10.8.3 grew by 1.16%
10.8.2 declined by 1.26%

the reason seems obvious :P
btw. 10.8.3 was released on March 14.


Vista 64bit is probably the weirdest of the bunch. Got more marketshare than Vista32bit and both XPs lost.
Though it's a survey so there is a certain potential for errors.

I wonder how many of those Windows 8 adopters are people who bought new rigs and weren't allowed anything else? I get the impression that very few upgrade on their own (I use the "upgrade" very loosely here) and most Win 8 users simply got their OS with the machine itself.

I had the misfortune of trying out Win 8 on my moms laptop a few weeks back. Cool if you have a tablet or a Windows phone, I guess, not so much with keyboard and mouse. "Just switch it back to Win 7 mode then!" one could say, but then I ask; why offer this nonsense on a desktop version at all?

I was part of this one

I agree, that's why I'll go with Win7 for my new PC I hope to be building this summer.

This "one fits all" aproach doesn't work, yet it seems that they aren't paying attention given that 8.1 won't resolve this. Win7 will remain in the top stop for many years to come.

Which were the results for the graphics cards?

I think you should use "ClassicShell" instead of installing Windows7. Classic Shell adds the start button+menu and boots to the desktop, so you won't EVER see the crappy new UI. Windows 8 boots MUCH faster than Windows7 (I upgraded from Win7 to Win8 and can personally confirm this), so you shouldn't miss out on it.

Thanks for that, I'll consider it, but in the end I'm not too happy to rely on 3rd party software just to be able to use something that should have never disappeared.

Besides I'm not too bothered for having to wait  5-10 more seconds (I'll go with an SSD) to boot. Usability and peace of mind comes first.

Oh, then it really doesn't make a difference for you. I have a regular HDD and with Windows 8 the boot time is about the same as on my father's PC with Windows7 and a SSD (maybe 10-15 seconds slower). I also don't have the benefit of a clean install (I upgreded from my ~2 years old Windows7 with all installed programs), which makes it even more impressive.

Fairly shortly, there will also likely be a mandatory switch for anyone who wants to utilize the latest DirectX, aka PC gamers. Since I am one of those, I will need to get Win 8 within the next two years or so, most likely. Why don't they just release a Windows 8 Basic or something without all the gimmicks and bullshit and an actual UI for keyboard + mouse? That should help a lot of PC users to decide, especially on desktop computers. If they want the adoption rate to speed up, they best do something, having people upgrade because they are simply forced to is not a good way to build good customer relations.

DX11.1 is a very minor revision (and most of the new features are for tablet support and debugging tools for devs) it is not going to be a reason for most people to switch any time soon. Hell games are only starting to have proper DX11 support (rather than DX9 renderer with a couple effects tacked on) in the last couple years. And there has only been one game so for to require DX11 (Crysis 3) and many games still ship with DX9 support. The next major DX revision is a long way off at this point.