Windows Market Share Drops to 57% in the US
technobugg.com
technobugg.com
It's good to keep that last bit in mind when looking at these graphs. It's technically possible for users to have increased usage on a platform AND for more users to have started to use the platform but the platforms usage share goes down. This is because more users are present over time and users can browse on more than one device more than once per day.
Larger feedback: Why is iOS on that graph? It's supposed to be desktop software but it shows a small spike for it a few years ago.
Regarding OS X calling it macOS wouldn't be any better since it includes counts of users from both. It'd probably make more sense to just call the group "Mac" or "macOS/OS X" but it's too late to change the name of the category since paid users had been exporting the data into tools expecting "OS X" and it's a silly thing to break that for. Similarly splitting the two into separate categories or changing the display name vs data name is more problematic than using the old name. The OS version breakdown for macs started in 2017, after the name change, and uses the macOS name for the overall category as well as for the newer operating systems in that category so they are definitely aware and keeping up with the name changes where it makes sense to.
If you change the graph settings to include tablets it'll give an in-graph note that they weren't tracking tablets and consoles as different from desktops until the start of August 2012. It'd probably be good to include that note in the desktop view as well though. For iOS that means iPads (launched April 2010) were bucketed as desktop browsing sessions rather than tablet until that point. While it's safe to assume all of those should be relabeled tablet their policy on data changes is after 45 days they will not go back and modify/correct data.
That doesn't even really qualify as an "article".
More just like an excuse to send out links to a website...
Which version? I just moved from Windows 11, but Office 2010 was flying: Word opened faster than Wordpad!
> I had to buy a 365 subscription.
I refuse to do that, and TBH that's why I moved to linux on the desktop (actually, the laptop)
I want my software subscription free, working offline, and independant from the OS.
Wine does just that, and now my licensed Office 2010 that I got for cheap NIB on ebay will be with me forever.
Anyone from Micro$oft care to comment? Given the exposure here, this may be the single the most expensive single-user software license Microsoft ever stole.
I use 2010 for a reason: the wine platinum level of compatibility.
Just follow the install guides to throttle the installer IO and you'll have something wonderful, either in WSL or baremetal linux.
in as much the javascript ecosystem is a pita. it freed a lot of software - and made it be accessible on all platforms either via the browser or electron.
now what someone needed a windows machine for can be done on an ipad, linux box, chrome book etc.
the next evolution of course will be the transition of professional software to run on web-assembly, then people can finally be free of microsoft's tyranny.
The market segmentation is ridiculous. So many deliberately shitty builds and subpar screens that cost $25 less than a good screen, on mid range laptops. Awful web cams everywhere. The PC market is killing itself, by trying too hard to extract an upsell, rather than making smart compromises that try to deliver good value. Frigging unbelievably sad.
Actually I take back my starting place! Apple now has great very capable well built $1k laptops. That's borderline perfectly fine for a very solid low-compromise machine imo. Disruption from above coming down (so damned rare in today's world!). I was more thinking MBP prices but you just don't need it now.
the next evolution of course will be the transition of professional software to run on web-assembly, then people can finally be free of microsoft's tyranny.
The advantage of Microsoft is actually a widely compatible ecosystem. There might be vendor lock-in, but it was always collective vendor lock in, so at least it was easy to exchange stuff. If everyone is using some different incompatible SaaS, we're going to experience all the downside and non of the upside.
Overall it's great but don't go into thinking it's terminal focused or bug free just because it's not Windows and has a *nix background. It's more like trading one set of weird decisions for another, albeit with less attempts to gather your data or sell you things (but not 0 attempts). The hardware lives up fully to the hype though.
As far as the original "real terminal" it used to be the the macOS Terminal app was miles ahead of Windows but now that's not even that different with both system's "Terminal" apps having tabs, panes, 24 bit color, decent ANSI VT sequences support, transparency, ligatures, customizable shortcuts, and so on. Windows will actually ships OpenSSH and a newer version of Python but macOS ships a lot more of the standard tools like screen, awk, and nano but as mentioned they can be woefully out of date anyways so it's not a huge upsell and you'll still be adding a 3rd party package manager like homebrew.
On the bright side homebrew is much easier to work with than e.g. cygwin IMO. That said WSL2 is much easier to work with than any of the "Linux VM on macOS" systems so it's a bit of a give and take there. Asahi (native Linux on Apple Silicon laptops) is fantastic but unless you're a diehard Linux user that's fine with working around fairly core features being unsupported it's not quite there yet so Linux dual booting is a bit of a loss right now too.
Define "standard" and "non-standard", given macOS is POSIX-certified to the UNIX 03 Product Standard:
* https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/brand3683.htm
* https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/brand3688.htm
> The UNIX 03 Product Standard is the mark for systems conforming to Version 3 of the Single UNIX Specification. It is a significantly enhanced version of the UNIX 98 Product Standard. The mandatory enhancements include alignment with ISO/IEC 9989:1999 C Programming Language, IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 and ISO/IEC 9945:2002. This Product Standard includes the following mandatory Product Standards: Internationalized System Calls and Libraries Extended V3,Commands and Utilities V4, C Language V2, and Internationalized Terminal Interfaces.
* https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/xym0.htm
Not meeting your expectations ≠ non-standard. :)
In that regard the stuff I mentioned in the comment is what I was referring to as standard. No 20 year old document to reference or certificate on file but I'd bet more people here are interested in things like how docker or package managers compare between systems than knowing df on macOS is certified to report in 512 byte blocks by default. I forget who said it but "the nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from". If you're expecting the GNU awk which has been on every machine you've ever used it doesn't matter you have POSIX awk, it's not the relevant standard to check.
I don't even use an iphone or have any other apple products but the hardware is just _that_ good! The M1 totally changed how I could use my laptop and windows has to at least match it's efficiency, not to mention that the unibody chassis of macs is extremely durable and I no concerns traveling with it without using a case or sleeve of any kind.
My battery drops by more or less 0.5%/h so a 10h sleep = 5% drop.
But from a tech perspective, I see minor annoyances caused by complex systems with parts from many companies where 1 error in coordination can have very large bad consequences (ex: losing the Intel Serial IO on the Fold due to errors in the Intel drivers = no bluetooth, no touchscreen, so you will think it froze while it just needs the drivers reloaded, say by doing that from a USB keyboard or by RDP)
Our current hardware is great, and never has been simpler to use, but it has also even more complexity than before: this is increasing the risk of subtle issues that even most readers of HN would have no idea about if they hadn't read first about it here (like Dells catching fire due to ACPI S0 idle).
But nothing is set in stone! You did that in the 2000s? You can still do that if you want a great experience! You may already know about tweaking IO and IRQ addresses from before? That's not very applicable anymore, so update your knowledge to today's problems: learn about the the DSDT, the default APST settings per device, etc. It may take some time.
However, once it's done, 1) you have a much finer understanding of how your computer works allowing fixing the root cause, 2) so the problem rarely comes back but if it does you are ready 3) you're ready to tackle more challenges!
This year I'm moving to Linux on the Laptop using arch. Everything I learned on Windows is extremely helpful. The rest, I'm learhing it along!
TL;DW: There's a bug in the implementation of windows modern standby that can cause it to activate energetically expensive operations while "asleep", and most PC manufacturers didn't bother to write drivers for the more effective, but less "feature rich" S3 sleep mode.
My laptop is an Asus with a Ryzen 9. If I wanted to have to muddle around with wifi drivers and wakeup timers to have a barely functioning device I'd install Slackware on a 2010 Thinkpad.
Meanwhile, my foldable OLED thinkpad and my regular one, both with ridiculous Intel CPUs that are totally crushed by Ryzens are perfectly functional, both on Windows and Linux, and I enjoy them a lot!
Yet you call them "barely functioning" and insinuate they are as primitive as "Slackware on a 2010 Thinkpad"? Wow, if that isn't entitlement, I don't know what it is!
If you had been a little nicer, I would have offered some help to improve your S0idle experience.
I would suggest a little bit of self reflection, as I think your hardware is wasted on you due to your unwillingness of correctly configuring modern options.
lol no
Give me OLED, ECC, a touchscreen then we can start talking about the finer details like a physical shutter for the webcam, or a non-soldered NVMe so the drive can be physically destroyed when the machine is EOLed (or just retained when the machine needs to be shipped for warranty stuff)
I care about great OLED touchscreens, comfortable keyboards, and ECC RAM.
You may read between the lines some other things I don't care about, and maybe they are important to you and you find them on a mac? Not me.
This would have been the time the true enthusiasts who were hoping for some respite from user hostility and compromised privacy could finally be giving up for good.
And it doesn't look like Windows 11 relented at all, when it comes to expanding its support for older PC hardware than it did with its original release which was so misguided in this respect. Plus more dark patterns in things like online account approach.
So now that it's even more plain to see how much faster it's getting worse, even the users who embraced Windows 10 have finally had enough.
Now my opinion is based on professional use of W11 since its initial preview.
As always, the product of some absolutely outstanding engineers at Microsoft, some of whom add wonderfully to the discussions on HN.
But somehow or another, even the most excellent code is still getting Ballmerized by a vestige of the corp that seems to still be in position to compromise "what could have been" before it gets a chance to be considered or deployed by users.
Also anecdotally I was the only one using Windows 11 when I presented at a conference a week after W11 was released back in 2021. Didn't notice a single other one this year either.
Get any distribution, and someone in the community is reminding you to feel ashamed because it's bad (get Ubuntu, and you're a traitor to the cause and a newbie. Get Arch, and you're pedantic and unproductive, ...)
Everything is text (configuration files and streams). It is neither user friendly, nor enjoyable to script.
Because of the complexity of the env, you are not hired to work on Linux if you don't have all the certifications (Ansible, CKA, ...), while companies assume that you know how to use Windows.
'Linux' doesn't cater to end users, really.
It feels more dated than Windows or Android.
And it's not advertising anything but speed, which isn't a selling point with modern computers. (Despite the fact it has plenty of other advantages)
Why would you use Linux on a 1000$+ laptop, if it isn't to make a point about OSes ? I believe that most have non-IT jobs and couldn't care less.
Because, for me, it's a far less stressful experience than using Windows.
(Can't comment on MacOS as I've not used it).
That doesn't even really qualify as an "article".
More just like an excuse to send out links to a website...
EDIT:
As pointed out by several child comments I’m off by a year, so I have no idea what is special about 2019 for Macs.
The data seems very questionable in general, so who knows.