Windows 7 hits 100 million licenses mark, becomes Microsoft's fastest-selling OS
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 27th 2010 5:57PM
posted April 27th 2010 5:57PM
It's hardly been a secret that Windows 7 was on track to become Microsoft's fastest-selling operating system, but the company has just now finally made that designation official, and also revealed that the OS has crossed the magical 100 million licenses sold mark in the process. In other words, that translates to Windows 7 being installed on one in ten of the world's PCs just six months after it launched, which is pretty darn impressive any way you slice it -- or punch it, as the case may be.
I had one issue with Vista - programs stopped executing after a while when using the computer. Had to reboot the pc, and they'd work for a period of time and it'd happen again.
Did a few clean installs, and after a while of putting things back on, it started to happen.
Since being on Windows 7 - I am yet to experience anything negative. Such a good OS.
The problem with vista was the huge hardware requirement jump from xp. And a lot of computers shipped with vista that could hardly run it, which was enough excuse to hate vista.
Like you would never run vista with a celeron and 512mb of ram , but xp you would be fine.
Once everyone updated hardware , procs, ram, everything, then windows 7 was lighter, it really helps
@Hydra
"The problem with vista was the huge hardware requirement jump from xp."
Makes sense. Vista, in many ways, was a gift to the Hardware makers, to kickstart PC sales.
"And a lot of computers shipped with vista that could hardly run it, which was enough excuse to hate vista."
And they also wanted to ... push last generation hardware??
Yeah, at first that sounds IMPOSSIBLE. How could brand new hardware not run an OS that was just released, but what MS did was came out with two stickers... One that said 'This PC can run Vista' and another that said 'this computer is optimized for Vista' or some BS. Is MS gonna stand up and take the blame? Nope. They just blamed Intel, who apparently pressured MS to lower requirements so more of their low end chips would go out the door in 'Vista boxes.'
For their dishonesty, MS was taken to court, for, effectively lying to people who would fire up their new computers and see that they were only getting a fraction of Vista's UI features (Vista Home Basic).
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/microsoft_learns_vista_capable_lawsuit_ups_requirements_windows_7_compatibility_sticker
@Wesscoast
That was an interesting read
@SteveyAyo
Damn this dude dumb. You asked for a tablet running full OSX and I showed you and now you are going on this silly rant.
This tablet has failed as big as Redmond's tablet PC's have for the past 10 years.
I swear they need to start conducting IQ checks before allowing people to post here.
I skipped vista, but mostly just because I had no justifiable reason to spend the money on it. XP did everything I needed just fine, none of the additional features in vista were worth the money on my tight budget. I bought my last computer before vista even shipped and I've upgraded it bit by bit since then, so I didn't buy a new computer that ever came with vista.
When the windows 7 beta/RC came out free to try, I thought "hey, I can afford free" so I gave it a shot. The functionality was finally a step up from XP and worth the super cheap pre-order upgrade price to me.
I've still got XP on a netbook, and while I'd like to put 7 on it someday, I don't feel like the current price of another upgrade license is worth it to me for a secondary machine I only use in certain cases.
The other thing is, XP isn't going to have hardware support for newer stuff eventually, so it was about damned time I finally got something that would handle whatever new goodies I plugged in.
I use to run Vista on Vmware Fusion on my Mac Pro, but now I wish Vmware would make an app to run OS X on Windows 7.
@joez10 Hmmm I been running snow leopard 10.6.2 for like a month now on vmware. Yes it can be done :)
I wonder how those figures compare to the licences sold by Apple for their OS X
I really enjoy Windows 7, it's a great OS. I never installed Vista on my machines, but my dad bought a Vista machine, and it's been stable as well. That doesn't mean there isn't any room for improvement, Win 7 has some niggles, but it's easily the most stable Microsoft OS I've used (I'm a Snow Leopard user as well), and it's also quite fun to use (every OS should have Aero Snap), now if only Microsoft could implement Expose, it would be almost perfect.
Sorry for the run on sentence. Apparently I'm not as stable as my OS.
@Dr Kwame Nkrumah clearly you arent getting the fact that im making fun of the fact that the only buyable osx tablet is made by a third party company and Jobs himself would call it a failure ... i agree they should do iq tests so we can get rid of your dumb ass... and Apple still hasnt made a usable tablet, there have been usable tablets running windows for a LONG time
Hi Im a mac user and I approve windows 7.
My personal preference is Ubuntu 9.10 is better, The finalized release of Ubuntu 10.04 will be better than Windows 7.(Got 10.04 Beta 1, and Windows 7 Starter dual boot on my computer.) Don't get me wrong Windows 7 is the best Microsoft has ever done, but I just like Ubuntu better.
@gigarath Can you please elaborate on what makes ubuntu 10.04 special?
I tried ubuntu back in the 5.0 days. During its infancy but i just never saw a need for a linux box. The command line shit use to get on my nerves but it solidified my geek cred once i started running laps around it.
Thinking about building a linux box for programming and hacking to sone in on my career skills. But i been out of the linux loop for like 8 years.
I've been using OSX for all my years in college because they forces me to use it for class work (graphic design). What I don't get is that they can afford to get the latest mac but their PCs machine are like in the 90's and everyone complain why the PC hasn't been useful to the school. Well, they haven't given it a chance. Win7 would make project fly and man singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".
win 7 rocks but i wish multiple monitor support and live backgrounds would come supported out of the box.
it would also be cool to hook up 2 keyboards / mice on a multiple monitor setup.
1 computer but 2 users at the same time = EPIC WIN!
Pretty good os. It just lacks virtual desktop.
Just shows how a good product sells well.
I replaced 2 of 3 family laptops all windows 7, works like a charm, I don't understand why we need an SP1 at all...
PS. mine has a few CENTOS/Ubuntu VM's and VMware in general runs much smoother under 7 then Vista
he he he!
at last microsoft has has managed to do something meaningful!
@SteveyAyo
This guy is so stupid it ain't funny. You asked for a tablet running OSX and I gave you one. Now you are running around spewing crap, this tablet is as usable as the other garbage tablet PC's released for the last 10 years.
@N900 Ahaha, and I thought I was going to make it through an ENTIRE post without seeing Kwame's Apple-loving all other company-bashing posts.
My hopes and dreams have now been crushed.
Windows = CubicleOS.
Who cares how much it sells. It's still a polished turd from the 80's.
I wonder if they counted the 4 activations on my PC as 4 or 1 "licenses". And since I killed this beast in the end will they subtract all 4 from the total? I think not.
I know the MS lovers don't want to hear it but Vista really was garbage, not because it was buggy like Windows ME or had lots of problems but because it was quite simply a resource hog that included lots of unnecessary crap. XP is light years faster. I don't want to hear that 'oh you never even ran Vista so you don't know what you're talking about' bs, I ran Vista for awhile, switching between it and XP and I eventually just stopped using Vista altogether; XP was just much better to use.
Having said that, 7 is a vast improvement with some nice new features but it is still not as fast as XP, period. Look under the hood of both and you'll know why.
Congratulations to Microsoft. I'm not the greatest fan of Windows but I will say this - Windows 7 beats the pants off Windows XP and I really wish I could use it for my day-to-day work. Unfortunately, the OS still isn't approved by my company for use on notebooks (it's apparently incompatible with some of the paranoia software we have installed) so I have to struggle on with XP...