Windows by the numbers: Windows ten rolls on past 70%

Windows x accounted for 72.2% of Windows-only machines in Oct, co-ordinate to U.S. analytics vendor Net Applications. At that charge per unit of growth, it volition run iii out of four PCs past the end of January.

Senior Reporter, Computerworld |

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Windows 10 breached the 70% share barrier terminal calendar month when calculated as a portion of Windows-only desktops and laptops, putting the operating system on runway to account for three out of every 4 Windows PCs by the stop of January.

According to U.S. analytics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10's share jumped by 2.8 percentage points, the most since January, and ended October on 64% of all systems. When figured as a fraction of Windows-only machines, Windows 10 accounted for 72.2%, a record for the 5-yr-old OS. This second number is the more important of the pair, as information technology provides the virtually authentic representation of Windows x'due south position inside the business organization universe, where runs-on-Microsoft remains primal.

(Windows 10'due south percent of but Windows PCs was larger than the per centum of all personal computers because Windows did not power every system last calendar month. In October, Windows was the OS on 88.viii% of all PCs worldwide, up one-tenth of a percentage indicate from September. Of the remaining 11% and bits, all just a footling 10th of a point ran macOS, Linux or Chrome Os.)

Windows ten has been piling up the share this year, pandemic and business chaos be damned. Through the first 10 months of 2020, Windows 10 has added x.7 percent points of share, representing a 20% increase.

Meanwhile, Windows 7 took a dive almost as steep as Windows ten's climb.

Windows 7 lost 2.4 points of share, plummeting to 20.four% of all personal computers, representing 23% of Windows-merely PCs. The downturn was the largest ane-calendar month reject since January 2020 and the final number was a record low for Windows 7 on its mail service-2015 swan song.

And so far this year, Windows 7 has shed nine.2 points of share, which represents a 31% turn down in the operating system since January 1.

Windows 10 shoots for 80% by mid-2021

The major changes to Windows' shares upended the forecasts Computerworld made as recently equally a month agone.

Windows x's prognostication skewed upwards compared to the 1 issued at the beginning of October. By Apr, Windows 10 should account for more than 78% of all Windows, upward two pct points from the previous prediction. Come June 2021, Windows 10 should own eighty% of all Windows editions, a point in a higher place the former forecast.

On the other manus, Windows 7's decline-of-doom volition continue. The now-retired OS will sideslip under the xx% mark (of all Windows) in February 2021, two months sooner than had been expected. And by August, the operating system should be below 15%, two points lower than the forecast of a month ago. (At the end of January 2021, near the one-year ceremony of its retirement, Windows 7 will account for almost twenty% of all Windows, a couple of points under October'due south estimate.)

Elsewhere in Net Applications' numbers, Linux rebounded after two consecutive months of losses, calculation 7-tenths of a percentage point and bringing its total share up to ii.ii points. While that was beneath its peak of iii.6 points in June and July 2020, it put paid to the Computerworld theory that the sudden growth of the OS (Cyberspace Applications tallies all distributions) was little more than the aftereffects of an open-source fantasize.

Equally Linux again jumped, macOS took a drubbing, losing 1.iii points — a 1-month record — to cease upwardly licking its wounds at viii.4%, the lowest mark of the last three years.

Internet Applications calculates operating system share by detecting the agent strings of the browsers used to accomplish the websites of Cyberspace Applications' clients. The business firm tallies visitor sessions of those browsers to measure global operating system activity.

Or information technology used to.

At the same time it published October's share numbers, Net Applications announced that it was pulling the plug on its Bone metrics. "October 2020 is the last month of information," the company said. "Why? An upcoming modify in browsers volition break our device detection technology and will crusade inaccuracies for a long menses of fourth dimension."

The change Net Applications cited would remove much of the agent string data used not simply to compile analytics such as operating system share, but also by advertisers and/or scammers to "fingerprint" individuals and so that they can exist more than thoroughly tracked as they conduct their online lives.

Computerworld has not nevertheless decided whether to continue the "Windows past the numbers" series, and if so, which alternating data source might exist used.

Stay tuned.