Smarter Geek

According to Computer world Windows 7 adoption rate has been twice that of Windows Vista. According to the article Windows 7 gained 7.5% world market share in just 4 months. If the same trend continues then we can expect to see 90% adoption of Windows 7 in just 4 YEAR!!!!! 

While this might just be wishful thinking I think there are a number of factors will make Windows 7 adoption continue to grow.

1. The booming Netbook market almost exclusively loads Windows 7 Starter Edition
2. Many corporation have been sitting on Windows Vista (therefore Windows 7) capable hardware. This makes the capital cost for upgrade to Windows 7 much lower than before when Windows Vista almost demanded a hardware refresh.
3. Combined with number 2 is the pent up pressure of large organisations that decided to skip Windows Vista for whatever reason but now want to move to a more modern OS.
4. If 4+ gb ram systems are to take advantage of than the 4gb ram 32bit OS limit then they need to be running 64bit version of the OS. It would seem that the gaming community have already caught on this this fact as show by the ArsTechnica report that shows that the 64bit versions of Windows 7 is more popular than the 32bit. Probably because gamers are tech savvy enough to realise that to take advantage of the extra ram then need a the right OS to go along with it. While there was a 64bit version of Windows XP and Vista the lack of driver support greatly hindered their adoption. But with more and more computers now coming with greater than 4gb of ram as out of the box OEM’s have no option but to sell Windows 7 64bit.

One of the great side affect of this will also be the eradication of the now very old, quirky and insecure Internet Explorer 6 which will causes no end of grief for web developers and IT administrators. Hooray!

Source: Windows 7 early adoption beats Vista’s 2 to 1

There has been a log of negative talk lately about Internet Explorer 6 as it is an un-secure browser compared to other browsers. This was highlighted recently when Google reported it was hacked due to a vulnerability in IE6. As a result the German and French governments recommend that people more off Internet Explorer (all together) what is really interesting is that Microsoft are now already say almost the same thing.

Now in a blog post on the Microsoft Windows Experience Blog they mention that Internet Explorer 8 has recently become the most popular browser on the Internet. This undoubtedly would be partly due to the massively successful launch of Windows 7 and it very quickly gaining 10% market share in only a few short months.

But at the end of the article Microsoft say:

“We support this recommendation to move off Internet Explorer 6.”

The good news is that simply upgrading IE6 on Windows XP to IE7 or IE8 will give you a MUCH more secure experience. IE8’s Smart Screen filter has to date has blocked 350 million pieces of malware and IE7 & 8 has blocked over 125 Million phishing sites.

There you have it… MICROSOFT RECOMMEND NOT USING IE6… It could not be anymore clear so if you continue to use IE6 you have been warned!!!

Source: Internet Explorer 8 Officially Becomes World’s Most-Used Browser – Windows Experience Blog – The Windows Blog