14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP remains an incredibly popular operating system less than six months before its retirement date and despite all warnings issued by the Redmond-based tech giant Microsoft.
And still, some recent statistics provided by market researcher StatCounter for the first 25 days of November 2013 indicate that Windows XP users are finally jumping ship and embracing another platform.
At this point, Windows XP is installed on 19.31 percent of computers worldwide, according to StatCounter data, down from 19.44 percent last week. While the drop isn’t anything major, it’s still a sign that Windows XP users have started the transition to another operating system.
The question is what’s their next destination? Windows 8 has also lost users in the last 7 days (down from 7.54 percent to 7.51 percent), while Windows 7 maintained its market share to 51.8 percent.
The first thing that comes in mind is that some Windows XP users are switching to some non-Windows platforms, such as Mac OS X or Linux. And truth is, lots of our readers have confirmed that they won’t stay on Windows after XP reached end-of-support, so such a scenario is very likely.
What does Microsoft have to say about it? Not much, but Redmond has already explained that it’s essential for XP users to switch to a newer OS version, mostly because it could provide better security.
Of course, the company hopes that most users would pick Windows 8.1, but until now, the majority of those who actually decided to migrate have picked Windows 7 thanks to its familiar design.
At the same time, switching to Windows 8.1 also requires hardware upgrades, which for some companies could prove to be a rather expensive process that wouldn’t make much sense for a reduced workforce with less than 50 employees.