4 ms·

400 million Windows PCs vanished in 3 years. Where did they all go?

12 points by breve 1y ago

kacesensitive 1y ago
I'm just done with Windows after Nixon said Windows 10 would be the last OS and they'd just iterate on it then broke that promise soon after.
- p_ing 1y ago
  You weren't done when Gates said 640k was all you'd ever need? Neither myth will ever disappear.
  - kacesensitive 1y ago
    Wasn't alive then haha
mathfailure 1y ago
That article is a speculation, the number 400 millions was taken out of the article author's ass.
- defrost 1y ago
  The author asserts the number comes from official Microsoft user base size statements three years apart. The figure derived from differencing two other numbers may or may not be correct but it has a non anal origin.
  - mathfailure 1y ago
    Have you actually read the article? The author's assertion came out from his ass: he concluded that "more than a billion users" in MicroSoft's presentation means "exactly about 1 billion users". No, 1.5 billions is "more than a billion users" as well. The author is a speculating bitch, not a journalist.
    - defrost 1y ago
      Obviously I read the article. Have you read the HN guidelines?
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
codevark 1y ago
[dead]
bb88 1y ago
I moved from Linux and MS to Mac this year. I didn't know if I'd like it, but the fact is that battery life always sucked on linux and running things like fusion 360 always felt like a workaround. I used Jeff Geerling's ansible scripts, and now I have all of the development tools, fusion 360, and xtool creative suite through it and homebrew. I still don't like the fact that apple forces you to pay the memory and storage tax, but OTOH windows has been broken for a few years -- and forcing me to upgrade hardware from a perfectly serviceable Dell XPS 15 from 7 years ago to Windows 11 sealed it for me. I thought I was going to dread the experience but it was fine. The only thing I hate is the stupidity of the command/ctrl behavior that's different than windows/linux. But I fixed that with a mechanical keyboard running VIA.
- yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
  > The only thing I hate is the stupidity of the command/ctrl behavior that's different than windows/linux. But I fixed that with a mechanical keyboard running VIA. Amusingly, that's probably my favorite thing on Darwin! It fixes annoying conflicts like ctrl-c meaning copy except in a terminal where it means (approximately) kill the running process; now ctrl-c means kill, and cmd-c always means copy. Similarly, web browsers can have terminals that I don't accidentally close because ctrl-w only means delete-word, not close tab. It's good enough that I've passingly toyed with porting it to the FOSS-unix ecosystem, but I don't think it's practical.
  - jemmyw 1y ago
    https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto does the mapping pretty well
    - benoau 1y ago
      Love Kinto, although I find on PopOS it is pretty annoying always having to wait a couple seconds for the command key to register to select multiple files, zoom in/out etc. But overall it does a very impressive job of letting me continue using all that Mac muscle-memory including my favourite, command + {} for right-hand tab navigation.
cadamsdotcom 1y ago
Big up Valve for giving the world Proton, great to see what happens when people have an alternative. Even if it’s actually less than 400 million, everything helps.
- benoau 1y ago
  And SteamOS. SteamOS showed everyone that low-power processors could be surprisingly competent, with perfect hibernation and sleep, without Windows.
Stealthisbook 1y ago
The quoted number is awfully specific. Monthly active devices? Why not licenses since that's what they are theoretically in the business of selling? Active devices would be relevant to their ad revenue, so I'd be interested to know what's the context for the statistic and what they're actually tracking. Are enterprise and other installs that block ad telemetry included?
theyknowitsxmas 1y ago
especially with large organizations scurrying to replace old devices running Windows 7 before the end-of-support date that's now officially less than a year away Okay zdnet is getting piholed for AI generated hogwash

12 points by breve 1y ago

I'm just done with Windows after Nixon said Windows 10 would be the last OS and they'd just iterate on it then broke that promise soon after.

p_ing 1y ago
You weren't done when Gates said 640k was all you'd ever need? Neither myth will ever disappear.
- kacesensitive 1y ago
  Wasn't alive then haha

mathfailure 1y ago

That article is a speculation, the number 400 millions was taken out of the article author's ass.

defrost 1y ago
The author asserts the number comes from official Microsoft user base size statements three years apart. The figure derived from differencing two other numbers may or may not be correct but it has a non anal origin.
- mathfailure 1y ago
  Have you actually read the article? The author's assertion came out from his ass: he concluded that "more than a billion users" in MicroSoft's presentation means "exactly about 1 billion users". No, 1.5 billions is "more than a billion users" as well. The author is a speculating bitch, not a journalist.
  - defrost 1y ago
    Obviously I read the article. Have you read the HN guidelines?

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

codevark 1y ago

[dead]

bb88 1y ago

I moved from Linux and MS to Mac this year. I didn't know if I'd like it, but the fact is that battery life always sucked on linux and running things like fusion 360 always felt like a workaround. I used Jeff Geerling's ansible scripts, and now I have all of the development tools, fusion 360, and xtool creative suite through it and homebrew. I still don't like the fact that apple forces you to pay the memory and storage tax, but OTOH windows has been broken for a few years -- and forcing me to upgrade hardware from a perfectly serviceable Dell XPS 15 from 7 years ago to Windows 11 sealed it for me. I thought I was going to dread the experience but it was fine. The only thing I hate is the stupidity of the command/ctrl behavior that's different than windows/linux. But I fixed that with a mechanical keyboard running VIA.

yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
> The only thing I hate is the stupidity of the command/ctrl behavior that's different than windows/linux. But I fixed that with a mechanical keyboard running VIA. Amusingly, that's probably my favorite thing on Darwin! It fixes annoying conflicts like ctrl-c meaning copy except in a terminal where it means (approximately) kill the running process; now ctrl-c means kill, and cmd-c always means copy. Similarly, web browsers can have terminals that I don't accidentally close because ctrl-w only means delete-word, not close tab. It's good enough that I've passingly toyed with porting it to the FOSS-unix ecosystem, but I don't think it's practical.
- jemmyw 1y ago
  https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto https://github.com/rbreaves/kinto does the mapping pretty well
  - benoau 1y ago
    Love Kinto, although I find on PopOS it is pretty annoying always having to wait a couple seconds for the command key to register to select multiple files, zoom in/out etc. But overall it does a very impressive job of letting me continue using all that Mac muscle-memory including my favourite, command + {} for right-hand tab navigation.

cadamsdotcom 1y ago

Big up Valve for giving the world Proton, great to see what happens when people have an alternative. Even if it’s actually less than 400 million, everything helps.

benoau 1y ago
And SteamOS. SteamOS showed everyone that low-power processors could be surprisingly competent, with perfect hibernation and sleep, without Windows.

Stealthisbook 1y ago

The quoted number is awfully specific. Monthly active devices? Why not licenses since that's what they are theoretically in the business of selling? Active devices would be relevant to their ad revenue, so I'd be interested to know what's the context for the statistic and what they're actually tracking. Are enterprise and other installs that block ad telemetry included?

theyknowitsxmas 1y ago

especially with large organizations scurrying to replace old devices running Windows 7 before the end-of-support date that's now officially less than a year away Okay zdnet is getting piholed for AI generated hogwash