Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 28th Nov 2012 15:17 UTC
"As we pass the one month anniversary of the general availability of Windows 8, we are pleased to announce that to-date Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses. Tami Reller shared this news with industry and financial analysts, investors and media today at the Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference. Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 7 in terms of upgrades." Not bad, but there are the usual asterisks, as Ars notes.
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Member since:2006-12-05
Why? It does not make a difference, a license is a license. The granularity or location of the sale seems irrelevant, as long as desktop and laptop PCs sell microsoft will sell tons of windows licenses since they have a near monopoly in that space.
A [most likely] forced license with a new PC sale vs. a license that the user willfully purchased. That's the difference, and it's a huge one.
Member since:2009-03-17
Member since:2006-01-27
A [most likely] forced license with a new PC sale vs. a license that the user willfully purchased. That's the difference, and it's a huge one.
Isn't the same thing true with Windows 7 licenses a couple of years ago and XP licenses way back when?
That's the point, comparing Windows 8 to previous versions. The comparison is no good if different methods are used.
Member since:2005-07-06
A [most likely] forced license with a new PC sale vs. a license that the user willfully purchased. That's the difference, and it's a huge one.
"Forced"? Keep telling yourself that... People like and want Windows, it's almost certainly pirated more than the number of desktop Linux users.
Nearby you ask "What's the alternative?" WRT "nobody is forcing anyone to buy a PC running windows at gun point" - well... get a laptop without OS, or with Linux.
Visiting "laptops" category of ceneo.pl (possibly the most popular and well-known here catalogue of products and online shops; surely you have similar services...) quite often shows a model without Windows at the top of popularity; and generally, "no OS" & "Linux"* filters give http://www.ceneo.pl/Laptopy;017P8-250094-250095.htm few hundred results. But BTW, most of those machines end up with Windows, anyway (oh, and that's no-crapware-included Windows) - at best a MSDNAA license.
*that's often just a smokescreen of the reputable big PC maker, who can say ~"we don't facilitate piracy, all of our machines are sold with an operating system" or such. Devil is often in the details: in one case I've seen, it was just a Knoppix live-DVD thrown into the box; in another, some Linux installation which didn't and couldn't boot into X, Linux lacked support for the GFX chip in that laptop. Few years ago, one reputable PC maker even sold laptops with "DOS2000"...
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
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2009-03-17
Why? It does not make a difference, a license is a license. The granularity or location of the sale seems irrelevant, as long as desktop and laptop PCs sell microsoft will sell tons of windows licenses since they have a near monopoly in that space.
My assumption is that windows 8 will do great in the consumer space, the touch screen is a great gimmick and gives OEMs a new "differentiation" to help push people upgrade or buy new systems. I assume business will skip this upgrade cycle, since Metro is useless in most of their applications.
I'm more interested in the Windows Phone and Surface sales. Since those are the areas of biggest growth, and microsoft lacks a monopoly to leverage there.