A new report on operating system usage has revealed that adoption of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 10, has grown by 12.4% since first quarter 2015 while every other common operating system has declined, suggesting that while Windows 10 hasn’t yet become as widely used as many had hoped, it is on its way if these trends continue.
Windows 7 remains the most popular operating system for all computer users with 64.2% (down from 71.1% in first quarter) still using this old Microsoft favorite. A small minority of computers remain stuck in the past with 3.7% (down from 5.8%) still using Windows XP and 2.3% (down from 3.9%) refusing to upgrade from Windows Vista. 1.7% (down from 2.2%) of computers in the report were still running Windows 8 while 15.7% (from 16.8%), the second-largest group, remain on Windows 10’s predecessor, Windows 8.1.
On one hand, these numbers can seem a bit disappointing and even surprising considering Microsoft’s big push for Windows 10 and their pre-installing of the operating system on Windows 8.1 devices prior to launch earlier this year. However, it’s understandable that some consumers would be resistant to change and for businesses who rely on computers for productivity, it can make a lot of sense to stick with what has been working for so long. As support for previous operating systems decreases though, upgrading will become a necessity especially for those wishing to protect themselves and their business from security threats.
These numbers were taken from a report that tracked visitors to U.S.A. government websites, so it’s not a completely accurate representation of the entire U.S.A., let alone global, computer usage but it does give a general idea of the diversity of operating systems used.
Windows 10 surpassed one million downloads in September 2015, surpassing Apple’s OSX operating system by 0.20%. Do you think this report reflects the computer usage of you and your friends and colleagues? Let us know what you use in the comments below.
