Comment on Windows seemingly lost 400 million users in the past three years — official Microsoft statements show hints of a shrinking user base

• dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Especially since the majority of computer users worldwide now no longer use a PC to do their computing. The average consumer now uses Windows only at work. Their personal device, whatever it is, runs Android or is some manner of iDevice, two platforms which have thoroughly eaten Microsoft’s lunch.

  It’s too bad for Microsoft that their mobile platform – Windows Mobile, er, I mean Windows 8 RT, er, actually it was Pocket PC, um, no wait, it was Windows CE, et. cetera – all bombed so spectacularly, and the most recent one mere moments before Google took over the world.

  I imagine Microsoft is no longer eyeing private users as a cash cow except purely as advertising targets.

  It’s only a matter of time before some brilliant dipshit over there manages to envision Windows as a subscription service aimed solely at businesses, and the days of Windows as a standalone OS will be over.

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  • henfredemars@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I could imagine a future where Microsoft is just a proprietary DE over a Linux system. I don’t think it’s coming anytime soon because of the development cost it would impose, but I don’t see why they would go to such efforts maintaining a system they could get for free if the desktop user base keeps shrinking. They’re just too greedy not to do that. Even the backwards compatibility with Windows software is becoming a solved problem.

    Aside from my above rant, the PC is definitely fast becoming an enthusiast/business platform.

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    • ragepaw@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      MS did a shift like that already. The shift from MS-DOS to NT was transparent to the vast majority of people to the point that most people didn’t realize they were two different OSes.

      I don’t see why they couldn’t do it again. NTVDM was similar in concept to what wine does. Imagine if MS actively contributed to wine, or a wine like project.

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      • MCasq_qsaCJ_234@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Do you mean a Linux Subsystem for Windows (LSW)?

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    • TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Well a bunch of them are using WSL to do their work, which isn’t the same, but shows how many people are just stuck with a Windows.

      In StackOverflow 2024 survey ~17% of both professional and personal use users were using WSL.

      Source: StackOverflow 2024 Survey

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    • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Microsoft could become a cloud computing platform, and the machine itself would act as a Terminal.

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      • miked@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        This often sucks when the server and terminal are onsite. Put the server elsewhere and only those with best connections will like it. Latency is a bitch.

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  • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s only a matter of time before some brilliant dipshit over there manages to envision Windows as a subscription service aimed solely at businesses

    I think at least one M365 plan includes a windows license now.

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  • ray1992xd@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yes, I don’t like Windows one bit anymore but back then, Windows Mobile was very solid! I loved my Lumia phones

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    • grue@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Unless there’s a miracle, it would be:

      4 consumer are relegated to DRM’d-to-Hell-and-back smartphones

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  • 3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Been saying exactly that for years but it hasn’t happened yet… It will when the last people (like my age) want to use Windows at home, but by then Macs will have gone as well because the pc as we know it will be finished. I can see pcs as such being gone in say 10 years and it will all be mobile devices as such, and I include laptops in that. Wifey has just lost the last installed program needed for her work from home. All web/connected apps to work from now, and when they go down the whole company stops work(ing). Lost 3 whole days this year so far as the whole company couldn’t function for various reasons

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• thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  i was a MS employee once. Windows hasn’t been their focus since Windows XP. Once they discovered the profit margins of Office 98… Windows was just a way to keep you using Office

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  • henfredemars@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This makes sense. I have a friend from way back in HS who interned there while he was working on his degree who said that cloud services was the priority at the time, and Windows was more just a vehicle that they continued to maintain. That continues to be the approximate temperature of the product and is in line with my expectations.

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