this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Microsoft EVP Yusuf Mehdi said in a blog post last week that Windows powers over a billion active devices globally. This might sound like a healthy number, but according to ZDNET, the Microsoft annual report for 2022 said that more than 1.4 billion devices were running Windows 10 or 11. Given that these documents contain material information and have allegedly been pored over by the tech giant’s lawyers, we can safely assume that Windows’ user base has been quietly shrinking in the past three years, shedding around 400 million users.

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 88 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

Everyone talking about how it's because of Windows 11 or their greed driving people away, etc. But they're ignoring the big one:

People don't need as many computers these days. You don't have a lot of households with a laptop for every member of the family because smartphones and tablets have replaced the PC for many people for media consumption and basic tasks.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 35 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

I think you're right on this. People aren't moving away from MS because of their obnoxious behaviour. They're moving to alternate form factors and dealing with Apple's and Google's obnoxious behaviour instead. People are willing to put up with a metric ton of bullshit so they don't have to actually do anything for themselves.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think their obnoxious behavior is completely unrelated. After all, people aren't choosing windows phones or tablets either.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That's just because Microsoft waited until Android and iOS were well-established before trying to make a smartphone OS. It could have been the best OS ever made, and it still would have been a failure because there wasn't a market for a third OS. It was hard enough at the time to get apps developed for both iOS and Android - there wasn't room for a third player.

[–] JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

MS charged for Windows Lite, the others were free. And anyway they were building market share, but not fast enough for management, so they abandoned it mid-cycle.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

Correct. Whenever you see a large chunk of the population making a change, first assume it is for mundane reasons like finances or convenience.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 22 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I keep having to remind people around me that phones are the primary computing device for an ever increasing percentage of the population.

Lemmy wants to rail on Windows 11 AND they talk shit about your average person not understanding filesystems.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Lemmy wants to rail on Windows 11 AND they talk shit about your average person not understanding filesystems.

At some point, it just becomes exhausting to hear people explain-o-brag about their ability to navigate the command-line, like typing "dir" into a cursor field makes them the hottest thing since Alan Turing.

Millennials will tell you they are tech geniuses, then throw up their hands when their dishwasher breaks or their check-oil light comes on. The need to be cluelessly smug rivals any 90s-era Boomer.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world 10 points 8 hours ago

Exactly. My wife hasn't used an actual computer more than a handful of times in the last several years. She does EVERYTHING on her smartphone.

I have never owned a laptop, because my desktop unit is where I do most of my business stuff, and when I'm away from that, my smartphone is good enough.

Of course, the most important thing isn't that we account for two less computers than a few years ago, but the smartphones that we have replaced laptops with, run Android. So that's actually a net loss of 4 MS products.

And after all these years, Windows products still make me frustrated and infuriated. You'd think they would have honed it to a perfect product by now, but every few years they completely reconfigure the UI, and make us have to navigate a whole new, buggy system.

[–] trd@feddit.nu 4 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Looks around my living room, 3 laptops, stationary, 1 nas and a server. 2 laptops are still running windows.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 10 points 12 hours ago

You are an outlier.

[–] howlingecko@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago

Same here. I was just thinking that I have way more running computers now than I did in years past. But none of mine are running Windows now.