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It seems as if Windows’ OS releases are hit or miss with consumers. Windows XP released as one of the top selling operating systems of all time and was followed by the hugely unsuccessful Windows Vista. Then Windows 7 came and completely revitalized the Windows OS. Then Windows 8 dropped and again, consumers were left wanting more from the operating system that focused more on touch-screen devices, leaving PC users a bit miffed.
Well, Windows 8.1 has been around a little over a year now and the update is finally starting to see some positive feedback from users. The market share of PCs that run Windows 8.1 increased to 10.9% in October, an increase from 6.7% in September and 7.1% in August. These numbers come from Net Applications, which tracks activity through analyzing the browser hits of specific websites.
The numbers gathered suggest a slight shift in momentum as Microsoft seeks to upgrade all users to the latest version of its Windows OS. Even though consumers did not initially respond well to Windows 8 and its focus on touch-screen features, Microsoft has been successful in bringing back features that users wanted with 8.1. In August the company added things like a Shutdown button on the Start screen and the ability to run modern apps from the desktop, features that were surprisingly missing from the original release.
Despite these changes, a majority of users have been hard pressed to let go of their Windows 7 operating systems. Windows 7 currently has the largest market share with 53.1%, followed by Windows XP at 17.2%. The share of Windows XP users has been consistently falling after Microsoft ended support for that operating system back in April.
In addition to that, there are a number of users that are waiting to see what the next iteration of Windows has to offer. Last month Microsoft unveiled Windows 10, the next version of its operating system. Windows 10 will move away from the Windows 8 tiled interface, known as “Metro”, replacing them with live tiles. Moreover, Windows 10 will have a more classic Windows look and feel, which addresses the primary complaint with Windows 8.
If Windows 10 follows the Microsoft operating system trend that previous versions has, then users can rest assured that this one will be everything they’ve wanted from an operating system. It seems that every other OS released by Microsoft is good so users will have their fingers crossed for Windows 10.
That being said, Windows 8 is bringing people around, especially since the 8.1 update. I’m currently using Windows 8.1 on my desktop. While I was hesitant to get rid of Windows 7 in favor of Windows 8 I can say that I am not disappointed. Sure the tiles are a bit strange and a little hard to get used to but overall the OS isn’t that bad. I can definitely see that I would enjoy it more were I using it on a touch screen device but overall I don’t hate it.
