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posted by janrinok on Sunday September 04 2016, @02:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the home-versus-business dept.

Windows 10's market share continues to grow a point or two a month, but it's also cracked the milestone of being the most-used version of Windows on weekends.

That's The Register's conclusion after downloading the US Government Analytics service's latest 90-day dump recording over a billion visits to US government web sites. That's as big a sample as we can find anywhere, so we figure it's at least as newsworthy as the other two sources we track for market share, NetMarketshare and Statcounter.

We've remarked in the past that operating system usage rates change during the week. A mature OS like Windows 7 will do well Monday to Friday because business has embraced it. A new OS like Windows 10 will do okay during the working week, but will initially do rather better on weekends because consumers are faster to adopt new code than businesses.

Windows 10 has displayed that pattern of adoption and continues to do so. But over the last 90 days it has also won more market share over the weekend than Windows 7. Here's the latest graph we've cooked up showing the trend.

Its hardly surprising seeing that Microsoft have made it very difficult not to upgrade.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday September 04 2016, @02:28AM

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Sunday September 04 2016, @02:28AM (#397222)

    This is exactly what Microsoft wanted. Home users were basically forced to switch because Microsoft could get away with that. Corporate users mostly stayed with what worked (Windows 7). Now corporate users will be pressured to purchase Windows 10 (rather than just wait for new equipment) because that is what everyone is using at home - and Statya rakes in some serious dough.

    Had Microsoft not done this, most home users would have stuck with what they had, especially after the Windows 8 UI/start menu fiasco. And corporate users would be going "ho hum".

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:00AM (#397253)

    It strikes me that what these folks need is a guy with a Linux ISO and experience using Linux.
    I'm specifically thinking of a DVD-sized distro (formerly called Ubuntu Ultimate Edition) now called Ultimate Edition. [distrowatch.com]

    Windoze User: Man, I hate having stuff shoved down my throat by MSFT.
    Linux Guy: I have something to show you that doesn't pull any of that crap.
    WU: Will it mess up my computer?
    LG: No. I don't have to install anything for the demo.
    WU: Hmmm. Let's see what you got.
    LG: It can all run from the removable media. We just boot to that like this.
    WU: It seems kinda slow booting.
    LG: If we were to install it on your hard drive, it would then be as fast as Windoze--likely faster.
    Linux has superior memory management and the filesystems that Linux prefers don't need defragging, so, unlike MICROS~1's stuff, Linux gets faster rather than slower as you use it.
    WU: Cool.
    LG: So, we're up. There's your point-and-click desktop. Not all that different from what you're used to. Right?
    WU: Well, it's a bit different.
    LG: So, it's kinda like the last time you got a new Windoze version. Right?
    WU: Heh. Yeah.
    LG: So, what's something you do under Windoze?
    WU: Surf the 'Net.
    LG: Click here and go to a site you like.
    WU: Yeah, that works.
    LG: Name another thing you normally do.
    WU: Listen to music.
    LG: Click here.
    WU: Rock and Roll!
    LG: What else?
    WU: Touch up photos.
    LG: No sweat.
    Yada, yada, yada.
    It would be interesting to repeat with 100 people and see how many tasks -can't- be done and how many people -can't- be satisfied.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:47AM (#397350)

      I've done this a couple of times and the thing that people trip up on (and you dismiss a tad bit too easily) is "WU: Well, it's a bit different."
      Sure, it *is* like last time they got a 'new windows' but it also is change and they don't like that. They WILL bitch about it and call your stuff crap (even though it isn't). They will accept this behavior from Windows, but not during a switch from Windows to Linux.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Sunday September 04 2016, @03:35PM

        by tftp (806) on Sunday September 04 2016, @03:35PM (#397412) Homepage
        If people only need to surf the web and do trivial things... then that might work. But in my experience they always say, for example, "can it run my Quicken 2016?" As soon as you say no, they lose interest. And that's just for home users. At work the situation is much worse - hardly any computer can be easily shifted to Mac or Linux. Our accounting runs on QuickBooks, for example... don't know how well will it work under Wine, but not willing to risk it anyway, as any update can wreck it. I cannot support configurations of production software that are not supported by the manufacturer.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:18PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:18PM (#397421)

          Yes, that's why you don't start by asking "What app do you run?", [alternativeto.net] you ask "What task do you do?".

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Sunday September 04 2016, @10:35PM

            by vux984 (5045) on Sunday September 04 2016, @10:35PM (#397545)

            You are simply high.

            People might not care much whether the browser is named Chrome or IE or Firefox or IceWeasel... but here 'learn a new accounting program and just convert all your books over (by hand) to this software that your accountant or bookeeper has never heard of, and is missing half the features you take for granted...you might as well just pull out an old double-entry leger and suggest they do their books by hand.

            • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:33PM

              by butthurt (6141) on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:33PM (#397565) Journal
              • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday September 05 2016, @06:36PM

                by vux984 (5045) on Monday September 05 2016, @06:36PM (#397866)

                From your own link:

                "In the next section, I'll give an overview of the QIF file and its "features". This may seem unnecessarily technical, but if you at least glance through it you will be much better able to understand what's going on if you are having to jump through hoops to make make a problematic file work right, and how you might be able to jump right in and edit the QIF file to fix really tough problems. "

                The sort of fun afternoon ONLY an open source + accounting nerd would choose.

                All to get into an accounting package almost nobody uses, and very few accountants have even heard of.

                • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday September 05 2016, @09:47PM

                  by butthurt (6141) on Monday September 05 2016, @09:47PM (#397902) Journal

                  The QIF files they're writing about are generated by Quicken. That's the proprietary software. You're faulting the Gnucash authors for documenting Intuit's file format.

                  Here's what Intuit has to say on its page called "Importing and Exporting QIF-Formatted Account and List Information":

                  The following items cannot be moved to a new data file with the import and export procedures and must be entered manually.
                  [...]
                  - Asset allocation information
                  - Budget settings and data
                  - Calendar notes
                  [26 more things]

                  --https://www.quicken.com/support/importing-and-exporting-qif-formatted-account-and-list-information [quicken.com]

                  Naturally, Intuit has deprecated QIF in favour of its binary QXF format. Outrageously, banks pay Intuit to use its proprietary file format:

                  QFX is Intuit's proprietary version of the standard OFX financial interchange file format. [...] A QFX file is a standard OFX file with additional fields to support a licensing fee paid by institutions to Intuit. In contrast, the standard OFX format is a free and open standard. Intuit's Quicken software will only import QFX files where the providing institution has paid the fee and in some cases passed quality tests, otherwise giving the error message "Quicken is currently unable to verify the financial institution information for this download".

                  --https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QFX_(file_format) [wikipedia.org]

                  Some poor sod tried to bring a QXF file from the Windows version of Quicken to the Macintosh version:

                  When I try to import .QXF converted Quicken (Quicken Deluxe 2011) files on my windows machine (Windows 7) to Quicken 2015 on my Mac I get an error message. The message says I'm using an outdated version of the conversion utility tool or am converting from an outdated version of Quicken.
                  [someone answered:]
                  [...] run Quicken for Windows in a virtual machine on your Mac [...]

                  Another alternative is to convert your data to QM2007 Lion Compatible (LC), which is closer to the Windows version, though still lacking in some features. [...]--https://web.archive.org/web/20150825015020/https://qlc.intuit.com/questions/1167020-why-can-t-i-import-qxf-converted-files-to-my-mac [archive.org]

        • (Score: 2) by srobert on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:19PM

          by srobert (4803) on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:19PM (#397422)

          That's been my experience as well. At my workplace we have for example PI-Data server addons for Excel spreadsheets (they don't work in LibreOffice), proprietary hydraulic modeling software, AutoCAD, and many other applications on Windows at my workplace. Our standard operating procedures have long evolved around these Windows only proprietary software packages. Linux and BSD has served my personal computing purposes for decades. But when I've shown it to my co-workers, they viewed it as fleeting curiosity, but were largely disinterested in it. And I imagine other industries and professions have the same issue. There's specialty software for engineers, dentist, veteranarians, architects, hotel operations, restaurants, etc. All of it running on Windows being used by large integrated groups who would find re-training to be too colossal a task.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @07:13PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @07:13PM (#397467)

            Look once again at the Subject line of the comment to which you responded.
            Are your co-workers bringing home work to do over the weekend on their own boxes?

            -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:30PM

          by Francis (5544) on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:30PM (#397425)

          That's like 90% of the users out there. For the most part any user that doesn't really understand computers would do just fine on Linux.

          The only reason anybody uses Windows is inertia. That and the programs that only work on Windows and don't have replacements on Linux or that don't work well with their Windows counterparts.

          Nobody in their right mind thinks Windows is a good OS, the best release they had was 7, which was solidly mediocre. And they immediately through the good work they did in the crapper to give us 8.

          • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @08:09PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 04 2016, @08:09PM (#397485)

            This table of equivalents [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [linuxrsp.ru] is very very old.
            It has demonstrated for ages that your app has to be pretty obscure to not have a Linux-compatible alternative.

            The only reason anybody uses Windows is inertia.

            That pretty well covers it.

            -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

            • (Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:03PM

              by tftp (806) on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:03PM (#397558) Homepage

              Interesting. I haven't seen that table before. It is indeed very old. I cannot follow many links anymore, they are dead.

              However... the comparison is a bit strange. They are trying to say that KMail is equivalent to Outlook [express]? That must be a cruel joke. I am using Kmail every day at home, and it is so basic that, essentially, you can't use it unless you really know what you are trying to accomplish.

              The reason why there are no comparable equivalents in special areas of expertise is very simple and well known. This is because the software requires a lot of effort - and in those cases it is also a BORING effort. For example, you need to enter and maintain a bunch of tax tables for accounting software. You need to have a license for PANTONE numbers if you do a graphics package. You need a 3D modeling library - that is not free - if you want to build an equivalent of SolidWorks. And so on. You have to have expertise in the industry that you are trying to serve - you have to be an accountant or have a consultant who is an accountant. For other examples that would be a graphics artist, a mechanical engineer, a mathematician, an RF engineer, a physicist... When the subject moves to pure science things get better, as there are many competent specialists. But industry-specific gaps will continue to exist until some company hires the necessary talent - and then it becomes another proprietary package, neither better nor worse than others. They will need to recoup the investment, and they start asking "why are we spending 30% of our money on supporting 3% of our customers?" - and it's all downhill from there.

              Linux exceeds Windows in most areas of communication - networking, Internet, storage. But even there holes exist. For example, the latest Skype for Linux (which I have and run) is a pale shadow of its Windows or Android version. It is not even updated. It barely works. I choose to run Skype on a tablet that sits next to my Linux Mint box. Imagine that!

              Recently Linux started acquiring its own demons - first PulseAudio, and now the universally hated SystemD. The latter refuses to run my postfix service after upgrade to Ubuntu Server 16.x. Though if I run /usr/sbin/postfix start, it runs just fine. Now I have to run the postfix manually whenever I reboot the box. And on Windows side some other, entirely unrelated people made a patch to 2008R2/SBS2011. Now it takes too much time to boot up the box, and the Exchange's transport service fails - and never starts! For that there is another workaround. All in all, I am viewing this civilization with great pessimism :-|

              • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 05 2016, @12:42AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 05 2016, @12:42AM (#397589)

                There's a lot of truth in what you said. 8-(

                you need to enter and maintain a bunch of tax tables for accounting software

                You wouldn't if the purpose of your gov't was to serve you and ALL of the other citizens and not to select winners in business.
                That information would be available as Open Data in downloadable files.

                until some company hires the necessary talent - and then it becomes another proprietary package

                ...and, as I like to say about the platform-specific proprietary apps:
                If your "Windoze-only" app is old enough, it will likely run under WINE.
                There are guys whose app has become the industry standard because they made a commitment to always be WINE-compatible and who did that over a decade ago. [google.com]

                Skype for Linux

                A spyware app from a malware company.
                I have an item in my personal queue about replacements for this and other apps that make you surrender your privacy|control.
                Gotta get that item submitted.

                SystemD

                The sin of trying to duplicate MICROS~1 technology methods and M$ business models.

                -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

            • (Score: 1) by Francis on Monday September 05 2016, @03:44AM

              by Francis (5544) on Monday September 05 2016, @03:44AM (#397653)

              Personally, there's like 4 or 5 programs I use that don't really have open source equivalents and one of them is a game.

              And they're not so much obscure as they're labor intensive to create and as such target Windows for the larger userbase.