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Windows Experiences Substantial Market Share Drop as Linux Posts Record Growth


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Data reveals that Linux increased 0.84 percent last month

Despite Microsoft’s Windows 10 push, the desktop operating system has actually recorded the biggest drop in a long time last month, while rival Linux managed to post the most substantial market share increase in the last 12 months.

NetMarketShare reveals that in August 2017, Microsoft’s Windows declined to 90.70 percent market share, down from 91.45 percent the month before. The 0.75 percent drop is the biggest Windows had recorded since April 2016 when its market share collapsed from 90.45 percent to 88.77 percent (-1.68 percent).

This performance is particularly surprising because it comes at a time when Microsoft completes the rollout of the Windows 10 Creators Update and, at the same time, it’s also finalizing development of another version of its operating system scheduled to go live on October 17.

Linux adoption on the rise, macOS still declining

What’s a bit more worrying is that Linux, which has long been considered a rival to Windows, has experienced the biggest growth in the last 12 months in August. Linux improved its share from 2.53 percent to 3.37 percent last month.

Linux appears to be the preferred choice for users who are stepping away from Windows, as Apple’s macOS declined in August from 6.02 percent to 5.94 percent.

The growth experienced by Linux, however, was impressive, as in just four months, the open-source platform has managed to jump from less than 2 percent to 3.37 percent. Back in May this year, Linux was running on just 1.99 percent of the world’s desktop systems.

The only good news for Microsoft is that Windows hasn’t dropped below the 90 percent market share, so it’s still powering more than 9 in 10 PCs out there. The last time when Windows declined to less than 90 percent share was in July 2016 when it was running on 89.79 percent of the PCs worldwide, growing to 90.52 percent the next month.

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It's just like I said before with each new version of  Windows 10 , Linux gets more users ..Thanks Microsoft for you're  continued support! Before windows 10 they had less than 1%  of the market for  20 some years.

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Enterprise users, who are the main cash cows for MS, hate the constant, monthly update. Linux also has monthly or even more frequent updates, but the size of the update package are much smaller, and the OS size does not increase by GBs with each update, thanks to most Linux distros' package manager. Windows 10 has become a much more bloated OS, with more bloated with each monthly update. It's only natural for the much more efficient, concise Linux OS to gain ground at least in certain areas. 

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My 2 setups have daily updates because i use 3rd party ppas  but the difference is a lot these updates are just drivers and software , kernels etc.  were on windows if you use legacy win 32 software you have too  download installers were everything once  you add a ppa or get it trough the update manger  on Linux is auto updated .  if you dont want have too reboot you can update kernels  with The Canonical Livepatch Service is available for free to all users up to 3 machines. And you can pay a fee and do more .  

 

Windows 10 is over 2 years old and still 72% of desktop users dont' use it.. .. Linux is finally about  too take the market from MAC OS  And when 2020 comes  and windows 7 runs out  of updates you will see many not do updates like XP and even more that has too have updates by law switch too Linux or are just sick of windows  .

 

iBXLU.png

 

 

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0

 

I dont use windows 10 no no more I just use Windows 8.1 when i'm on Windows. If things dont change for the better by 2023 when Windows 8.1 runs out updates ill will just use Linux  and run windows in a vm for windows software.

 

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 the market share might go up but there's no way it will ever surpass or come close to Windows. Definitely not user friendly, more like you have to type hundred of commmands to get things work, and also which distro to pick? There's many. 

 

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10 minutes ago, compgen1534 said:

 the market share might go up but there's no way it will ever surpass or come close to Windows. Definitely not user friendly, more like you have to type hundred of commmands to get things work, and also which distro to pick? There's many. 

 

Not really you dont even have too know commands  too make Linux work in distros like Linux Mint and Ubuntu every thing a normal use needs is already installed and if it isn't you can find it  in the  package manger  and install it without using the terminal. Already  a form of Linux has surpassed  windows it called Android more users use it than anything else today. There is like 4 different  or 5 different ways you can install programs in Linux.

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Just now, steven36 said:

Not really you dont even have too know commands  too make Linux work in distros like Linux Mint and Ubuntu every thing a normal use needs is already installed and if it isn't you can find it  in package manger  and install it without using the terminal. Already a ready a form of Linux has surpassed   surpassed it called Android more users use it than anything else today.

Well yes but for novice they just go to Windows. I fine with the Linux but just other and a lot of large distribution don't use it. Nobody knows what distro is best is why it struggle most of time. 

 

And Android and OS X are whole different story, even tho they base kernel off Linux :D 

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18 minutes ago, compgen1534 said:

Well yes but for novice they just go to Windows. I fine with the Linux but just other and a lot of large distribution don't use it. Nobody knows what distro is best is why it struggle most of time. 

 

And Android and OS X are whole different story, even tho they base kernel off Linux :D 

For a novice best too stick distros based on Ubuntu  i know how too do commands  and stuff in Linux but I didn't have too learn them i done it because i like too learn  . Linux have as much users as OS X now dont you look at the market?  No there is not very much difference Linux it's just DEGoogled  Android  is all you can install programs too run Android and Windows software on Linux just like on Windows.

 

I never liked Linux tell i tried it ..I was a diehard windows user tell one day my hard drive went out and and i was able too watch videos and  listen to music and browse the internet by just putting a Linux Mint DVD in  and i been fooling  around with it every since.

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I must be in the minority-for the most part, I actually like Windows 10. It loads quickly (drivers and whatnot) and gives me few problems. I like the idea of having a new ISO every 6 months. Let the haters hate.

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i use Win8.1. Feeling like its the best between win7 and 10 with classic shell. 

Win7 are just not up par with new hardware. Having 2 monitors also makes it even worse.

Win10 with all the BS, especially the updates are also a headache.

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13 hours ago, compgen1534 said:

Definitely not user friendly, more like you have to type hundred of commmands to get things work, and also which distro to pick? There's many. 

 

That's just plainly incorrect. Nowadays, most Linux distros work just as straightforward as Windows. Gamers are content with Windows because so far it's the best OS for gaming. When we reach a point where Linux have better compatibility and perform just as good as Windows in gaming, i can guarantee there will be massive migration to Linux.

 

I myself have been reluctant to migrate to Linux because of the reason i said above. I was using 10 then downgraded back to 8.1 because i couldn't stand the load of crap of Windows 10.

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6 hours ago, trufpal said:

That's just plainly incorrect. Nowadays, most Linux distros work just as straightforward as Windows. Gamers are content with Windows because so far it's the best OS for gaming. When we reach a point where Linux have better compatibility and perform just as good as Windows in gaming, i can guarantee there will be massive migration to Linux.

 

I myself have been reluctant to migrate to Linux because of the reason i said above. I was using 10 then downgraded back to 8.1 because i couldn't stand the load of crap of Windows 10.

Picking a distro is fine, when you ask the average consumer what a distro is they have no clue what you're saying. They need something quick and easy to use. 

At the same time win32 is where it's at, Linux doesn't have as much application compatibility as Windows does. Office doesn't run on it, and instead alternative would be to use openOffice. 

And as for the crap on Windows 10, the LTSB work great for me WITH NO SPY OR ADS!

 

Edit: And no, wine emulator for (win32 apps) does not work on LINUX even that good :D in case you make that point in the next, no. 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, compgen1534 said:

Picking a distro is fine, when you ask the average consumer what a distro is they have no clue what you're saying. They need something quick and easy to use. 

At the same time win32 is where it's at, Linux doesn't have as much application compatibility as Windows does. Office doesn't run on it, and instead alternative would be to use openOffice. 

And as for the crap on Windows 10, the LTSB work great for me WITH NO SPY OR ADS!

 

Edit: And no, wine emulator for (win32 apps) does not work on LINUX even that good :D in case you make that point in the next, no. 

 

 

 

Great, you just repeated what i said. Albeit in different words.

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2 minutes ago, trufpal said:

Great, you just repeated what i said. Albeit in different words.

 

No I did not, I said Linux sucks, no sugarcoating it, unless your a computer nerd..  no average person is going to go ask for a laptop and say can I have zesty distro on it please!!

Unless you stated that Linux isn't going to gain a substantial marketshare, which you didn't, claiming the opposite,  then I'm correct in my point. 

 

There will be no point where Linux will go mainstream. For nerds it's fine, for average people it's not. 

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41 minutes ago, compgen1534 said:

 

No I did not, I said Linux sucks, no sugarcoating it, unless your a computer nerd..  no average person is going to go ask for a laptop and say can I have zesty distro on it please!!

Unless you stated that Linux isn't going to gain a substantial marketshare, which you didn't, claiming the opposite,  then I'm correct in my point. 

 

There will be no point where Linux will go mainstream. For nerds it's fine, for average people it's not. 

Clearly you don't understand what i said in my initial comment. But whatever, it's really tiring talking with a wall of bricks. :lol:

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2 minutes ago, trufpal said:

Clearly you don't understand what i said in my initial comment. But whatever, it's really tiring talking with a wall of bricks. :lol:

No are you kidding me of course I understand you!!!!  it is tiring talking to a wall of bricks no doubt!!, I really don't want to keep doing that so ending it here!!! 

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29 minutes ago, compgen1534 said:

No are you kidding me of course I understand you!!!!  it is tiring talking to a wall of bricks no doubt!!, I really don't want to keep doing that so ending it here!!! 

For the love of God! You don't understand what I said!

 

If you understand, then you wouldn't argue with someone who had similar opinion with you!

 

The only thing i disagreed with you was about this point.

 

8 hours ago, trufpal said:

Definitely not user friendly, more like you have to type hundred of commmands to get things work

 

Then i went on to say that Gamers prefer Windows because it's best for gaming. And I for one still using Windows!

 

I suggest you read again my initial comment with cool head!

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I'm actually quite happy with Win10.  Have my license and all.

It does what I need, and I game on it.  Don't see any critical reason to move.

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I ran Windows 10  off and on tell right after Redstone 2..if it didn't get upgraded  so much  i would still use it .. But i rather be computing than  worrying about  upgrading  every 6 months ..

 

All my computers have legit upgrade rights too Windows 10  and  i still put windows 8.1 back on the one i use mostly  ..I have  this PC with  Windows 8.1 , Linux Mint 18.2  and  Ubuntu Budgie 17.04  on it.  Then I have a PC with Windows 10 and Linux Mint 18  on it  that Ive not turned on since RS2 came out  . Also I have one with just Windows 7 on it I dont use much.  So  if you dont want too change OS  you can still use Linux and  Windows too by Dual  Booting .

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On 5/9/2017 at 4:05 AM, compgen1534 said:

Market share might go up but there's no way it will ever surpass or come close to Windows.

Definitely not user friendly, more like you have to type hundred of commands to get things work.

Spot on! ;)

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Just as i predicted
 

Quote

 

Windows 10 Creators Update still has over a third of machines to update

 

 

WITH A DATE now set for the arrival of the Windows 10 Autumn Creators Update (October 17th, since you ask), you'd think that we'd be all tooled up and ready to go.

But according to AdDuplex, the first Creators Update (the second Windows-as-a-Service update) is rolling out so slowly that some people could end up getting the second (third) before the first (second).

It comes down to a glitch early in the rollout where it was discovered that for the first time since Vista, there were major compatibility problems with drivers. Not so much that they had to be rewritten, but updated first, and it has slowed everything far more than the Anniversary Update which happened relatively fast.

In July, just 50.1 per cent of devices capable of running the Creators Update had received and upgraded. That figure has jumped a bit with the August figure standing at 65.6 per cent but, let's face it, that's more than a third. Holy moly!

In other words, there are more people on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Vista and Windows XP put together, still waiting for the update. That's pretty shocking even by Microsoft's standards.

AdDuplex added that just 18 per cent of Surface Pro 3 users had the latest version last time they checked in July, but that figure has jumped to 60 per cent now.

As you'd expect, INQ Towers is awash with devices and we've noticed that the speed of rollout for MW10SCU (to give it a catchy acronym) has definitely increased with more brands of device being offered their opportunity, usually preceded by a "security update".

Microsoft had always made it clear that it intended to roll out such updates in stages, to ensure everything goes smoothly, but it now seems to have gone so far the other way that the smooth roll-out feels like a jerky cock-up.

 

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3016788/windows-10-creators-update-still-has-over-a-third-of-machines-to-update

Windows 10 RS2 was the worse version of Windows 10 ever  they not had so many problems since Vista came out ..I wonder what kind of crap they release in the wild with RS3 for the consumer  too beta test. :lol:

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So what can you actually do with Linux? A guide for beginners

 

 

Linux is perfect for everyday tasks like browsing, emailing, photo management, financial management, and much more. Here's an overview.

In the comments to my recent post about dumping Windows and installing Linux Mint, in just 10 minutes, someone asked for an article about how to actually do things in Linux.

 That's certainly a fair request, and a good point -- I am perhaps more guilty than many others of frequently writing about how easy it is to install Linux, but not about how wonderful it is to actually use Linux.

I can only partially excuse myself for this because I have always thought that the hard part was actually getting someone to try Linux, and getting them over the misconception that installing Linux was a huge, difficult task.

I still believe that if you can just get an ordinary computer user to try using a Linux system, they will quickly see for themselves that it is not some huge, mysterious, and inherently different or difficult experience. But looking at it objectively I can also see that simply saying that is nowhere near as good as providing some simple examples.

So here is a short list of how to perform some everyday tasks on Linux. This is certainly not a comprehensive and scientifically or statistically derived list of common tasks; it is based on nothing more than the things which I personally do on Linux every day, and a few others which have come to mind as I have been writing.

I would also like to make clear that everything I describe here is either included in some common Linux distribution, or can be easily installed by just making a selection from whatever software, application, or package management utility is included in your distribution.

Nothing I will mention requires any kind of compilation, other special effort, or technical skill for installation.

Web browsing

This is undoubtedly the largest single category, because it includes not only reading and searching for information, but a lot of sub-tasks like webmail, online banking, travel and route planning, some types of audio or video playing, and much more.

As with pretty much all of the tasks I am going to discuss here, there are a number of choices for applications which can be used for this.

 Most Linux distributions today come with the Firefox browser included, but certainly not all of them. Chrome (or Chromium) is becoming increasingly common as the default browser, and some lightweight distributions are including Midori or QupZilla. That is still not all, though, there are other alternatives available for easy installation such as Pale Moon, Opera, Vivaldi, and more.

I don't think it's necessary for me to spend a lot of time here explaining and illustrating the use of a web browser. I will only say this, and I don't mean it to be derogatory at all: if your primary use of a computer is web browsing then I believe that you should be able to use a Linux system with no problem at all.

Start from that previous post to ditch Windows and install Linux in 10 minutes, and then add five minutes to find and launch whatever browser is included, and you're up and running. If you're not happy with the browser that is included by default with the distribution, add another 10 minutes to find and install an alternative.

The benefits of switching to Linux, even for such a common and simple task as web browsing, are significant though.

First, you get away from the never-ending stream of Windows-specific security vulnerabilities and attacks, and the corresponding never-ending stream of Windows patches and security updates. Yes, there are Linux-specific vulnerabilities, but a lot less of them, and yes, there are Linux patches and updates, but Linux doesn't ambush you when you are trying to shut down or startup your computer with the message that goes 'Surprise! Here comes Windows Update to take complete control of your computer for an undetermined amount of time and an undetermined number of reboots before you will be allowed to use it again'.

Oh, and last but not least by far, when vulnerabilities are found in Linux they are fixed and the updates are made available much more quickly than with Windows.

Email

There are a lot of email applications available on Linux. The three most common which come to mind right now are Mozilla Thunderbird, KMail, and Evolution. Each of these provides a clean, modern GUI mail application, but also various combinations of calendar and contact management.

There are plenty of others to choose from -- just do a web search for 'Linux email' and you will find articles entitled 'The N best email clients for Linux' where N is an integer between 2 and 20.

To be honest, email is one of my favourite examples of the advantages of Linux. I have watched with amusement over many years as Windows has veered from having a very simple but probably adequate email client included, to having absolutely no email client included (you had to buy Microsoft Office to get email), to... what? I honestly don't even know what the status of email on Windows is today.

Meanwhile, Linux has always had good email clients included, generally as such a fundamental part of the application set that it has been taken for granted. It's just there, and it just works.

Office applications
This is a hot button issue. Lots of critics love to say that if you use Microsoft Office, you can't switch to Linux. I say "baloney" to that for the vast majority of everyday users.

For the overwhelming majority of users, who write common, everyday documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, the transition from Microsoft Office to one of the office suites available on Linux would be very easy. The following comments are based on using LibreOffice, but there are other office suites available for Linux (Calligra for example), and most what I say applies to them as well.

First, and most importantly, LibreOffice can read and write Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. In my opinion, LibreOffice (and OpenOffice before it) have often been better at this than different versions of Microsoft Office. I can recall at least two major transitions in Microsoft Office versions which used new and different document formats, and users who had older versions of Microsoft Office had a nightmare of a time figuring out how to read or write the new format.

In fact, if most of your documents have to be exchanged with Microsoft Office users, you can easily change the default format for saving documents from ODF (Open Document Format) to the Microsoft Office formats.

 So if you have existing documents, or you need to exchange documents with other people who are using Microsoft Office, it is not likely to be a problem.

If you (or they) use some of the more obscure or complex formatting features of Microsoft Office, you might have to make some adjustments. If you are a really serious, dedicated, and sophisticated Microsoft Office user, you might never be happy with a transition to LibreOffice. But for 95 percent plus of the everyday Office users, I believe there will be little or no effort required to switch to LibreOffice.

Also, it is worth mentioning that LibreOffice includes a database management application (Base) and a graphic application (Draw), always. Not just in 'premium' or 'professional' versions, and not just popping in and out as included or not included from one release to the other.

PDF document viewing and editing

There are a variety of these available for Linux, the two most common being Okular and Evince. Every Linux distribution that I am aware of includes one of these two.

There are also a variety of more powerful PDF manipulation utilities and tools available, which allow you to create, edit, and split multi-page PDF documents. The old-school CLI utility pdftk is still the go-to default for this kind of package, but if you aren't comfortable with command line utilities, there is now the PDF Chain graphical front-end for pdftk.

Multimedia
There is so much available here that I almost can't even write about it. Or maybe it is just that I am old, and multimedia is a young person's world? (I'm still learning to deal with the fact that my new DiscoSport doesn't have a CD player). Every Linux distribution includes at least one, and sometimes several, music players and video players.

Music players include Amarok, Banshee, Rhythmbox, Clementine, and more. Most (probably all) of these can interface with portable MP3 players, play internet radio, rip CDs, and generally manage your music collection.

The best known of the video players is probably VLC, but there are quite a few others such as Dragon Player, Gnome Videos (formerly Totem), and Mplayer. At the high end of this group are the dedicated Media Center applications, such as Kodi and OSMC which you might know from the Raspberry Pi.

The problem with multimedia in general, and perhaps video in particular, is that there are a lot of proprietary formats out there, and a lot of Linux distributions have very strong feelings about including non-FOSS codecs.

If multimedia is important to you, I would suggest using a Linux distribution which includes, or allows you to install, the most popular video formats. Again, I am old and I don't do all that much with video, but when I need something like this I always turn to Linux Mint first.

Photo management

This is another area where I think Linux excels. My favorite application for this by far is digiKam, but there are a lot of others -- Shotwell is also very common, for example. Besides the obvious functions of photo downloading from various cameras, smartphones, and memory cards, and then organising and displaying them, these packages include a lot of other functions such as labelling, tagging, rating, grouping, simple editing, and touch-up, merging and panorama creation.

For example, I travel a lot, often to out-of-the-way places. One of the cameras I use adds geotag metadata to pictures. When I get home I can download those pictures to digiKam, and then use the Map display to see exactly where I was, and what routes I followed. The screenshot above shows a recent hike that I took in the Alps, with the location of the pictures that I took, and the location where each was taken.

More, so much more

I have barely started to scratch the surface here. I'm sure there are plenty of people who can add comments about things that they do on Linux. The really important thing about all of this is that everything I have mentioned and illustrated here is free. Most of it comes with common Linux distributions, and the rest can be easily downloaded using a software manager or package manager. Just try it. Look around. See what is available -- check the links I have included above, or just do a web search for 'Linux xxxx', where the x's are replaced by whatever your favorite applications is.

Sometimes the transition from Windows applications to Linux is trivial. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort, learning new or different functions or just a different screen layout and menu organisation. But it is very seldom impossible, and in my experience, with the people whom I am introduced to Linux, the result has always been deemed to be worthwhile.

 

 

Source   J.A. Watson for Jamie's Mostly Linux Stuff

http://www.zdnet.com/article/so-what-can-you-actually-do-with-linux-a-guide-for-beginners/

 

 

Related coverage Dumping Windows and installing Linux Mint, in just 10 minutes

http://www.zdnet.com/article/dumping-windows-and-installing-linux-mint-in-just-10-minutes/

 

 

 

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On 9/9/2017 at 4:27 AM, steven36 said:

So what can you actually do with Linux? A guide for beginners

 

Nice "Quickie" general overview for people who have never tried regular (non-android) Linux.

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  • 3 weeks later...

1) Figure out a way for *all* popular software - particularly games - to install and work painlessly on Linux and 2) implement a gorgeous looking UI, one that is easy to learn and pleasant to use for an average user (not computer geeks) and that less-than-a-percent increase that is being celebrated here could very well turn into a double digit jump.

 

 

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