News Windows install base to top 1bn by end of 2008

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/07/29/windows_install_base_to_top_1bn_by_end_of_2008/1

At Microsoft's 2007 Analyst's Day, Steve Ballmer revealed that the Windows install base will go past the one billion mark in 2008.

 

Disregarding the OS they use, that computers probably already outnumber cars is the one that surprised me. Who was the guy who thought the average industrialised country could get by with maybe three computers?

 

As for the XP / Vista install things, Vista has clearly had a harder life due to the incompitance of the companies that sell hardware//software for it. They had a year or over from Vista going from Beta to RC1 to RTM and yet on the day of launch no one had drivers, i mean WTF! -- Unlike in XP where most drivers that worked on 2k would work on XP. Aside from this gross ineptitude of said companies, vista does have some bugs, however it has FAR fewer than when XP came out (check the patches from MS on XPs first year, and Vistas first year..). Yes, SP1 may fix most of these, however even without it, it is a totally usable OS, and more secure than XP ever was. As for all those that say they will wait to "7" , Im like WTF! it will again have issues, as every new OS does.. so will they then go "we will wait for "8"?" etc... or by that time will they have realised how stupid they were being and have upgraded to Vista (As XP support is only going to last another couple of years

 

I really don't understand why so many companies didn't make drivers to support Vista. So far the thing I don't like about Vista is the amount of system resources it uses just to complete simple tasks.

 

So, is that one billion supposed to be active copies? Does it include servers?

Details. One billion sold, while impressive, is not one billion in use.

 

Going by the title, I would say it is 1bln in use...or at least installed.

 

i know i left XP alone until SP1 - there were so many complaints and problems with it, it wasn't worth it - SP1 turned it around though and now its a good OS

I believe that's what everyone hopes for VistaSP1 - however, the planned features of VistaSP1 don't seem to support that

 

windows is about the only commercial OS there is....... (not considering mac os, and linux) no wonder they have that user base.

and that picture still scares the crap out of me.

 

I really like Vista and find that I hardly ever go back to XP unless I have a particularly badly written piece of software that I need to use. That says more for the software vendors than it does for Microsoft though.

I only wish that we were pushing at X64 now though and getting rid of 32bit

 

I personally like Vista, its stable, quick, and plays all games i want, and runs all programs i want, and i get DX10, what more would i want.
But, that bald guy with his tounge hanging out, i really want to thread his tounge into a lasagne roller

Sam

 

One billion sold means there are probably even MORE in use, via pirating.

 

Is that an american billion or a UK billion?

 

i'd go with short scale billion