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Microsoft Software Windows Hardware

Windows 10 Now Runs On 270 Million Monthly Active Devices 264

At its developer conference, Build 2016, Microsoft announced on Wednesday that Windows 10, the latest version of its desktop version which it released on July 29 last year, is now being used on over 270 million active computers worldwide. "Windows 10 is off to the fastest adoption of any release ever," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president for Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group. The company also announced that it will be releasing Windows 10 Anniversary Update this summer for all Windows 10 users free of charge.
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Windows 10 Now Runs On 270 Million Monthly Active Devices

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  • by BarbaraHudson ( 3785311 ) <barbara.jane.hud ... minus physicist> on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:03AM (#51807987) Journal
    There's a sucker born every minute. People who believe this is a free gift never heard of a Trojan Horse, and the people following the cheerleaders never heard of a Judas Goat.
    • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:11AM (#51808059) Journal
      No kidding. To call this the 'fastest adoption of any release ever' is about as valid (and laughable) as some authoritarian dictatorship holding 'free elections' where there's only one candidate, and you're detained if you don't go and vote for him, then claiming a 'landslide victory' with 'record voter turnout'. It's a sham, it's a joke, it's a complete fabrication, it's utter bullshit, and it means NOTHING.
      • I fully agree. And what disturbs me most is the plain face that they use to say such a thing, as if it were absolute truth. I'm afraid of people who can lie with such ease and so much scorn from the intelligence of others.
      • by dj245 ( 732906 )

        No kidding. To call this the 'fastest adoption of any release ever' is about as valid (and laughable) as some authoritarian dictatorship holding 'free elections' where there's only one candidate, and you're detained if you don't go and vote for him, then claiming a 'landslide victory' with 'record voter turnout'. It's a sham, it's a joke, it's a complete fabrication, it's utter bullshit, and it means NOTHING.

        Some of these "elections" are more of a census than an election. Sometimes this is misinterpreted when the language is translated to English. In a country with only one main political party, obviously "election day" is going to have an expected result. The real political mechanisms happen behind closed doors, just like they do in the US. The US and some of these authoritarian dictatorships are really not that different.

    • by Penguinisto ( 415985 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:14AM (#51808083) Journal

      I think it's funny that in spite of all the nagging, trickery, and even (in some cases) forced installs of the damned thing, they only got 270m devices to actually do it out of what, billions globally?

    • by bluefoxlucid ( 723572 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:30AM (#51808259) Homepage Journal

      Fewer support calls from development shops trying to make stuff work with 6 versions of Windows. Faster deprecation path for Windows 7 and 8. Broader access to the App Store. The ability to just make IE12 work with Windows 10 and tell everyone else Windows 8.1 doesn't support the new Web standards and may fuck up with your Web application.

      Ubuntu has two active LTS and a third lagging behind every other year; they have a 9 month support cycle for the 6 month release. That means you get 5 years to update an LTS, and 3 months to update anything else. They only ever have a maximum of three LTS and two non-LTS to support, and a minimum of two and one; there's always a three-month span of time where any and all resources devoted to supporting an old release are reassigned to working on a new release, and there's a one-year span of time where any and all resources devoted to supporting a new LTS are directed toward the next *two* releases (a lead-up and an LTS).

      Do you think Microsoft wants to support Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 2008r2 server, Windows 2012, and Windows 2015 for the next 15 years? Do you think they want to backport the app store and Windows Container Services, or get called out for heavily advertising these features while 80% of their OS products don't actually support them?

      If I were Microsoft, I'd be pushing for a consolidated platform with a Windows core (2015, 2018, etc.) running a Windows desktop (Windows 10) or a Windows server (Windows Server 2015) application suite. There would be one system with one set of core services and libraries; and there would be applications available on each type of installation. If you write it for Windows 10 Desktop, it runs on Windows 10 Server; if you want to use local AD or HyperV and that's a Server feature, maybe it doesn't run on Windows 10 Desktop. Either way, what you're talking about is software, and not potential compatibility issues between operating systems.

      I'd also have a campaign to compact my profile to two core releases. I don't want to support 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2018 software while I'm releasing 2020 software.

      If that means getting my users to upgrade to the latest and greatest for free, then so be it. The cost savings for getting all these people moved up will offset the lost profits, especially when you consider none of these people were ever going to get Windows 10 until they got new machines--which they're going to do at likely the same pace anyway. The actual lost income from giving the damn OS away is going to be fractional, possibly too small to measure, and the total cost is only going to amount to the bandwidth.

      Did you think it would cost MS anything? Sometimes a free gift really is free: the person giving it to you has absolutely nothing to gain by withholding it, and nothing to lose by giving it. It may or may not have actually cost them anything; it might have cost them a lot and turned out both useless and impossible to resell. We like to think of things in terms of us getting stuff, and not in terms of what the other guy is losing or gaining from it; so of course one man's garbage becomes another man's treasure.

      • TANSTAAFL!

        In this instance you seem to get a free/forced OS-upgrade when in reality Microsoft makes you and your information a product which they can capitalize on.

      • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:58AM (#51808527) Journal
        I'll be honest with you: If they weren't actively installing spyware along with their gods-be-damned OS, I'd probably just scratch my head at the rest of their antics and move on. But that's what they're doing: They're actively spying on users, taking control of their computers, forcing updates, and generally disregarding the private ownership rights of end users. THAT IS THE PROBLEM: Taking away CHOICE. I don't CARE what their reasons are, I don't want anyone taking away my right to choose. Luckily I have choice, still: I can run something other than Windows. Of course the news we see lately also points towards Microsoft infiltrating the FOSS community to annex and subvert Linux as well. Microsoft wants to own ALL computers and have NO other choices that they don't directly control. THEY CAN GO TO HELL. I'd rather have NO computing devices at ALL than have anything forced on me.
        • I'll be the devil's advocate for just a minute. Bear with me.
          You say Microsoft, with Windows 10, is taking choice away. I'd say that all those people who keep running Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1 did, in fact, choose. So the choice is not taken away, but left to only those who do it consciously. Everyone else is either a conscious adopter (as I am) or simply don't know any better (vast majority).
          The definition of spyware, then, is somewhat elastic. What you might consider spyware, I might not. Again, by choice. I

          • For the Average Joe, Microsoft "forcing updates" onto their machine might actually be beneficial

            The operative word there is 'FORCING'.

            Also your 'average Joes', 'couldn't care less', because they don't know any better. They don't understand what's being done. If a crook is stealing from people who don't even know something is being stolen from them, does that make it any less of a crime? Rhetorical question, because a crime is a crime. Microsoft is making choices for people and taking data from people who (assuming your 'Average Joes' again) don't understand or even know what's being done. It's still

      • ...If that means getting my users to upgrade to the latest and greatest for free, then so be it. ...

        Therein lies the flaw in your logic.

        .
        Windows 10 is not free. The cost is the data harvesting that Microsoft is doing to Windows 10 users.

        No longer is the person using Windows a Windows user. With the advent of Windows 10, the person using Windows 10 is a product, information to be gathered and sold.

        While I agree with your comments about the need to consolidate the various versions of Windows, that multiplicity of versions is Microsoft's own fault. It was Microsoft who wanted "product differentiat

        • by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

          Presumably the valuable info they're collecting is all the same stuff Google's been able to collect for years based on having a search engine people actually wanted to use. Some of us may not like having given this stuff to Google, but at least we did it knowingly and mostly willingly in exchange for a service we most definitely wanted. Microsoft wants to be able to generate an ad revenue stream like Google's, but their search is compromised by a smaller user base. Though, by now their user base must be

      • by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @12:17PM (#51808701) Homepage

        Dear Microsoft Social Media representative: you hit all the right talking points, but you left out the issue of consent. All of these issues are from Microsoft's point of view. They make MS's life easier. What about us, the people who actually use the damn things? Did you assholes even bother to ask us what we wanted?

        If you're not a paid shill, you should be. You write well, hit all the main points, and are shockingly pro-Microsoft. They're a horrid evil corporation that spies on its users, WTF? Why would anyone do this in their spare time?

        • Good luck getting Joe Q. Taxpayer to tell you what he wants.
          MS didn't create Windows 10 for the 1%ers of the IT world (not by wealth but by knowledge). They created Windows 10 for the rest of the world - and while neither of us agrees with their practice, you have to give it to them: it worked.

      • by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @12:19PM (#51808735) Homepage

        You can wrap it any way you will, but either you're stuck supporting old cruft or you stop supporting it and break existing apps that rely on that cruft. Linux distros do this quite a lot, every release they ship a new set of applications and what used to work for you last release in KDE3 now doesn't work - or at least the same way - in KDE4. Both are supported but they didn't promise to take you from A to B in a smooth ride with no regressions. That's why we have releases in the first place and don't go on an eternal rollercoaster of rolling changes. That's why we have LTS releases even though every upgrade is free.

        Win10 has pretty much said fuck that, we're strapping you in and you're coming with us where Microsoft wants to go. They make UI changes you don't like? Tough. They break some of your existing software? Tough. There's no staying behind, no picking and choosing unless you pay extra and even then in a very limited fashion unless you're an enterprise. Forget having legacy software that continues to work, anything without a running support agreement you're likely to be fucked by Win10 sooner or later.

        It seems you really don't get it, why am I holding on to my Win7 install when the upgrade is free? Same reason I might not want to upgrade from an LTS release, it's about predictability. I know that for about four years more my desktop will stay just the way it is. If I upgrade, I have no idea where Win10.x will be in 2020. I know Microsoft doesn't care about that. Or rather, I know Microsoft wants to get rid of that so the next time they pull a Win8 you're along for the ride whether you want to or not. It's not a free gift, it's a free trojan horse.

      • All this would be justified if they were not trying to force integrated spyware in the operating system itself, trying to force the use of "apps" that the developer of the same should kill himself with shame and with an interface that makes me sick to see so much usability disaster. The idea of a one core product is good, but the Windows 10 is too much a piece of shit to be able to hold the position of core system.
        • There's a lot of talk about Microsoft spyware, but no substantiation. People pull out EULAs and talk about what Cortana does when you ask it to search the 'net for you, and they pull up things saying Windows hit 6,000 DNS requests in one day, and have no explanation of what or how there's end-user monitoring.

          Linux has an awful lot of network activity when idle; I think Debian and Slackware are spying on end users...

      • Right -- but if users love it -- especially when they love it versus your next two versions -- why not support it for the next 20 years? Its not like the kernel of Windows 7 and Windows 10 are radically different. Fundamentally the biggist issue with every Windows upgrade after 98 (where we went to Win2k, and then WinXp, and then ...) is that there were no compelling REASONS for users to upgrade.

        Support Windows 7 until it has 5% Windows market share, and (as a company Microsoft should) then challenge yourse

      • Do you think Microsoft wants to support Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 2008r2 server, Windows 2012, and Windows 2015 for the next 15 years?

        No, but I do think they've maintained their position as the dominant desktop OS provider because they gave serious consideration to long-term support and backward compatibility.

        No business or other large organisation wants to upgrade platform software every few months or even every couple of years. It's dead time that brings huge disruption, significant costs, and relatively little benefit.

        No software developer wants to rewrite their entire product every few months or even every couple of years, for the sam

    • In the sucker's defense, he may not have even been aware that the Trojan horse was getting in the gate until he woke up one morning and found that his gates had opened automatically without asking him.

    • Well, they've essentially shoved it up the asses of the unsuspecting masses.

      My in-law's laptop got updated, and they have no idea how, it just did it because Windows updates decided to and they never got asked as far as they know.

      It's easy to get high adoption rates when you do the upgrade without actually asking permission.

      It's not so much that the world is full of suckers, is most people haven't got much understanding of what Windows Update is doing to them. They just wake up one day and say "wow, my com

  • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:04AM (#51807991) Journal
    Can someone please find (if it exists) the REAL number, that doesn't count the copies of Win10 that were FORCED on people, who didn't ask for it or wanted it?
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by cfalcon ( 779563 )

      I mean, are we sure there are ANY consensual copies of Windows 10?

      • Remember - if your computer was drunk, it is not consensual. Running Windows 8 counts as 'drunk' in this context.

      • Yep right here. Had a computer that came with Windows 8. Windows 10 is a great improvement on that piece of shit.
        Shame the computer doesn't run Windows 7 but I did consent and voluntarily install Windows 10. If you don't give a shit about privacy (and on that specific machine I don't), then underneath it's actually quite decent.

    • MS counts it as a WIndows 10 sale if they didn't install GWX Control Panel on Windows 7 or 8.

    • I bet the 270 million number also includes all the XBOX Ones and the few dozen Windows Phones, as well as all the licenses OEMs have bought for PCs they plan to sell.

    • You mean like retail versions or VLKs?

      I'd say the number is 0.

    • by mjm1231 ( 751545 )

      You also have to take into account that the titles states that "Windows 10 now runs..." I have a Lenovo laptop in my house on which Windows 10 update was installed, but to say it runs would be an exaggeration.

    • by qubezz ( 520511 )
      I have contributed over a dozen machines to their count that aren't running Windows 10. I upgrade the system from a user-data-free Windows 7 disk image just to lock in the "one year Windows 10 free upgrade", which puts the computer configuration in the Microsoft databases of activated systems. The computer will then be automatically activated over the Internet if Windows 10 was needed in the future, even from a fresh install.
  • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:05AM (#51807997)

    The company also announced that it will be releasing Windows 10 Anniversary Update this summer for all Windows 10 users free of charge.

    Which of course not so subtly implies there is a possibility that future updates will not be free of charge....

    • This has been the case with every MS operating system AFAIK.

      Once the official support window has lapsed, you can start writing some big checks to MS for extended support.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:07AM (#51808009)

    Oh, right, telemetry...

  • When you throw it in people's faces every chance you get, of course it's going to take off. Doubly so if it's free. They basically ran the "HEAD ON: APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!" version of an upgrade campaign. Also...

    HEAD ON: APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!
    HEAD ON: APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!
    HEAD ON: APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!

  • Adoption? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by KlomDark ( 6370 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:09AM (#51808037) Homepage Journal

    That's some double-speak right there. Not like people had to put down money for it.

    This is more like waking up in the morning to find an abandoned baby on your front porch. Wouldn't call that adoption.

  • by ADRA ( 37398 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:15AM (#51808097)

    A free upgrade shoved down people's throat? Shocked that its the 'fastest adoption ever'.

    • by ADRA ( 37398 )

      Furthermore, it isn't surprising that they released these numbers 'after' flipping the switch on Windows 10 as an auto-install 'recommended update' for prior releases.

    • ...Win 10 followed Win 8, possibly the worst-received OS that MS ever released...yes, I'm including WinME in that. Everybody running 8 was more than ready to move to 10.
  • I turned off the telemetry and anti-privacy stuff, but FWIW, I actually like Win10. I had Win7 before. I'd used clonezilla to make an image if anything went belly up, and then did the typical online upgrade - I had no issues, except just one that took me a few days to realize: MS Office 2010 starter (Word and Excel only) wouldn't run, claiming it's incompatible with Windows10. I looked online and found some conflicting info, but ultimately there's a KB and a patch for Office 2010 available (released arou
    • Unless you installed Windows 10 Enterprise, it is not possible to disable all the telemetry. Is that what you installed?

  • The real question is, will it finally be safe to use windows update after the one year deadline has passed on the free herpes infection? My guess is it will be extended indefinitely, "due to its great success and reception!"

  • by ihtoit ( 3393327 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:39AM (#51808349)

    whoa, deja vu. That's close to other stuff I've been saying on an entirely different subject...

  • ....Free? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @11:41AM (#51808367) Homepage

    The company also announced that it will be releasing Windows 10 Anniversary Update this summer for all Windows 10 users free of charge.

    Why does this statement make me nervous...? It really hints at the possibility that updates will not be free at some point in the future...

    • Why does this statement make me nervous...? It really hints at the possibility that updates will not be free at some point in the future...

      There's no pleasing some people. First they complain about the cost of Windows, then they complain when it's free and even takes the effort out of upgrading by doing it for you, and now there's complaints about it potentially not being free in the future? I thought you'd be thankful for that prospect.

  • If most of these are Internet of Things, how many AI nazi bots does that make?

  • The company also announced that it will be releasing Windows 10 Anniversary Update this summer for all Windows 10 users free of charge

    I take this to mean the not-necessarily-voluntary year-long beta is almost complete ... now wait for the next gob of shite we're going to force feed you.

    See, when they started pushing this, it really wasn't complete. It was mostly complete, and they were still adding features.

    Sorry, Microsoft. I didn't trust you with long release cycles. With "Agile" development, I trust y

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @12:32PM (#51808833)

    Also in the news, it's easier to have sex if you don't ask but simply rape the other person.

  • The company also announced that it will be releasing Windows 10 Anniversary Update this summer for all Windows 10 users free of charge.

    So at some point, Windows 10 will no longer be free to use then, what happens if in the future you refuse to pay to upgrade to the latest version on Win 10?

  • It may be a shiny new operating system, but it's plagued with the same old problems.

    A new Skylake laptop was brought to me with Windows 10 installed. It took the owner less than a day to download some executable which installed malware (mysearchresults) that ferreted its way into many corners of the system and rendered it useless. The system came pre installed with McAffee something or other which failed to recognize the executable as a virus even though it declared that it had scanned it.

    I like to think pl

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