Microsoft: Windows 7 Is Superior to OS X, Linux, and to All Platforms

an 27 inch iMac married to a 64bit windows XP.... best machine in the world!

"over nine out of 10 people, when they choose a PC, choose a Windows PC"

I'l resist the ad hominem attack. The spokesweasel is doing his job.

Of course, I must point out that nothing said in the article supports the assumption that the increase is because Win7 is the driving factor in the choice.

First, it is the uber-service pack for all the fools who bought Vista machines. I was one of them, so I got counted for a purchase just to get rid of Vista. That says something for Win7: "This user believes that Win7 is superior to Vista". Hardly a bellringer for Microsoft. In fact, the idea that I had to wait 3 years for that particular box to be even marginally useful kind of angers me... especially since I'm being counted for their blowhard announcement.

Second, I just purchased a new laptop with Win7 on it. I got counted a SECOND TIME! Guess what I did with that Win7? I reformatted the drive and installed linux. They are all to happy to add my number to their blowhard announcement again. Fact is, the "partnerships" Microsoft extorts manufacturers into make it cheaper to buy a box with Winwhatever on it and reformat than to buy Apple or Linux hardware. I'm sure Microsoft put lots of money into researching that number before the big show, eh?

Hey, they gotta do what they gotta do, but we have a responsibility to report the caveats to marketing announcements as well as the announcements themselves. Anybody who takes an announcement like that at face value deserves what they get.

I did the same thing. We have 3 desktops, 4 laptops (one is a Mac) and an Asus netbook.

All but the Mac came with Windows. I installed Ubuntu Linux on all of them months ago and they run great... but those machines also got counted in the Microsoft numbers.

Keep telling yourself this Microsoft. All of us apple folks know the truth... Most of us went to apple because of microsofts "superior" product...

I have bought a computer with windows on it. It was forced to do so because of vendors. The first thing I did was to replace the OS. I know all to many who are forced to do so. This lack of options must have a name, what is it monopoly

Not to mention the Linux folks who would never touch Windows with a long bamboo stick. You can put it in a nice package and give it a new skin but it's still remains Window and it's still garbage.

Superior at finding and installing malware and spyware, definitely. Superior at enriching Bill Gates and his progeny, definitely. How many of the world's supercomputers run Windows 7? None? How many run Linux?

Um... No it isn't Mr. Turner :)

windows is not Superior to linux ...what have you been smoking unless Microsoft paid you to write this revue . windows 7 is better than vista and osx but thats the best it does on my bench tests . linux is best overall l in performance and security ...so go tell that lie to hitlers propaganda staff

"Nine of out 10 people, over nine out of 10 people, when they choose a PC, choose a Windows PC, ladies and gentlemen, around the world. So we are making some progress against Apple,” Tuner commented."

Well gee, I wonder how many stores and outlets carry computers with Windows pre-installed as compared to stores with Linux or Apple pre-installed? Why, I bet that would be about 1 out of 10 or more than 1 out of 10.

It's hard to make comparative buying choices when the choices aren't in the stores.

Window enjoys a near monopoly to this day that was originally established with the monopoly building oem agreements they made which pretty much eliminated competition and led to being sued as a monopoly.

That's the truth of history, MS will never be able to dodge it. now that the damage has been done and people watch those oem agreements closer, MS has to enjoy the installed base that people will (if one pays attention to historical purchasing patterns) stick with what they already had. Familiarity.is what drives the sales, not necessarily that it is a good product.

When you compare the actual quality of MS Windows, it's not hard to say this is the 'best' OS they have ever produced as much of its features are taken from it's competition. it also doesn't hurt that regardless of being the most purchased and installed OS over the past 20 years, it is also identified by techs and administrators as one of the consistently worst and most buggy systems around.

Better than horrible? gee, that's an improvement, isn't it?

This article is nothing more than a fanboy promotion trying to fan the flames of the so called 'OS wars' but lacks any real data or information.

way to be a cheerleader.

Obvious troll

WOW! for an archaic product which should have been nothing but an SP release for disastrous Vista, this is quite unabashed self praise indeed, nothing surprising from MS, dunno why they even bother, they are the best really LOL!

How many of those "9 out 10" PCs are shipping with the crippled Windows 7 Starter Edition?

How many people upgrade to Linux after they buy a computer running Windows 7? (Because they didn't have choice?)

What are the other genaric X86 choices that the general public knows of? What competitor have you not tried to kill by paying of the OEMs, or with fanboy articles like this?

best sell (don't forget that Linux is free)
not best OS

Kevin Turner (no relation) makes a common mistake with this assertion, or, if he isn't taken in by the mistake, hopes that we will be. The fact that 9 out of 10 people buying a computer choose a Windows PC does not demonstrate the superiority of Windows, or even that they are gaining market share against Apple. It merely indicates that 90% of computer sales by volume are of Windows PCs.

If the operating system were really superior, you would expect the vast majority of high-end personal computers to be shipping with Windows. In fact, you would expect the figures to look better among high-end users than among regular users, since these would tend to be the more demanding. But as sales figures show, the market is skewed the other way: Apple is the biggest single seller of above $1,000 machines in the US market, whereas Windows has almost total dominance in cheap, entry-level machines.

Turner's argument is akin to if GM or Ford claimed that their vehicles were superior to BMW or Mercedes because they sell more of them.

What's of course also interesting is that Microsoft are boasting about their market share against Apple. But, just 15 years ago, Apple was being written off as a serious player. Apple's market capitalisation rose above Microsoft's for the first time since the early '80s a few weeks ago: clearly MS is feeling the chill here.

One more thing: nine out of ten? A few years ago, Apple commanded just 4% of the market, with Linux not being an installed option on any commercially available PC. That sounds like the long term trend for MS is down, not up.

If Win 7 is so good then why have I had more issues with this OS than any other I have ever used. Even Vista being the crappiest thing I had used up until 7 was at least stable albeit painfully slow.

Two machines with Win 7 installs both died with BSOD, all drivers were installed with latest options. Now all I get from both machines are cyclic BSOD, so much for high quality OS. Wasn't worth the postage to get the free upgrade option.

Now one machine has XP installed (even with all it's faults) which is stable and both have Ubuntu 10.04. Both machines are rock solid stable and do everything I ask of them.

Microsoft you need to do better than a spruced up Vista to get me back now.

Superior how? You say it, but don't explain or support. Interesting and typical from the fanboi mentality.

M$ POS will NEVER be superior to ANYTHING!!!!

And the ONLY reason it LOOKS like it sells so good it that it comes with the purchase (forced upon you - is more like it!!) much like the "prize" in a box of crackerjacks, or the junk in a box of cereal.

So, why don't you tell us ANOTHER lie, this one is getting OLD!!!

It's almost impossible to get a new computer without buying Windows 7. Their sales figures look so good only because the vendors give the customers no choice. I spent a day walking around Zurich and trying to buy a Linux machine, and not a single shop gave me this option. I asked for a machine with no OS, and that was impossible as well. I ended up with Windows 7 Starter Edition which I had to remove by myself. There's your superior OS.

The ONLY thing windoze7 is SUPERIOR to is windoze VISTA. Enough said.

Turner has his head up his azz with his meaningless hyperbole...he can only be outdone by the monkeyboy Balmer.

M$ is one of the most corrupt anti-competitive companies ever.

Did he mention, that you are forced to buy windows, when you buy a new computer?

9 out of 10 people have actaully have no "choice" If they don't choose Mac they they are buying a Windows PC. This is because of Microsofts dealings with OEM's rather than a reflection of the superiority of Windows.

Best OS my A??. These guys really are high on some sort of drugs.

How come the best OS can't even display a simple shortcut (.lnk) without the system being compromised????

Now that is of-course one of a kind :-)

Sure. 9 out of 10 people buy a pc with windows 7 preinstalled, because the pc they choose to buy is not available without Windows preinstalled. I'd be curious to know how many promptly remove windows 7 completely and install an alternative, or at the very least repartition and go with a dual boot configuration with Windows and Linux or another alternative, but alas, there is no true way to track this.

Obviously, I have no real way to estimate, but if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that at least 1 of those 9 chooses a dual boot installation or complete removal of Windows.

I'm not a total Linux fanboy here - I use Linux. I use Windows too. I can agree with Kevin on his statement that Windows 7 is the highest quality (product) ever released by Microsoft, but superiority is subject to perspective. It is very good. Superior? it depends what you're doing with it.

Give me a windows system with the stability to achieve the same uptime as any *nix system and then we'll talk.

The fact that it is only 9 out of 10 when every computer sold comes with Windows installed kind of shocks me. "Choose" isn't really the right word for it though. Microsoft has bullied the market into using their products.

The only reason 90% of computers run windows. Is because. Windows. Have a manopoly. By being pre installed on nearly all new machines.

I have recently tried to buy a machine that didn't have windows and its virtually impossible in the UK. Unless you want to pay a lot more for a mac.

And shops and manufacturers will not sell you a machine without windows pre installed.

The only machines with linux are netbooks. Dell sell linux mashines but are more expensive and not avalible in the UK.

So at the end of the day people don't. Have a choice unless they uninstall windows and put somthing else on. Which a general member of the public is unlightly going to do.

Masses might buy Windows; ads are everywhere and you don't even have a choice until you are already used to it.

But, as far as the OS quality goes, Windows behaves poooorly. Context switches (win32 API is OMGWTF), memory management, stability, drivers, viruses, anti spyware, eats 10000000GB disk, eats gigs of RAMs...

People just don't know better... and are not willing to learn to burn a CD at age of 30 on a new OS; it's all in the marketing, and Microsoft if everywhere - it is not a question of people choosing it.

Do I even have to mention security issues and prices.

I'm talking as an expert... if all you want to do with your computer is play games, go with Windows... this is again not a problem of other OSs, it's the target of the companies, but it's reality, although Wine is getting better day by day.

I guess, what I want to say is people should not be afraid of computers and learning stuff... and should not take for granted that they need 2 more gigs of ram every year or 2. My os with X takes ~100MB... Microsoft and Intel are pushing to buy new OS that needs a better chip, and the loop is endless. When I saw that Win7 Ultimate took ... 13GB of disk space I was amazed...

Enough spam from me :)

Windows is a poor OS that cannot provide me with the functionalities I need; whenever i remote-desktop to a Windows machine, I feel like a cripple, limited to that poor user interface (shiny though and eats 100000000 RAM, but still can't do anything) .

But that's the way of today's IT...

Good thing I fall in the 10% lol I even got a good deal on my laptop cause it came with linux! Lucky me :D

"9 out of 10 people choose Windows PCs"
BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!

Sure! Linux or MacOSX IS NOT A CHOICE.
If Linux is soooo superior why its market share is soo low, just 1% ?
Because it´s so crappy, ugly, awkward. People are not dumb, and won´t use such crap.

Actually, even Microsoft itself gave Linux a realistic projection of actual 8% desktop share (I can't find the link right now, but I will post it in after I do). There are multiple stat counters. Some show 3% share, some even 5%. Net stat counters are terribly inaccurate.

Linux -is- superior for a plethora of reasons. Without getting into the nitty gritty (ie: Parallel processing, multi-user environment... Hell, even bloody desktop workspaces :D), I can tell you this. I've been using it for nearly 2 years now, being a Winblows user of over a decade.

I switched, and there was a bit of a learning curve, but nothing monstrous (mind you, the learning curve was there because I dove into the deep end head first). I am not looking back.

And I play a ton of games too. I'm actually finishing up Fallout 3 right now, and plan to make my way through the Pitt and the rest of the expansions too. Quake 4, HoMM5, Warzone 2100, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, ET: Quake wars, Heroes of Newerth etc etc. The list goes on.

Some of those are native in Linux, some I run through Wine. Linux has made leaps in the last several years. And the most ironic thing about this? Most of these games run better in Linux than they ever did in Windoze. HoMM5 doesn't grind to a halt after 30 minutes of gameplay. Actually, at highest settings (Which I could not do before), it runs smoothly without a hitch.

*omg* lol

Search for stuxnet ;)

Superior of what ? It is not even properly 64bit system. So grate that top 500 supercomputers
avoid it in favour of Linux. Recently London Stock Exchange Windows decided to get rid of it as
it coused few total stock makret brakedowns. What superiortity you are talking about ? You mean
security by obscucity ? or quazi semi multitasking ? Yee you are right is amazing hardware
resources hog. What about Android ? Where is Windows mobile ? Each year will be harder and harder for M$ to keep the ground. Windows 7 is out of date already lack of proper security system,
lack of smooth multitasking, bad memory managment, complicated and nasty update and upgrade
process - it takes ages..., unstabille and superior for risky business.
If you will use it for you life support system you will be in constant danger of hart attack ! ;)
But I'm sure it will be not neccesary in any circumstances :) Some Linux machines are already there :)

Greg

-- "It's the greatest single operating system that we've ever produced. It's the highest quality operating system we've ever produced."

Well, at least they're being realistic about all those * OSes they produced before !

.... being in IT I always turn around and ask this question to peers in the workplace. "What OS Are you running on your custom PC at home and not something branded like Dell, HP or IBM ?"

9 Out of 10, to steal a rough estimate, say Windows XP and more commonly Windows 7. When asked who went out and bought Windows 7 and Office whatever version ....

.... "HA HA HA, are you stupid, why waste good money when we can just copy / pirate a copy."

If an OS is so good why then when having to go out and buy the OS alone do these fan boys choose to pirate software.

Because it simply is not worth it.

On the first point that "9 out of 10 people choose Windows" so it is superior. Lets mention that many of those superior purcahses are business users who are downgrading to XP. Volume does not mean quality, as the saying goes, "Eat sh*t, millions of flys do".

On the point that it is the fastest growing operating system out there, there is a good reason for that. Vista was so bad, that business did not upgrade, they just kept running their older systems with XP on them. I can vouch for that. At work we are still running XP, we intentionally skiped Vista and are glad that we did. But there has been a cost for not upgrading for the last 5 years. The computers are getting old and waring out. At some point here, we are going to have to lease all new equipment. When we do, it will be 100 sales for Microsoft in one second. But not because their software is superior. It will be because Quickbooks, Photoshop and Autocad don't run on Linux and the trouble of porting 15 years of Microsoft Excell spreadsheets to OpenOffice.

According to Gartner, global sales of PCs is in excess of 300 million per year. To have only sold 150 million copies of W7 in 9 months is not that impressive if you have 90% market share. It can only mean a lot of XP is still being sold.

Windows sucks. It really sucks. I tried to find decent Windows OS, secure and stabile from 1995 to 2008 and could find just the same old crap. After two years the OS was so painfully slow, sluggy and worth of nothing. After moving to Linux i realized that Windows won't never, ever be secure and stabile. Using Windows is just waste of your time and money and you will get the most idiotic OS.

I bought an old business-computer (rather good components on it) to my son with Windows Xp Pro Service Pack 3 and installed Ubuntu 10.04 to alternative OS. There is no doubt that XP Pro SP3 is indeed better than Windows 7. My son has told to use internet only with Ubuntu and XP Pro is for "only windows" application. Good decision. Especially now when Windows is facing a new danger - LNK-vulnerability. One of the worst ever.

Dualboot is a good choice - and using internet only with Linux is another good move.

I am pretty sure that people do not choose what OS to use....

We have been hearing this since Win 5 so it#s nothing new. MS is right this time though. Windows 7 is the most superior OS on the planet if it remains on the DVD and is not installed.

Does anybody else besides Microsoft, think that Windows 7 is that great? Let's hear from REAL users that use the software in the REAL world. I am one of those, and I've used Windows, Linux, and Mac OS (X) for over 13 years. I choose Linux every time hands down. People that dislike Linux probably have either never used it, or haven't given much time to try and learn it. That's fine, if you decide to stick with Windows go ahead, but keep your wallet out as you will surely need to dip into it and pay Microsoft and all of your 3rd parties for all of your software. Those of us that have chosen Linux will enjoy the freedom of a stable operating system, and we will never need to buy our software.

You can port easily. Do you want me to write a script for you?

Try Nexuiz. It rocks if you like shooting games.
But I agree Linux is not a choice. It is THE choice.

Windows is so GOOD that they even have to tell us how good it is!
Even though people knows how terrible it is, not to mention the joke of a OS it is.

LOL!!!! Meanwhile, back in the real world, HP, Lenovo, and Asus are all dumping Windows on tablets for Android...

Where I work, we bought 12 PCs with "7" on them. Only 2 run "7" today. 10 run Debian GNU/Linux. So, when we choose an OS it's 83% GNU/Linux.

Allow me to defend MS for a moment. My wife has a nice thinkpad with Windows 7 professional on it. I use a MBP and an iMac for my own work, but I use her computer at home.

While I love OSX's many great little touches and stability, I must confess that Windows 7 is pretty darn good. In fact, for the first time, perhaps ever, I've thought now and then, when no one is looking of course, "this OS is not BS".... it does not crash and seems to have no problems with viruses. If there's something to be mad at MS for, it's that MS Office lacks Outlook and OneNote -- what's that... Entourage? is that a jest? And OneNote.... sigh, great program, no equivalent in the mac world.

The other thing: I bought an ipod for the first time this summer. Anyone who bewails a MS monopoly's should be an equal opportunity e-grumbler and vent away on the ridiculousness of the iTunes tyranny.... give me break..... I'll buy all my mp3's on amazon, thank you -- and this from someone inclined to love, use, and defend Apple products. Peace to one and all, SW

Most people don't 'choose' Microsoft windows... they buy a computer and it just has Windows on it.

Apple is leading in cell phones and tablets.
But Android is linux and its running on netbooks, tablets & cell phones and its open technology.

Where's windows in those markets?

Microsoft sucks. Consider this...if ANYTHING "else" you bought failed as often as ANY version of anything Windows related failed you would probably shoot however made it. Lets just call failures BSOD (blue screen of death) ie. system failure, freeze up or any other issue. Your car BSOD's 3 or 4 times a week. Your mace against an attacker or rapist BSOD's about 25% of the time. Your parachute BSOD even once. Your boat sank 4-5 times a week. Need I go on? What a joke!!! Emergency defibrillator BSOD on a regular basis. It would make all the termination camps globally since 1900 green with envy. Rant over

After using Widows 7 for over 9 months and owning a Mac (OS X Snow Leopard) and using it for last 3 months I can say that Windows 7 is a superior product:

1. Stability is at par
2. UI, usability and for the variety of applications offered Windows 7 wins over Mac
3. Installation of any development programs (i.e. IDE, apache, SVN client, etc) is easier on windows because on apple you need to go to a command line and do changes by hand (and to be honest not all developers want to be sys admins)

However the competition is healthy and in the same way Windows 7 integrates some great features form the Mac OS (and bring some new ones), Mac will integrate some from the Windows 7 and on the new ones. At the end who will benefit is us consumers so we should stop bashing either company, because who is better is a relative representation of how things are in a specific point in time (and those can change quite quickly ...)

Windows is nice. OS X is far better. I love it. No more worrying about viruses.