The Real-World State of Windows Use 374
snydeq writes "Performance and metrics researcher Devil Mountain Software has released an array of real-world Windows use data as compiled by its exo.performance.network, a community-based monitoring tool that receives real-time data from about 10,000 PCs throughout the world. Tracking users' specific configurations, as well as the applications they actually use, the tool provides insights into real-world Windows use, including browser share, multicore adoption, service pack adoption, and which anti-virus, productivity, and media software are most prevalent among Windows users. Of note are the following conclusions: two years after Vista's release, not even 30 percent of PCs actually run it; OpenOffice.org is making inroads into the Microsoft Office user base; and despite the rise of Firefox, Internet Explorer remains the standard option for inside-the-firewall apps."
Inside the (Corp.) Firewall no one can ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Representative? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Inside the (Corp.) Firewall no one can ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Sometimes when on break, I boot a live Ubuntu distro. It runs in memory. I set the networking in Firefox to use the default proxy, load flashplayer from Adobe, and enjoy the break with tabs and no worries. Some who think they are stuck with IE simply don't know they have an option.
IE 6 at work badly scrambles Slashdot pages with text running over text. I use Firefox to check my user page and see replies. The page is unusable in the corporate IE 6 default browser.
Re:Inside the (Corp.) Firewall no one can ... (Score:2, Interesting)
or you could get your organisation to move into this century. ie6 is ancient even in the MS world. incidently most could not do what you suggest as it would breach their corporate security policy, hell if you tried that where I work you would be sacked, not to mention you would not actually even be able to conect to the proxies anyway as they are all authenticated (as are our network ports).
Re:Inside the (Corp.) Firewall no one can ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Really? You might want to tell that to the military... I can't get Firefox installed much less supported on a military computer.
Re:Need to retake to Introduction to Statistics .. (Score:1, Interesting)
Was is a commercial flop? Or was it just a projections flop? Just what I've been thinking. Maybe I've been missing something, I guess... if anyone could tell me what it is maybe it would make more sense.
Vista is a flop because it failed to meet expectations, both technical expectations and market adoption rate expectations. When a company does not make as much money as financial analysts said that should have made in a given quarter, what happens to their share price? Same principle applies here, failing to meet predicted adoption rates defines Vista as a flop.
Re:Windows as a Real World State? (Score:2, Interesting)
Constitutional REPUBLIC. The word "Democracy" appears NOWHERE in the Declaration of Independence, or the US Constitution. WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY!! WE ARE A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC! Learn your history, and get it straight for Christ's sake!
US Constitution, Article IV, Section 4:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
Do you see the word "Democracy" anywhere in there? No. BECAUSE IT'S NOWHERE TO BE FOUND IN THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT!! WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY!!!
Re:Need to retake to Introduction to Statistics .. (Score:4, Interesting)
You know, it is hard to say. I am having a hard time finding old market share data but consider this. Windows XP was released in October 2001 and XP Service Pack 2 was released in August(?) 2004. That is a 2 year, 10 month gap from Release to the Service Pack that made it a decent operating system. Most people I knew were afraid of XP before SP2 came out and were not budging from the (By that point) rock solid Windows 2000. Vista was released when? January 2007 or something like that? Here we are 1 year and 8 months into the Vista experiment (With a successor on the horizon...when XP SP2 was released I don't even think there was any information on the next windows version being bandied about). Yet, Vista still has achieved a 30% market share, apparently.
I'd have to guess that pre-SP2 XP would not have been much higher than 30% despite an additional year of availability...and that is with the absolutely horrendous publicity that Windows Vista got. I would think that the numbers would suggest to Microsoft that it did pretty well.
Re:Inside the (Corp.) Firewall no one can ... (Score:2, Interesting)