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Windows 11 just lost 5% market share in two months despite Windows 10 losing support.
(www.windowscentral.com)
According to Statcounter, Windows 11 held a 55.18% market share in October 2025. That share dropped to 53.7% in November and dropped again in December. Now, Windows 11 holds a 50.73% market share.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide
Many are rollback to Windows 10, but Linux is increasing as well.
https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide
I imagine this is why MS is finally backtracking a bit on the aggressive pushing of AI in every app. They're doing Clippy all over again, but OS-wide this time.
Just impressive how hard they managed to screw the pooch here. Have they forgotten that every other Windows release is universally hated? They had a good thing going until they discontinued Windows 10 before Windows 12 was out. Now they'll probably need to rush out another version, because the name Windows 11 is forever tainted.
The thing that's driving me away from windows is how pushy it's gotten. Forced updates, ads, AI, OneDrive, and subscriptions. I just want to be able to turn on MY computer and do what I want or need without having my guard up that I can't trust my home PC with my privacy.
Windows 11 is ok, but is frustrating to use and I can't trust it not to screw with settings and there seems to be something annoying added instead of something useful with every update. I also hate the Settings menu, it's like an unhelpful layer between you and Control Panel the eventually will take you to the same place but took 5 more clicks and searching through drop downs for a link to what you needed.
Win10 LTSC IOT has support until like 2032, and doesn't have any of that pushy bullshit. It's free to pirate btw.
This is the way
Eh, if you're not able to make the jump to linux ig.
+1. I ragequit windows when it reinstalled Teams during an OS update, just after i uninstalled it.
I discovered that there's a separate application which just reinstalls Teams all the time. I don't remember the name, but it had Teams in the name. After I uninstalled that it finally stopped popping up.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/answers/questions/5605606/how-to-stop-ms-teams-launching-at-startup-and-rein
Apparently:
It's called something like Teams System-Wide Installer, at least it used to be. Who knows, now. It is now a hidden app that won't show under programs and features. I had to figure that shit out at work cause originally it only installed per user and my work wanted our users to start using it and make sure they didn't need to go looking for it. Once it got bundled with the Office install I no longer had to care!
That's probably my main issue with Windows : Its ability to change settings on its own.
I feel like I have almost not control over my OS. It's not a tool that helps me do stuff, it's a dumb assistant that thinks he understands what I'm trying to achieve.
"Oh you plugged a PS5 Dual Sense controller I see, let me switch your microphone to the controller even though you are actively already using another one".
"Oh you put your computer in sleep before going to bed? Let me switch it on In the middle of the night to update, we will call that a mandatory maintenance because you can't disable that feature".
I really need to spend more time on my Linux boot rather than this shitty W10 setup".
I finally kicked Windows after 30 years because I have to use windows 11 for work, and it fails at almost everything an operating system should be. Search doesn't work right. Applications don't work right. Basic UI is buggy and inconsistent. It's the most expensive piece of software I use. Using 2 cores and 7GB of RAM at idle is unacceptable for an operating system. It's the equivalent of running Skyrim all the time in the background. It actively tries to undermine my privacy, and instead of using that data to enhance my UX, it spams targeted ads at me in my fucking taskbar. Windows 11 is basically a SmartTV in terms of privacy and functionality at this point. It actively gets in the way of you using the hardware, and to no tangible benefit. Worse, it's become clear that Microsoft recognizes this, and is actively pursuing and expanding the capabilities, with no intent to make a good OS in the future.
I'm out.
Windows update are starting to feel like updates to Pixel phones: what horrible shit is coming next?
The reason why Windows is pushy is because the average user needs it to be.
Updates would never get installed, unless Microsoft forces them to.
They would lose their files, unless Microsoft pushes OneDrive.
And all of them would blame Microsoft for their own ineptitude.
It is easy for techy people to keep their computer functioning properly. But Windows isn't just used by those people.
I would say that it's as simple as adding a prompt during initial user setup with check boxes. Would you like windows to handle XYZ for you? Instead of assuming all users just want to use their computers to become influencers and forcing frustrating problems onto everyone.
It may have started out with "hey we are doing this for your own good" to now it's "how can we exploit ignorance and data mine our users and put ads on the desktop?"
There are alternatives, you can see the alternatives on display in various Linux distros, and hell, even Mac OS. The thing is that with Windows Microsoft doesn't want you to think of an alternative.
It's simply not true that the only way to do computing is to force everyone to use your trashy software or be nagged about it during every upgrade.
They are only doing this because they have the average user by the balls. Hopefully, Linux continues to get better and then that won't be the case anymore either.
If Linux could run AutoCAD and didn't have issues with anti cheat programs then I probably would have fully committed to the switch.
Before any says anything, yes I know there are CAD alternatives but all of my custom tools only work in AutoCAD and I have no idea how to recreate half of them if I had to and I wouldn't know how to do it in another app anyway. Plus AutoCAD is the industry standard so for compatibility reasons, I'm locked in.
I like that Linux isn't designed for the lowest common denominator. Windows frustrated me as much with the stuff that was designed for the stupid as the stuff that was designed to make them money, just the second one ended up dominating in the end. But I remember the earlier frustrations often having the thought "I bet they just changed this to reduce support calls from people who don't know wtf they are doing".
I'll agree on the update thing, but absolutely NOT on any of the other parts. Things like OneDrive are ENTIRELY about money.
With the update thing, even "pros" were incredibly lazy with updates in the past. Having automatic updates at least as the default is entirely correct.
Do you have a source for that backtracking about AI? I think they did not mention that explicitly. Instead they were talking about unrelated improvements. The CEO is still in denial about AI bloat. He seems unable to comprehend that people don't like to be force fed AI everywhere across the OS.
They're not in denial. They know no one wants it. They all do. They just don't care because pretending like they do is extremely profitable in the fucked up modern economy we live in.
I think that Satya Nadella and a lot of other CEO types genuinely believe in AI, as misguided as it seems. This is more about who they choose to listen too than having an actual understanding of the technology and its limits. And probably some FOMO sprinkled on top.
Sam Altman knows what's up though and so does Jensen Huang. In this gold rush one is peddling the fake gold and the other is selling the shovels.
Agree to disagree, I suppose. I believe the Anthropic guy because he's actually quite nuts about it. Nvidia is the only company that's actually going to make money here, selling shovels, as you said.
Yeah the Antrophic guys are also firmly in the "believer" group.
https://pureinfotech.com/microsoft-windows-11-ai-brakes-copilot-recall/
Note that this article completely buries the lede. This is the last paragraph:
The reason they're having second thoughts is due to enterprise customers, who are the only customers they really care about the opinion of. If it was just home users complaining, they would not be adjusting course.
It's not just AI, W11 is slow and unfriendly in general
Yep. Everything that runs in windows 10 runs worse on Windows 11 and y are getting nothing in return. My work PC can barely manage a big spreadsheet now.
I use VMs to program industrial PLCs and I find it outrageous that performance today is worse than what it was 10 years ago with the same software
Yeah, for a while I was looking for any benefits to moving from win 10 to 11. 7 to 10 had kernel and scheduler improvements, for example.
Only ones I could find were the virtual desktop support (though I had an alternative desktop back in the XP or Vista days that supported that, so not really groundbreaking), and WSL, which I didn't have any use cases for.
Other than that, it was just shit I didn't want. Copilot, recall, more UI changes that don't really add anything (on my work laptop where I didn't have a choice, first thing I did was go into the UI options and undo as much as I could). One of the things I used to like about windows was that it wasn't a mac, but the UI changes look like that's their inspiration. The inspired folks porbably all left already.
Wait, what do you mean? 10 had virtual desktops and WSL (LSW!) too
So yeah, they built a new product and tried to force everyone to use it, when it had no improvements for the users whatsoever. And surprise, no one is excited to use it.
I liked Clippy. I hate AI
๐I see you are nostalgic for your youth and how programs were tools and not spyware to track and target you. Maybe I can help with that ๐ฎโโ๏ธ๐ฎโโ๏ธ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐