Windows 8.1 surpasses Windows XP in the desktop OS market

[iranu]

Just goes to show what a failure Win 8 was. Win 7 just works. I can't remember the last time I had a single issue with it. If I walked into a car dealers and he was trying to flog me a car that steered using pedals on the floor and accelerated with a wheel I wouldn't buy that even if there was a conversion kit no matter how good people told me then engine was.

The only thing that will make me move to Win 10 will be DX12, but even then I'll let the guinea pigs sort the bugs out and discover all the nonsense MS has added and how to turn it off, before I jump.

[anacdahudee]

I'm ready and looking forward to upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I do have an 8.1 license but too many things annoyed me with it, such as the metro interface and the splitting up of controls between the control panel and the charm thing, though I have come round to the apps a bit more now. The insider preview for 10 has been great and things look promising, I shall remain cynical until release though. I'm hoping they compress the ISO images down as currently they do not fit on a 4GB pen drive.

[DanceswithUnix]

If I walked into a car dealers and he was trying to flog me a car that steered using pedals on the floor and accelerated with a wheel I wouldn't buy that even if there was a conversion kit no matter how good people told me then engine was.

I think for a lot of us, if I have a perfectly working car, why would I use my time walking (or driving ) to the car dealers in the first place?

There is a time cost in updating, and a risk. I just updated my phone to Android 5.1, I pressed "OK" and came back half an hour later, all complete and working fine. It could have all messed up, in which case I would probably be looking at a factory reset and an hour out of my life reinstalling stuff.

For me, Windows has always been a pain to install, and risky to the point that I have always installed onto a fresh hard drive or SSD so I can just plug the old one back in. So that adds the cost of a new SSD or hard drive.

For me the upgrade from XP to 7 was worth it, because games were starting to expect to be on 64 bit and graphics cards were getting too big to use in a machine that can only address 4GB in total. I am not feeling that push from 7 to 10 yet. I never felt any push/pull from 7 to 8, and I even went as far as buying the cheap license deal they did at the start of that just never used it!

[DemonHighwayman]

LOL.. Not a fanboy .. just willing to deal with issues and modify my behaviour to suit rather than need things to stay the same.

To be fair, I have been following the pre-release using VMware so I already know what I am signing up for and hence the day 1 upgrade.

Thats fair enough, if you already know what it's like. There are so many people these days that just buy the latest stuff just because it's new without knowing very much about whatever it is, eg. iphone people who cue up over night for the latest version or folks who preorder games, I just find it all a bit mad !

[Saracen]

LOL.. Not a fanboy .. just willing to deal with issues and modify my behaviour to suit rather than need things to stay the same.

To be fair, I have been following the pre-release using VMware so I already know what I am signing up for and hence the day 1 upgrade.

There is nothing wrong with modifying your behaviour, and "dealing with" issues, and upgrading day 1, if that's what you want.

There is also no need for snide little digs about "whining" when it isn't what other people want.

There are some significant issues, not least of which is licence terms, and any such migration logically requires an assessment of the upside, and downside, of taking it. If, for you, upside exceeds downside and you'll deal with "issues", great. But it doesn't mean that balance comes out the same for everybody.

You said "I don't get it". Perhaps what you don't get is that other people have different criteria, priorities, issues and circumstances, which is why they reach a different conclusion .... without "whining".

[Jonj1611]

I think the thing to remember is people are individuals, it doesn't matter if someone installs it on the first day or a year later, its their choice and not for anyone else to say whether they are right or wrong to.

I will be installing early personally, I have had few problems with Windows in the past that makes me want to hold off. The only problem I had with 8 was Metro which thankfully got taken care of with Start8.

[HavoCnMe]

I would sure hope that 8.1 has a better market share than an EOL product. JMO

[iranu]

I think for a lot of us, if I have a perfectly working car, why would I use my time walking (or driving ) to the car dealers in the first place?

There is a time cost in updating, and a risk. I just updated my phone to Android 5.1, I pressed "OK" and came back half an hour later, all complete and working fine. It could have all messed up, in which case I would probably be looking at a factory reset and an hour out of my life reinstalling stuff.

For me, Windows has always been a pain to install, and risky to the point that I have always installed onto a fresh hard drive or SSD so I can just plug the old one back in. So that adds the cost of a new SSD or hard drive.

For me the upgrade from XP to 7 was worth it, because games were starting to expect to be on 64 bit and graphics cards were getting too big to use in a machine that can only address 4GB in total. I am not feeling that push from 7 to 10 yet. I never felt any push/pull from 7 to 8, and I even went as far as buying the cheap license deal they did at the start of that just never used it!

I hear ya brother! I've spent many an hour or ten sorting out windows in it's various guises on not only my hardware but other peoples, it is a risk. I also only ever do a full install onto a fresh disk (not always new) for the same reason. Last one was the Samsung SSD (which has had 8.78TB written to it without fault -touch wood) about 3 years ago and it took ages to get all the updates done and then reinstall everything. I keep a backup image on disk, but those HDs have always had a copy of windows plus a few basic programs installed on a small partition too, so if anything borks I can at least get up and running again with a simple disk switch or change of boot drive. I also want a physical copy, not a licence and an "upgrade".

[GuidoLS]

A fanboy doesn't need to concern himself with silly little things like objective and rational evaluations.

Perhaps not, but some of us who aren't necessarily fanboys do our due diligence without taking some repeaters word for how things are. And there's been more than a few that are being willfully ignorant of rational evaluations, seemingly to just increase their 'street cred' in the MS Sucks club.

My personal opinion - WIndows7 was undoubtedly the best consumer version of Windows ever released. Still my opinion - 10 may well be better. Certain features certainly are, at this point.

[Saracen]

....

My personal opinion - WIndows7 was undoubtedly the best consumer version of Windows ever released. Still my opinion - 10 may well be better. Certain features certainly are, at this point.

Win10 may be, and indeed certainly ought to be, "better" in some respects.

But it's more complex than that, don't you think?

For instance, not having hierarchical menu levels on Start menu. Lots of people no doubt never used that, so for them, losing it is utterly meaningless. I do use it, a lot, and have been for a very long time, so losing it is a major pain in the chair polisher.

Beyond that, the introduction of some new features raises issues that will be deal-breakers for some people, and meaningless for others. Like Cortana, and EXACTLY what it does and how it does it. Or the exact content of the licence T&Cs.

All of which makes whether one version is better than another a very subjective issue.

[GuidoLS]

Win10 may be, and indeed certainly ought to be, "better" in some respects.

But it's more complex than that, don't you think?

For instance, not having hierarchical menu levels on Start menu. Lots of people no doubt never used that, so for them, losing it is utterly meaningless. I do use it, a lot, and have been for a very long time, so losing it is a major pain in the chair polisher.

Beyond that, the introduction of some new features raises issues that will be deal-breakers for some people, and meaningless for others. Like Cortana, and EXACTLY what it does and how it does it. Or the exact content of the licence T&Cs.

All of which makes whether one version is better than another a very subjective issue.

That's why I said *may*

As a gamer, I find that it offers better performance than Windows 7, and I don't have a DX12 capable card, so that isn't the reason. As a matter of fact, the card in the 'test' machine is a lesser card than what's in my main machine, yet seems to offer similar or better performance. Programs seem to load faster - I'll grant that it's a newer install, and there's less clutter on the test machine, but my main drive in the daily driver is a 320gb 10krpm drive, vs a 1tb 7200rpm drive in the tester, and there's a lot of good reasons the Velociraptors got a premium price. I'm also very seriously liking Edge (Spartan is now officially gone). The rendering has done nothing but gotten faster with each release. Something that doesn't really apply to either of us directly, the store, is also out of Beta, and is also extremely fast and responsive.

And people want Cortana... maybe not you and I, but lots of other people. There is an off button, and it's still working as intended, as of release 10159. I think it's a neat idea... in a sci-fi movie. Otherwise, no thanks.

There are things I don't like, just as I'm sure that there will be things others don't like. They've changed the start menu operation numerous times, and I'm not sure why, as I haven't seen many of the changes being made requested. Odds are good that if I want the same level of operation as I have in Win7, I'll have to use a 3rd party program to do so - knowing your biggest requirement, unless something changes in the next 3 or so weeks, you'll need to do the same (if you switch). I will leave a Windows 7 machine in operation, if only to run Media Center. I'm a cord cutter from a long way back, and I prefer the MS software over what Happague offers.

For me, the positives outweigh the negatives, with one exception (yes, I'm still griping about Media Center). It's obviously not a one size fits all solution, which is what I think they're aiming for eventually. But, other than for gamers and those that like to be in the forefront, I don't see any huge reason to jump ship from 7, other than there will be no new upgrades. Except that free until next year thing... that's a hard siren song to ignore. Especially for those of us with multiple machines with multiple licenses. 1 or 2? Not too bad. 8-10? No, I don't think so.