Windows 7 now on 10% of world's PCs

pavlov · on April 28, 2010

I'm working on some plain old Windows software (C/C++) for a niche market, and I've been seriously tempted to make Windows 7 the minimum requirement.

It's an enormous headache to support all those XP machines with a 9-year old OS that has been patched 500 times, creaky drivers, lots of software installed over the years with excessive privileges and DLL versions crapped all over, etc.

These numbers reinforce my impression that Win7 is getting sufficiently established. Those who don't move on to Win7 probably don't care enough to buy software either (at least in my market).

arethuza · on April 28, 2010

Doesn't surprise me - I would estimate:

- Average life of a PC - 5 years - Windows 7 has been out for 9 months - Most purchases will be as part of new PCs

So I would expect by this stage something like ((9/12) / 5) * 100 = 15%.

10% hardly seems surprising - neither good or bad.

Not that I am knocking Window 7 - I use it and think it is pretty good.