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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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XP's usage share down, Win 7, Firefox & IE8 up

By | December 1, 2009, 5:10am PST

Data released by web metrics company Net Applications indicates that the release of Windows 7 to the general public has put a significant dent into Windows XP’s usage share.

For the November period, web usage of XP dropped by 1.45%, while Vista’s usage share only dropped by 0.2%. At the end of the month the state of play was as follows:

  • XP: 69.03%
  • Vista: 18.60%
  • Win 7: 3.98%

Overall, a good month for Windows 7.

In other OS usage share news, Mac OS X usage share dropped slightly, down 0.16% to 5.11% (the third time this year that Mac has lost market share). The number in of itself isn’t all that significant, but the lost ground is. Also, Linux managed to claw back market share to end November with a 1% usage share, a spot it hasn’t held since July.

On the browser front, Firefox 3.5 the biggest winner in November, grabbing 1.26% usage share, up to 15.16%. Internet Explorer 8 is also seeing usage gains, up 1.19% to 19.31%. usage share for both IE6 and 7 slipped.

Browser state of play:

  • IE: 63.61%
  • Firefox: 24.74%
  • Safari: 4.36%
  • Chrome: 3.92%
  • Opera: 2.31%

Net Applications measures operating system usage by tracking computers that visit the 40,000 sites monitored for clients, which represents a pool of about 160 million unique visitors each month. This data is then weighted based on the estimated size of each country’s Internet population.

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Topics

Mozilla Firefox, Usage, Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft Windows 7, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Internet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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Zealotry not sales
Mythos7 15th Dec 2009
Apple?s sales are small comparatively, the huge profits they make on their computers is far more about them knowing they have a loyal band of unassailable zealots they can gouge at will
View in thread
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Now, if only ....
kd5auq 1st Dec 2009
the original Amazon.com $50 price comes back CRITICAL MASS will be achieved (IE: more than 4%).
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Way to go
Cylon Centurion Updated - 1st Dec 2009
Congrats Win 7, and Firefox!


Hopefully we can put XP to rest for good now and move on with our lives.
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What's your hurry?
Wintel BSOD 1st Dec 2009
What do you care? You're using Win7 so what difference does it make to you?

XP will be around for a long, long time to come to come, so you better get used to it. Especially since M$ still allows a downgrade option to XP from both Vista and Win7.
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One problem with that though...
kaninelupus 3rd Dec 2009
Hardware and driver support for XP are on the decline - will be even more so if Win7 sees heavy adoption rates as expected. I also imagine many hardware devs are getting sick of back-porting drivers for hardware which just can't be used to full potential in such an old OS environ.

In the end, you may well be able to "downgrade", but good luck getting a system with all parts workable!
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That shouldn't be an issue for awhile, yet..
Wintel BSOD 3rd Dec 2009
Good grief I'm still seeing things for Win2000, so there's no clamor to abandon anything anytime soon.

Final support for XP doesn't end until 2014 and if the government pushes it, it may be delayed even further.
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DOWN WITH XP DOWN WITH XP
avatoin 1st Dec 2009
Hopefully XP will see its death in a few years. Especially seeing how in about a year MS will finally start killing it after Win7 SP1 comes out. I really hope that Vista and 7 can put to rest the old dieing technology that is XP so that developers will be more willing to enter an age of better programs as the pre-NT 6.0 API comes to a halt.

LONG LIVE INNOVATION!
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I hope that's a long way off
rdhalsteatzd 2nd Dec 2009
I hope XP will hang in there for a very long time as neither Vista or Win 7 are very good at supporting legacy hardware.

OTOH I can run my scanners on LINUX.
There's not a large market for top end film scanners so I don't expect to see new, good, low priced replacements in the future.

OTOH my problem, although not unique, probably represents a very small fraction of a percent

I like Win 7 except for its networking with other operating systems. It's a very stable OS with that exception.
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RE: XP's usage share down, Win 7, Firefox & IE8 up
Loverock Davidson 1st Dec 2009
Wait until after Christmas and you will see Microsoft Windows 7 numbers sky rocket! It was to be expected that older versions of Microsoft Windows are going down as everyone is thrilled to get the latest and greatest Microsoft has to offer.
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Microsoft W7 Is Only A Fascination Right Now
marykmac07 1st Dec 2009
Let me just inform everyone. I have just sent back a Windows 7 Netbook back to HP, because, none of the Netbooks have powerful enough hardware to support it.
Lets get this clear, if you have purchased a Windows 7 computer for your loved one this Christmas, you better hope that it is not a cheap model. Cheap models, do not have sufficient enough parts to run WINDOWS 7 in a stable way, especially if your HP computer has the new HP instant web on it. Don't have a large enough hard drive, or memory, you will have problems.
Just because a computer company has a big name, means nothing- I wasn't told the truth before I made my purchase from HP- Think it over...
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Is this good? I don't think so, XP is as lame as win7 as M$ will tell you..
The Mentalist 1st Dec 2009
just wait for windows 8, then you will see M$ insinuating just how lame windows 7 is and urging all 'customers' to switch to windows 8 as fast as they can.
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Troll much?
Cylon Centurion 1st Dec 2009
Microsoft isn't telling anyone to wait for Windows 8.

If anything, Windows 7 is going to see such uptake, that Windows 8 will be a rather minor event.
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Failed at reading comprehension?
The Mentalist 1st Dec 2009
Of course they aren't telling anyone to wait for Windows 8, just as they kept urging people to buy vista and not wait for windows 7 they are urging everyone to buy windows 7.

They will only admit that win 7 is as lame as every other windows that preceded it when windows 8 goes on sale and they need to kill off win 7 as fast as posssible.
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Well of course
Cylon Centurion Updated - 1st Dec 2009
Why would a company advertise outdated technology?

Windows XP still has a few more years of support left. And that is only security updates, nothing else is coming for it.

Vista still has a ways to go yet too.

Windows 7 was just released.

Microsoft is supporting 3 major operating systems right now and starting work on a 4th. The faster they can get people on to newer systems the faster we can move on to newer and better things. The more people hang around in the past, is more money spent supporting the past, while also trying to look to the future. If anyone sits still in the tech world, You die. So, of course they will advertise Windows 8 when it is released.

There will always be something bigger and better.

As for killing Windows 7 off "as fast as possible" it won't happen. It'll follow it's support schedule just as XP is and Vista is.
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The faster they can get people on ...
Saurondor. 2nd Dec 2009
You say: "The faster they can get people on to newer systems the faster we can move on to newer and better things."

If "they" is Microsoft, "people" is us the users then who is "we"?

It also shows how tightly coupled "improvement" is to "OS" in the Microsoft model. "We" need to change OS to move to "newer and better things"? Can't we have newer and better things without changing the OS? You mean to say that for the seven years XP predominated "we" never saw "newer and better things"? You're pretty much implying that Microsoft is a roadblock for innovation. If you're statement is correct, and it seems so, it's also a good explanation for the surge in cloud services and online vs desktop innovations.
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Yeah he failed at reading comp 101
El Condor 1st Dec 2009
M$ is trying hard to get folks to up grade from IE 6 to IE 8. And forget "Windows8". I have a suspicion ther shooting for a "Windows 9". But by that time we will all be on Cloud 1.1x
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Yeah
Cylon Centurion 1st Dec 2009
I failed alright. Which is why I have passed all my English comp classes with A's.
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Well with XP downgrade options still available,
Wintel BSOD 1st Dec 2009
...what else are we supposed to conclude?

You were aware of that, right?

~

And you are aware XP is still being offered on netbooks, right?

And you are aware certain enterprises are still deploying sysprep images with XP on them, right? I guess that's a legacy of enterprise licensing, right?
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You are missing the point.
royalstream 1st Dec 2009
They kept urging people to buy Vista, indeed, but everyone HATED it. Almost nobody liked Vista.

Fast-forward into the present. Most people who use W7 love it. I've been using W7 release candidate for months and now I bought the final version, but the RC is so freaking stable I've been procrastinating about upgrading my system.

And we are talking RC! not even the final version. I don't think I've felt this "settled" with a windows version in years.
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Almost Everyone who actually used Vista....
condelirios 1st Dec 2009
Loved it. It worked wonderfully...and still does on one of my machines. I never had any problems with Vista and so far Windows 7 is Vista but faster and with some new features added in. Just as it should be.

Upgrades are just that...and of course MS is going to promote them to say otherwise is just idiotic. They will always be pushing the same message with every upgrade.."Look, New Product, and UPGRADE on the old product." Seems pretty obvious to me..
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Not Exactly!...
windozefreak 1st Dec 2009
I have used vista and windows 7. Vista is an excellent os; Win7 is an outstanding os. Windows 7 is not a Vista upgrade, it is a completely new os, albeit windows, the best os on the face of the globe.
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correction, you and the loudest minority hated Vista
CrashPad 1st Dec 2009
The rest of us most did not care, some loved it. Adoption rate was good, so where are your numbers to support your claim.
Man you trolls love this dont you?
  • Flagged
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Denial is a powerful thing
Wintel BSOD 1st Dec 2009
After six years of XP, people should have been screaming over Vista. The lines should have been around the block. Wintardmania rules!

NOT
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I think you mean...
Papamambo 1st Dec 2009
Vista had a horrible launch - or more to the point, a horrible lead up to launch. The beta was buggy, incompatible with almost ANYTHING that was 3rd party and loaded onto it, and had horrible driver support. This is what turned people off.

I beta'd both Vista and 7, and you're right. I HATED Vista when it was in Beta. However, after its final release, I installed Vista x64 Ultimate, and couldn't have been happier. It worked, and worked well. It was more stable than XP, and the host of new features made it a "must have" in my books. I never had any issues with it at all after release. When it came time to Beta Win 7, I was sure I was going to go through the exact same headaches I had with the Vista beta, but MS surprised me, and released an OS that was as good in beta (perhaps even better) than their previous OS was in final RTM form.

If I hadn't had the opportunity to beta 7, I would still be using Vista. It was a good OS that needed time to "come into its own" so to speak. Using Windows 7 now for the past 5 months or so (various Beta's and now the Final), I couldn't see myself going back though.

Vista wasn't bad - it had a bad rep because of its abhorrent Beta. It garnered alot of bad press and word of mouth because of that. Had MS waited a few months before releasing the public beta of Vista, I think Vista would have been much more widely adopted, as people wouldn't have heard from their technet subscribing buddies how slow and imcompatible it was. They would have been hearing how much more of a revolution it was actually meant to be.
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Not entirely true...
Wolfie2K3 1st Dec 2009
The beta was buggy, incompatible with almost ANYTHING that was 3rd party and loaded onto it, and had horrible driver support. This is what turned people off.

While it IS true that there wasn't much in the way of driver support when Vista launched, quite a lot of hardware WAS compatible. Most everything I threw at it just plain worked.

About the only software that did NOT work were poorly written apps that required Admin rights to function - i.e. QuickBooks. It needed admin rights so it could pass information between it's modules by way of the registry. Of course, that's something Microsoft and common freakin' sense would tell you is NOT a good idea.

Vista wasn't bad - it had a bad rep because of its abhorrent Beta. It garnered alot of bad press and word of mouth because of that. Had MS waited a few months before releasing the public beta of Vista, I think Vista would have been much more widely adopted, as people wouldn't have heard from their technet subscribing buddies how slow and imcompatible it was. They would have been hearing how much more of a revolution it was actually meant to be.

Vista got a bad rap for a number of reasons. OEM vendors took their sweet time getting drivers out for hardware. While I got lucky - every bit of hardware inside my PC worked with Vista drivers out of the box on the beta and RC, HP took 9 months to get drivers ready for my printer.

Creative Labs high end sound cards also didn't work too well with Vista. Seems their drivers only worked with XP because they had to hack some of XP's bits in order to make them work properly. Those hacks wouldn't work properly with Vista - mainly because of the increased security as well as the fact that the driver model changed in Vista from Kernal mode to User mode. They couldn't hack the kernal any longer in order to make the hardware work.

Some vendors decided to take their sweet time getting drivers out - stating that the driver model was changing too frequently for them to be able to get working drivers out. To wit, I say BULL. By the time the Beta and especially the RC arrived, the driver model was pretty much set in stone.

If anything, Vista got a bad rap mainly because OEMs weren't entirely on board until it was way too late. Starting work on drivers for your hardware after Vista got released is braindead. That's the kind of stuff you have to work on during the BETA and RC stages.

  • Flagged
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And the excuses roll on....
Wintel BSOD 1st Dec 2009
sigh
  • Flagged
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One of the reasons, but not all, for slow driver . .
hkommedal Updated - 2nd Dec 2009
delivery was the increased demands from a stronger DRM regime.

As ATI said at the time: ". . the drivers had to be extra robust . .".

The robustness was about guarding all DRM'ed signal path's to prevent what they called" illegal" use of the signal path from DVD and HD to sound and video.

The presentation was not against the DRM ; it supported it, but said that it could easily take more time to get this "extra robustness" !
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Whats your point?
JonWayn 1st Dec 2009
Is there some point to your argument? What manufacturer doesnt urge users of their product to buy the newer version when it hits? Or, are you saying that MS should tell us now that Win7 sucks but, not to worry cuz Win 8 will eventually hit? Please clarify
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I disagree.
treyedean Updated - 1st Dec 2009
I think that when Windows 8 comes out people should adopt. I think that when Apple Launches The next major release, OS 11?, people should adopt. If people stay with the old operating systems, there will be no reason to innovate and advance technology as a whole.

Spending the money to upgrade sucks but the end result is faster more advanced operating systems that are so much more capable than previous systems. Windows Vista/7 brought us 64 bit computing. I know windows XP had it but it was not supported and it died. Now we are looking at GPGPU computing, virtualization and other technoligies that are really puting the resources of Modern computers to work in new and exciting ways.

I use both Windows PCs and Apple Computers. I will be upgrading all my Operating systems on the next releases.

P.S. Companies making a profit is not a bad thing.
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I suppose that's that what they kept telling their clients at...
The Mentalist 1st Dec 2009
Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC

"Companies making a profit is not a bad thing."
  • Flagged
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Talk about lame
John Zern 1st Dec 2009
have you ever stopped to read your own posts?
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Well I have
Wintel BSOD 1st Dec 2009
And he seems to have gotten your attention.

lol... grin
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Yeah, thanks
Wintel BSOD 2nd Dec 2009
And good luck on your latest Black screen of death. You're gonna need it.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-369133.html?tag=nl.e539

happy
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Your point?
eddunnpe@... 1st Dec 2009
What is the relevance of this comment to the story?
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Ahhh your consistent...sad, but consistent. - nt
TheBottomLineIsAllThatMatters 1st Dec 2009
nt
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Huh?
Gis Bun 1st Dec 2009
Windows 8 won't be out for 3 years - if on track.

You think Microsoft is the only company in the world that says the latest is better than the last one (or any previous ones)? I guess you don't know squat about marketing.

What you never hear a musician or a band say "This is my best album ever."? [If so, maybe we can get a refund for the previous crap].
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Well when a band produces a onstage BSOD
Wintel BSOD 1st Dec 2009
then I'll be asking for one. No doubt.
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RE: XP's usage share down, Win 7, Firefox & IE8 up
ramnet@... 1st Dec 2009
You have to be joking - Windows 7 has 3 % of the market and you are all raving about it - idiots on steroids . That still means close to 70% are still addicted to XP and not in any rush to change. Some of you so called experts need to start asking why XP users are not rushing to change. You can spin doctor away to try and deflect criticism from your mistaken and overly eager rush to push Windows 7 but it has no more traction than Vista did when released. I like W7 better than Vista but no better than XP - I know no-one who has yet to buy it other than with a new PC where the choice was forced on them.

Ken

IT Director
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Me, I upgraded
WindowWasher Updated - 1st Dec 2009
OK, you now know one person. I bought it to upgrade away from XP. I hung onto XP because Vista DID suck, but no more. Windows 7 is far better than XP, and was worth the upgrade.
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Unless you're using Firefox...
WarhavenSC 1st Dec 2009
As several of us have discovered, using Firefox in Private Browsing mode causes explorer (the file system browser, not the web browser) to inexplicably crash on many systems. Also may have something to do with Visual C++ runtimes, but we're still working on narrowing that down.
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Good to know
Wintel BSOD 1st Dec 2009
since I have a Wintel machine running Ultimate with FF.
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now you know two
cwallen19803@... 1st Dec 2009
Charlie
Software Developer
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XP
Cylon Centurion 1st Dec 2009
Users are not rushing to change for a few reasons.

1) Money: most users seem to run their machines till it takes its last breath. Which is fine. Most users do not need to upgrade right away. If it works, leave it alone.

2) Familiarity: We had XP for 5 long years till Vista came around. And what a change Vista was from what users were accustomed to.


Eitherway, there is no reason to downgrade a new machine to XP. There is no being "forced" here. XP has simply lived its life.
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Money is not an obstacle to win7 adoption as proved by...
The Mentalist 1st Dec 2009
faster adoption in Romania, Russia and other less affluent markets.

Most of the market share Win 7 has conquered is in Eastern Europe so that proves money is not an obstacle to adoption
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RE: Money is not an obstacle.....
fatman65535 1st Dec 2009
I wonder if that higher rate of adoption is due in part to the use of pirated versions?

I have decided to upgrade my Windows XP box to Ubuntu 9.10. Goodbye to that rotten platform. For me, the Windoze train is leaving the station.
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ZZZZZzzzzzz.....nt
TheBottomLineIsAllThatMatters 1st Dec 2009
nt
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No reason to downgrade to XP?
davidr69 1st Dec 2009
Perhaps for people with simple needs. Try running professional audio hardware and software on Windows 7. Where are the drivers for multi-channel audio cards (MOTU, RME, Apogee, etc.)? Will soft synths and VST plug-ins run? How does latency compare? MANY of us can give you plenty of reasons to downgrade a new machine to XP.
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I have no clue
Cylon Centurion 1st Dec 2009
But I doubt Microsoft will provide them. Check with the manufacturer...


I'd love to hear the "many" reasons why XP is still better than Windows 7.
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It's not about "better"
davidr69 1st Dec 2009
I never said XP is "better" than Windows 7. It's all about compatibility.
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Give it time..
Papamambo Updated - 1st Dec 2009
Xp was no princess out of the gates at 5 weeks into its shelf life.. Doesn't matter WHICH OS you use, you're ALWAYS going to wait for new drivers.. If you're waiting for drivers for your audio hardware to run on Win 7, perhaps you should be asking the manufacturers for updated drivers. MS can't possibly be expected to create drivers for every conceivable piece of hardware used.
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Not expecting MS to update drivers
davidr69 1st Dec 2009
There is NO way MS can update these drivers. What you need to understand is that pro audio equipment far outlasts the computers they are used on/with. There is plenty of software and hardware for which there will never be upgrades. For example, there was a company called Elemental Audio Systems, bought by Roger Nichols Digital. If I want to use my EAS plugins in Windows 7, I would have to pay for Roger Nichols versions because the EAS versions are no longer supported. Similarly, MOTU (Mark Of The Unicorn) has no incentive to write new PCI324 drivers when they are pushing the PCI424 card.

No amount of time will change this. If a studio changes its computer's OS, it may have to pay thousands of dollars for their software/hardware to work with the new system; what a bargain!
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Zealotry not sales
Mythos7 15th Dec 2009
Apple?s sales are small comparatively, the huge profits they make on their computers is far more about them knowing they have a loyal band of unassailable zealots they can gouge at will

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