What fraction of users have migrated to Windows 11 on their main system?

cereberus said:

Everybody keeps saying corporations (users) pushed for W11

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Plain and simple, when MS let all Windows 7 users upgrade free to 10 no matter what hardware they had, that put a real kink in retail computer sales and that trend lasted 7 years. That was back in the day when computers were built really well and were like the Energizer Bunny. Hardware would keep going and going. Folks had rather spend their money updating their phone over a computer that was operating just fine.

OEMs were not happy. Intel and AMD were not happy. During this same time frame, multiple big corporate breaches occurred that went around, over, or through whatever security measures corporations had in place. They put demands on MS to do something about it. MS says "Hmmm, if we step in there'll be enough of the tech crazy consumers to join big business so we can sell more licenses, make brownie points with big business, and make the OEMs and chipmakers happy in one fell swoop. So they say Yeah, we'll do it, but you'll have to buy new stuff. Corporations are desperate so they agree and put in their advance orders for big shipments of new devices. OEM's say "Yaay" Chipmakers say "Yaay". MS says 'Yaay." They all cash in.

glasskuter said:

Plain and simple, when MS let all Windows 7 users upgrade free to 10 no matter what hardware they had, that put a real kink in retail computer sales and that trend lasted 7 years. That was back in the day when computers were built really well and were like the Energizer Bunny. Hardware would keep going and going. Folks had rather spend their money updating their phone over a computer that was operating just fine.

OEMs were not happy. Intel and AMD were not happy. During this same time frame, multiple big corporate breaches occurred that went around, over, or through whatever security measures corporations had in place. They put demands on MS to do something about it. MS says "Hmmm, if we step in there'll be enough of the tech crazy consumers to join big business so we can sell more licenses, make brownie points with big business, and make the OEMs and chipmakers happy in one fell swoop. So they say Yeah, we'll do it, but you'll have to buy new stuff. Corporations are desperate so they agree and put in their advance orders for big shipments of new devices. OEM's say "Yaay" Chipmakers say "Yaay". MS says 'Yaay." They all cash in.

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I don't believe the hardware restrictions have anything to do with that. It's all about enhanced security and what it will take to have it.

glasskuter said:

None of my PCs were compatible but I could have forced 11 to run on them. Instead I bought the first new system I have ever owned at the ripe old age of 73 just to run 11. Only reason I did is I work on systems for all the little old ladies and gents around here and a few of them have recent computers. I figured I needed to learn 11 to stay current because they have to be hand-held a lot of the time. By far, I like 10 better but, with a few tweaks learned on this forum, 11 is gaining ground. It's all what one gets accustomed to using. The features that were taken away appeal more to power users than little old ladies and gents who do everything from their desktop.

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I'm also 73 and I have never bought a used computer for my own use. They have all been brand spanking new. The only used one I ever bought is the refurbished Dell OptiPlex 990 SFF I bought for $120 for my housemate. It even came with Win 10 Pro. I was expecting a few cosmetic flaws but it came looking brand new inside and out. It replaced her old eMachines 1810 that had a single core Celeron and was slower than molasses in January. My main one now was bought new in 2014 but it has all new innards now. It's the first time I have ever replaced or installed a motherboard and CPU on my own.
Personally I like 10 and 11 but I'm leaning more towards 11 the more I use it. I haven't done any kind of tweaks to it. The settings app is far better than in 10.

Dch48 said:

It's all about enhanced security

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If you believe that's all there is to it I've got a bridge for sale. It is enhanced security, alright, but surely you don't really believe MS's main concern was the security of consumers like you and me. Whatever security benefit we get from 11 is just a by-product of corporate demands. Had there not been pressure from all the parties I listed above, we would not have seen a new OS until around 2023-2024 closer to the end of 10 support. 10 is a solid operating system, unlike when MS scrambled to recover from the epic failures of Vista and 8. They could have kept 11 in the developmental stage a lot longer has it not been from the pressure they were under and that pressure did not come from the consumer market. We were sitting out here fat and happy, running the latest OS on old hardware and our money was still in the bank.

Bit of a thread drift....
My take from the computer age was software and hardware would leapfrog each other. I recall my 1st home pc, an old 8086, DOS 1.0, dual floppy drives, only 512K RAM. Recall DOS 3.2, GUI starting, needed better (read $$) hardware, like a 10MB HDD (being more memory than anyone ever needed)? Better software required better hardware, which allowed for better software, and so on. All this begat a need for better security, which begat better software, which required better hardware....
All the while marketing letting people know their 6 month old computer is old and in need of better software and the better hardware to run it, making consumers drool in breathless anticipation about the next "big thing"....

The "next big thing" is usually some consumer product (a TV, a phone, etc.) that nobody really needs at the moment, but will not be able to live without in a few years time. It's not the same with computers. Similarly, market share is an important aspect for companies competing with other companies, but Microsoft is not really competing with anybody - Linux is way different and requires decent IT support, while Apple is basically a fetish brand. The only reason Microsoft would want one of its products to dominate over others is to simplify servicing, but it's not clear how important is this to them. For a home user like myself, neither the market share of the product, nor it's eventual EOL play any role. I did not pay attention when Windows 7 went EOL, and I will equally ignore EOL for Windows 10. However, new hardware will require the latest OS, so it seems natural to use it once the new hardware arrives. "Upgrading" the OS on an existing hardware would only make sense to me if at some point I would have to run some software that is incompatible with the existing OS. This happens a lot with Apple, but between W10 and W11, I am not aware of any software (that would be interesting to me) that runs on 11, but not on 10. In the same fashion, I upgrade hardware not when "new thing" becomes available (which is every couple of months), but when my present hardware stops being useful for the tasks I have for it. That's why my previous desktop ran from 2012 till 2022 (on Windows 7). By late 2021 I had to do something (due to the pandemic) I never did before and realized a faster PC would be nice. I built my new machine and installed Windows 10, because that's what the drivers were for. I don't expect to get a new one for another decade, provided I keep doing what I do. If that changes, then perhaps I will need new gear and that will of course come with W11 - or 12, or whatever will be current at the time.

To answer the initial question. I haven't actually had a main laptop since about October when mine went to computer heaven. Since then I've installed Windows 11 on a netbook and a family laptop which I've been using while searching for a replacement laptop for myself (with trial and error). I got used to it. But the nearly new one I bought had W10 on it and I'm keeping that on it for now - I just get things done quicker. I will upgrade to W11 sooner or later but not just yet. Change management It does feel a bit like when I was on Windows 7 though. I was happy with W7 so stayed on it as long as possible.

I'm somewhat like Unifex. I don't have to stay on the cutting edge of things. I base my computer use on gaming. Therefore, I only upgrade my hardware when I can't play a game I want to. My first Windows PC came in 1999. I was happy with it until 2005 when I decided I wanted to join the World of Warcraft craze. My PC was not able to upgrade to a compatible graphics card so I bought a whole new machine. Then a year later, I decided I also wanted a laptop. Fast forward to 2011 and the laptop has been my only machine for 5 years and is now really struggling with WoW. I buy a new laptop. Three years later I want a desktop so I buy one. 2019 rolls in and the laptop is once again struggling so I get a new one. Just a few months ago, I decide I want to upgrade the desktop to Ryzen so I swap out the motherboard, CPU, memory, and graphics card. The highest resolution any of my TV's and monitors have is 1080p. Three are actually still 720. I don't need 4K which in my opinion is only necessary if the screen gets bigger than 55 inches. My largest screen is 40 inches.
Now we come to the subject of the thread, the OS. I only went with a newer version of Windows when the computer I bought came with it. I would be perfectly happy if Windows still had no more features than it did in the XP days. I only game, browse, do social media and shop a little. I don't care about productivity, multi-screens, widgets, or any of that stuff. This desktop is the only machine I have ever upgraded the OS on. It came with Windows 8.1 but as soon as 10 was offered I jumped on it. Now, after the internal upgrades, it's on 11. The 5 other Windows machines are not fully supported by 11 so they will stay on 10.

Dch48 said:

I'm somewhat like Unifex. I don't have to stay on the cutting edge of things. I base my computer use on gaming. Therefore, I only upgrade my hardware when I can't play a game I want to. My first Windows PC came in 1999. I was happy with it until 2005 when I decided I wanted to join the World of Warcraft craze. My PC was not able to upgrade to a compatible graphics card so I bought a whole new machine. Then a year later, I decided I also wanted a laptop. Fast forward to 2011 and the laptop has been my only machine for 5 years and is now really struggling with WoW. I buy a new laptop. Three years later I want a desktop so I buy one. 2019 rolls in and the laptop is once again struggling so I get a new one. Just a few months ago, I decide I want to upgrade the desktop to Ryzen so I swap out the motherboard, CPU, memory, and graphics card. The highest resolution any of my TV's and monitors have is 1080p. Three are actually still 720. I don't need 4K which in my opinion is only necessary if the screen gets bigger than 55 inches. My largest screen is 40 inches.
Now we come to the subject of the thread, the OS. I only went with a newer version of Windows when the computer I bought came with it. I would be perfectly happy if Windows still had no more features than it did in the XP days. I only game, browse, do social media and shop a little. I don't care about productivity, multi-screens, widgets, or any of that stuff. This desktop is the only machine I have ever upgraded the OS on. It came with Windows 8.1 but as soon as 10 was offered I jumped on it. Now, after the internal upgrades, it's on 11. The 5 other Windows machines are not fully supported by 11 so they will stay on 10.

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I don't have to stay on the cutting edge nor am I a gamer. I have been a Beta Tester/Insider testing Microsoft Product (among other things) since around 1985. I don't recall when I built my first PC as a member of the Build or Buy SIG of HAL-PC (Houston Area League of PC Users) and only quit building my own about three years ago. It just got to be too much of a hassle.

When I buy a new computer, I generally buy one a couple generations old (there went the cutting edge), then I take it down to bare metal and reinstall the current OS. I need productivity because I teach my fellow senior citizens Windows 10, and pretty soon, Windows 11.

I care about productivity in order to create lessons for my students. Dual monitors are very handy when I'm writing tutorials. So is a dual operating system for comparison when we're learning together. Especially when someone asks me what the difference between 10 & 11 is for a particular action.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've upgraded my OS . . . all the way from Windows 3.1, through the 90s, Vista, etc., to Windows 7 to Windows 8 (bad mistake) to Windows 10 and now Windows 11 for "show and tell". Not only those upgrades, but many, many, many, more updates of each one!

So, I guess you could say, we're total opposites when it comes to computing. Do I think I know it all? Nope, not yet. But I'm working on it, because if I don't learn it, someone's bound to ask me a question I can't answer . . . oh, wait, someone already has! Windows is a huge learning process.

Thinking a little more, I did upgrade the OS on 2 other machines but they weren't mine. I gave the 2011 laptop to my housemate when I got my ACER gaming one and I upgraded it from Windows 7 to 10 for her when 7 was about to get retired. It runs 10 just as good as it ran 7. Her old eMachines desktop came with Vista which I later upgraded to 7. That one is now a Frankenstein project made from some old parts and some new. The only original parts left are the optical drive and the case. The motherboard, CPU, and memory are what I took out of my desktop when I upgraded it.

Really amazing how these arguments repeat themselves ad nauseam ad infinitum: Win2000 was solidity incarnate; Win7 could not to be topped; Win10 is the Rock of Gibraltar; and no one, I mean no one, will be able to move me from the rock solid Win20!

Dch48 said:

I don't need 4K which in my opinion is only necessary if the screen gets bigger than 55 inches.

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The way I see it is that 4K TVs and monitors are more for people who want to sit as close as they can to the large displays. The farther away from the screen the less 4K matters.

Winuser said:

The way I see it is that 4K TVs and monitors are more for people who want to sit as close as they can to the large displays. The farther away from the screen the less 4K matters.

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You may need to sit closer by if you don't hear as well as your spouse

Dch48 said:

I don't believe the hardware restrictions have anything to do with that. It's all about enhanced security and what it will take to have it.

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glasskuter said:

If you believe that's all there is to it I've got a bridge for sale. It is enhanced security, alright, but surely you don't really believe MS's main concern was the security of consumers like you and me.

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I guess, I'll be buying that bridge as well. There are a number of reasons why Microsoft wants better security from more OS sales to a more secure experience for all in the market we now call E-Commerce

Anyway, just because one can't see an improvement doesn't mean it isn't there. It simply means you haven't noticed it (or are simply denying to yourself it exists).

I have to say this. Windows 8 was actually a better OS under the hood than 7 was. It was just that horrible UI it came with. I still have no idea what they were thinking. It may have been okay on a touchscreen tablet but for desktop, and even laptop users, it was an abomination.

Dch48 said:

I have to say this. Windows 8 was actually a better OS under the hood than 7 was. It was just that horrible UI it came with. I still have no idea what they were thinking. It may have been okay on a touchscreen tablet but for desktop, and even laptop users, it was an abomination.

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They were thinking more about phones and tablets and less about Laptops and Desktops.

I switched my Dell back to 10, I'm still fuming over the missing folder previews in 11

CannonRebel said:

I switched my Dell back to 10, I'm still fuming over the missing folder previews in 11

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Windows 10 is a great OS, and it still has a few more years to go before its EOL. Windows 11 is still in its infancy and is slowly maturing. From some of my post members probably think I'm against MS adding cosmetic updates. I'm not. I just that at this stage of Win 11 progress, MS should be more concerned about improving the features and performance and less effort into things like emojis and desktop stickers.

Winuser said:

Windows 10 is a great OS, and it still has a few more years to go before its EOL. Windows 11 is still in its infancy and is slowly maturing. From some of my post members probably think I'm against MS adding cosmetic updates. I'm not. I just that at this stage of Win 11 progress, MS should be more concerned about improving the features and performance and less effort into things like emojis and desktop stickers.

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I agree, it runs great, even after all the updates we've had, my computer runs like it did new.

PromU said:

Really amazing how these arguments repeat themselves ad nauseam ad infinitum: Win2000 was solidity incarnate; Win7 could not to be topped; Win10 is the Rock of Gibraltar; and no one, I mean no one, will be able to move me from the rock solid Win20!

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We aren't arguing . . . we're discussing. There is a difference, ya know . . .