

 

[trparky]

Today's computer users practically need their hand held like a little child. We can see this in how even the BSOD isn't so scary anymore. Instead of some dark blue screen with nothing more than white text on it, we instead have a BSOD that's light blue in color complete with a QRCode and an unhappy emoji (I'm not kidding here, see the image below). As if having an unhappy emoji is going to suddenly make it less of an issue than it really is. But you know, we have to make it less scary for those know-nothing computer users out there.

I understand that people here don't need to be coddled like that but if you look at the average computer user, they need all the hand-holding that they can get and a hell of a lot more.

 

[lexluthermiester]

so Google sells your data in return.

However, that data is totally anonymized before leaving Google(most of it is anonymous before it leaves your device). It has to be to comply with many of the laws that exist in the US and many other nations in the world. In that regard, Microsoft, Apple and everyone else has to do the same. However, Google does not collect usage habit data if you opt out. Microsoft does.

And that’s just basic information needed to solve issues like log entries, crash/memory dumps, and other associated debug data. This is no different than the crash dumps that Mozilla Firefox collects to solve crash issues.

How else do you expect developers to solve issues? Debug data and crash data. As a programmer myself, small time I may be, I very much understand the necessity of debug data to solve program issues and that’s exactly what that telemetry is.

Except that Microsoft does not give users the option to exercise their right to not participate. Additionally, Microsoft still collects personal information with even basic telemetry.

 

[trparky]

Additionally, Microsoft still collects personal information with even basic telemetry.

Proof please.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Proof please.

From Microsoft themselves;

Microsoft Privacy Statement – Microsoft privacy

Privacy

Data collection summary for Windows

Enjoy.

 

[londiste]

@lexluthermiester, only the last link applies to Windows.

 

[lexluthermiester]

@lexluthermiester, only the last link applies to Windows.

You need to review them a bit closer then. The devil is in the details and fine print.

 

[Vayra86]

Except that Microsoft does not give users the option to exercise their right to not participate

I'm so double on this, personally. I completely agree with you, it should be possible to opt out, simply and definitively, and it is not.

On the other hand. MS is one of the very few tech companies I have a high, if not higher than my own government, trust factor with. Why? Because we (myself/customers of MS) share some underlying principles. MS's business is immediately killed if they breach the trust they have built up with data leaks and actual spying. Over all these years though, and despite all the telemetry deployed and attempts to take it further, in the end, absolutely nothing has gone very wrong. Meanwhile, there are privacy discussions that are very visible and real to us regarding almost every other big tech company, like Facebook, Google, etc etc. Even Apple had its problems, with Maps holding location data on you (within the OS, but easy to extract), Siri listening in on you 'for analysis', and some other cloud related nonsense.

Seems to me MS is doing a lot of things right. Another big, big plus with MS is their dominance, which also reinforces trust. After all, they have no incentive to do weird or risky stuff to us and every incentive to hold on to what they have.

At the same time I feel it is always good to remain a critic of anything they do that doesn't suit me. Since Nadella, though, that feedback seems to be acted on much more swiftly, too. Another complaint about MS of the past that's been handled in a way I kinda like. They've made some strategic adjustments, also with Windows 10, that have been favorable and based on our feedback.

 

[R-T-B]

How else do you expect developers to solve issues?

I... think we used to have something called log files... and manual submission, but my memory is foggy.

Anyways, Win10 has been wiresharked and it's a lot more than it seems at first glance, really.

 

[Vayra86]

I... think we used to have something called log files... and manual submission, but my memory is foggy.

Pfew sounds like work... hell no

 

[R-T-B]

Pfew sounds like work... hell no

Now it's just work to retain control over your data. Yay!

 

[londiste]

Anyways, Win10 has been wiresharked and it's a lot more than it seems at first glance, really.

Can you link to a good article/analysis on that?

 

[R-T-B]

Can you link to a good article/analysis on that?

This one is fairly decent, even though the source publication is "hit and miss" at times:

https://www.softscheck.com/en/blog/windows-10-enterprise-telemetry-analysis/

EDIT: linked wrong article initially.

 

[londiste]

That... is far less than I expected. I get that this is from an Enterprise edition, but still.
Cortana and Bing are easily enough avoidable and I wish they went further into telemetry data.

 

[R-T-B]

That... is far less than I expected. I get that this is from an Enterprise edition, but still.
Cortana and Bing are easily enough avoidable and I wish they went further into telemetry data.

It's easily avoidable yes, but also clearly not "needed diagnostic data" which was really my point.

It's not so much a problem as poor wording.

As for going further into telemetry data, there is a way you can do that manually now, if you trust MS's tools, but I've not messed with it too much yet.

 

[londiste]

It's easily avoidable yes, but also clearly not "needed diagnostic data" which was really my point.

I think Cortana/Bing is a whole different discussion. While Cortana is part of Windows 10, it is kind of a necessary evil when competitors are doing the same thing and Cloud-connected devices/data is a thing.

Honestly, my experience with Cortana and cloud search is minimal as Cortana is location-specific and not available in my location. Also, I do not use Microsoft account, have most of the privacy settings set to more private choices. Since I am using Windows 10 Pro, Basic Diagnostic Data is enabled and seems to be the only inherent telemetry/data being sent. I am struggling to find the articles right now but Microsoft's own description about what is sent (using their tools as you noted) seems to be accurate enough and not that concerning.

 

[R-T-B]

I think Cortana/Bing is a whole different discussion. While Cortana is part of Windows 10, it is kind of a necessary evil when competitors are doing the same thing and Cloud-connected devices/data is a thing.

Honestly, my experience with Cortana and cloud search is minimal as Cortana is location-specific and not available in my location. Also, I do not use Microsoft account, have most of the privacy settings set to more private choices. Since I am using Windows 10 Pro, Basic Diagnostic Data is enabled and seems to be the only inherent telemetry/data being sent. I am struggling to find the articles right now but Microsoft's own description about what is sent (using their tools as you noted) seems to be accurate enough and not that concerning.

Well, I suppose it's only bothersome to me as a matter of "say exactly what you mean" legalese, which really is nitpicking. I would certainly agree I'm not personally worried about it at all.

 

[trparky]

I... think we used to have something called log files... and manual submission, but my memory is foggy.

Yes, but how many actually submitted that data? I'd probably say not that many. How many actually understood what that meant? Probably even less than the first number. Remember, most users are complete know-nothing idiots that don't even know the difference between a USB port and a SATA port. Yes, I do admit that there needs to be an off button for the telemetry however I wouldn't care, I would still keep the telemetry on because Microsoft needs to know when things go wrong and how to fix things. Even Mozilla Firefox has telemetry and yet nobody ever complains about that. It's always Microsoft that gets that kind of hate even though everyone else does it.

Google is even worse than Microsoft in terms of the kind of data and how much they collect on you, but I never ever see the kind of hate or the level of vitriol against Google that Microsoft receives. Double standard much? Even if you do use Linux you can't avoid Google, Google is everywhere! Google has analytics, they're the edge host of many such Javascript libraries like jQuery (which is used damn near everywhere!), they do email, and they run YouTube. It's damn near impossible to hide from Google on the Internet and all of the data collection that Google does yet again... Microsoft gets all the hate.

Oh, I forgot... Google good, Microsoft bad. I must have missed last week's propaganda meeting where they talked about that. I'll be there next week; I promise to be brainwashed into loving Google. I'll be a Google loving zombie by the end of next week.

 

[John Naylor]

I'm struggling here, where is the remainder of that 100% share? Who gained what W10 lost?

Like so many Covid related numbers, in isolation this is meaningless.

There are multiple graphs ... OS market share and Windows version market share ... the latter does not include non MS OSs. Also check the bottom of the graphs

"Showing 1 to 10 of 61 entries" ... so in that view, there are 51 other entries below 0.63%

Windows 10 52.68%
Windows 7 29.34%
Mac OS X 10.14 4.10%
Windows 8.1 3.74%
Mac OS X 10.15 1.97%
Mac OS X 10.13 1.60%
Windows XP 1.60%
Linux 1.27%
Mac OS X 10.12 0.71%
Windows 8 0.63%
Showing 1 to 10 of 61 entries



Windows 10 59.77%
Windows 7 33.29%
Windows 8.1 4.24%
Windows XP 1.82%
Windows 8 0.71%
Windows Vista 0.16%
Windows NT 0.00%
Windows 2000 0.00%
Windows 98 0.00%
Windows 95 0.00%
Showing 1 to 10 of 10 entries

 

[Vayra86]

There are multiple graphs ... OS market share and Windows version market share ... the latter does not include non MS OSs. Also check the bottom of the graphs

"Showing 1 to 10 of 61 entries" ... so in that view, there are 51 other entries below 0.63%

Windows 10 52.68%
Windows 7 29.34%
Mac OS X 10.14 4.10%
Windows 8.1 3.74%
Mac OS X 10.15 1.97%
Mac OS X 10.13 1.60%
Windows XP 1.60%
Linux 1.27%
Mac OS X 10.12 0.71%
Windows 8 0.63%
Showing 1 to 10 of 61 entries



Windows 10 59.77%
Windows 7 33.29%
Windows 8.1 4.24%
Windows XP 1.82%
Windows 8 0.71%
Windows Vista 0.16%
Windows NT 0.00%
Windows 2000 0.00%
Windows 98 0.00%
Windows 95 0.00%
Showing 1 to 10 of 10 entries

Thank you sir!

 

[lexluthermiester]

Since I am using Windows 10 Pro, Basic Diagnostic Data is enabled and seems to be the only inherent telemetry/data being sent.

That is easily dealt with by disabling the service " DiagTrack " and then deleting it. After that, even "Basic" telemetry is disabled. Locking down Windows 10 is possible, but it takes a delivered effort and requires a few compromises.

Cortana, Edge, Internet Explorer, Telemetry and if you want to use your own security programs/suite, Windows Defender can all be removed(deleted) not just disabled.