this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Microsoft EVP Yusuf Mehdi said in a blog post last week that Windows powers over a billion active devices globally. This might sound like a healthy number, but according to ZDNET, the Microsoft annual report for 2022 said that more than 1.4 billion devices were running Windows 10 or 11. Given that these documents contain material information and have allegedly been pored over by the tech giant’s lawyers, we can safely assume that Windows’ user base has been quietly shrinking in the past three years, shedding around 400 million users.

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[–] Totonator@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Would say that the businesses are still propping up Windows hard whilst the personal space is pretty much dying. I mean, most of the younger generation are using tablets or phones more than a PC these days. I would argue that unless you're in need of that power, those tablets or phones could do everything they need like drawing, gaming or streaming.

If businesses gave Microsoft the flick, it would devastate their bottom line a lot.

[–] aliser@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago

switched to Linux and don't regret it. fuck copilot, laggy ass UI, terabyte of ram usage, forced updates and any other bullshit they can come up with.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 125 points 5 days ago (8 children)

Everyone talking about how it's because of Windows 11 or their greed driving people away, etc. But they're ignoring the big one:

People don't need as many computers these days. You don't have a lot of households with a laptop for every member of the family because smartphones and tablets have replaced the PC for many people for media consumption and basic tasks.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yeah this happened in Japan way earlier. Japan got mobile internet much sooner than the rest of the world it was called i-mode. Which was launched in 1999. The home computer boom never happened there like it did in the West. Since everyone just uses their mobile phone to go in the internet and Japanese PCs were expensive. And doing work after hours at home wasn’t a thing since you do that at the office where your boss can see you putting in the work. The only PCs that sold reasonably well were VAIOs since those were relatively compact.

It’s also why computer literacy is very low in Japan, ask anyone who taught in Japan and they will tell you most Japanese high school students don’t know how to use a computer. Like the problems we are seeing now in the West with computer literacy among students they had for decades already.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 41 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (5 children)

I think you're right on this. People aren't moving away from MS because of their obnoxious behaviour. They're moving to alternate form factors and dealing with Apple's and Google's obnoxious behaviour instead. People are willing to put up with a metric ton of bullshit so they don't have to actually do anything for themselves.

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[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I keep having to remind people around me that phones are the primary computing device for an ever increasing percentage of the population.

Lemmy wants to rail on Windows 11 AND they talk shit about your average person not understanding filesystems.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world 13 points 5 days ago

Exactly. My wife hasn't used an actual computer more than a handful of times in the last several years. She does EVERYTHING on her smartphone.

I have never owned a laptop, because my desktop unit is where I do most of my business stuff, and when I'm away from that, my smartphone is good enough.

Of course, the most important thing isn't that we account for two less computers than a few years ago, but the smartphones that we have replaced laptops with, run Android. So that's actually a net loss of 4 MS products.

And after all these years, Windows products still make me frustrated and infuriated. You'd think they would have honed it to a perfect product by now, but every few years they completely reconfigure the UI, and make us have to navigate a whole new, buggy system.

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[–] fenrasulfr@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago

As much as I want to joke that it is the year of the Linux desktop, I think it is mostly because the younger you are the less likely you are to have a pc (so Windows, Mac, Linux and BSD for the dozens of you).

As far as I can see most of the time people use their phone for everything and only touch a pc for work or if they have a hobby that requires the use of a pc (gaming, digital art, music, programming, etc...).

[–] VeloRama@feddit.org 13 points 4 days ago

Win 11 got so bad over the last years that Linux is the better option now.

[–] lupusblackfur@lemmy.world 179 points 5 days ago (10 children)

If this calculation proves true, one would think losing close to 1/3 of its customers would cause M$ to rethink some of its business policies/plans...

Such as forcing folks to retire perfectly good hardware and buy new if they wish to run Windoze11.

But then again, it's M$... 🤷‍♂️ 🤦‍♂️

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 89 points 5 days ago (3 children)

1/3 of its Windows customers, not of all of its customers. I bet they still make plenty of money with Azure and Office 365.

[–] henfredemars 64 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Precisely. Windows is a side project for Microsoft now.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago (10 children)

Especially since the majority of computer users worldwide now no longer use a PC to do their computing. The average consumer now uses Windows only at work. Their personal device, whatever it is, runs Android or is some manner of iDevice, two platforms which have thoroughly eaten Microsoft's lunch.

It's too bad for Microsoft that their mobile platform -- Windows Mobile, er, I mean Windows 8 RT, er, actually it was Pocket PC, um, no wait, it was Windows CE, et. cetera -- all bombed so spectacularly, and the most recent one mere moments before Google took over the world.

I imagine Microsoft is no longer eyeing private users as a cash cow except purely as advertising targets.

It's only a matter of time before some brilliant dipshit over there manages to envision Windows as a subscription service aimed solely at businesses, and the days of Windows as a standalone OS will be over.

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[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 26 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

This will rely on having an executive team that can predict trends beyond the next quarter.

Doubling down on advertising, telemetry, and AI in an overly bloated OS looks really good if you only care about the profits that brings for the next 3 months, rather than how much your userbase resents it. MS is fully capable of turning this around immediately by just making LTSC available to the public without needing to buy a MAK through an enterprise channel, but that means throwing away some recurring revenue in favor of claiming a lost userbase

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[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 77 points 5 days ago (13 children)

We're in the process of moving to Linux in our company, entirely because of how aggressively awful Windows 11 is. We'd have been perfectly happy staying on Windows 10 forever, but last week our head of development woke up to discover that Windows 10 had spontaneously chosen to "upgrade" itself during the night without him agreeing to it.

[–] nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br 27 points 5 days ago

Wish you success in the migration

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[–] cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 61 points 5 days ago (5 children)

The search function has never been the same since vista. I'm not doing a web search from the search bar. I am specifically searching for files on my computer. F-off. And now I'm constantly asked to save to some cloud I don't give a shit about.

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[–] secretlyaddictedtolinux2@lemmy.world 91 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (9 children)

Hey, I have an idea that will help Microsoft:

why not add even more AI that logs everything and then reports it to the government through additional telemetry?

then they could even require the next edition to include a dedicated advertising GPU to take those logs and create tailored ads on the wallpaper as well as occasionally parse the logs and generate summaries for safety purposes!

that will bring the customers back and boost short-term profits too!

[–] Pirate@feddit.org 34 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You mother fucker... You're hired.

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[–] Sillyglow@lemmy.ca 42 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Forcing people to buy a new computer for nothing more than a security chip on the motherboard will do that

[–] NotANumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 5 days ago

They also had pretty strict CPU requirements. Mostly only 8th gen and newer, or a ryzen, would be required.

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What a well earned drop. They keep forcing their bullshit on us, of course we're interested in other OS's as a result.

I do use windows for most things, but my servers will never run anything but Linux at this point.

[–] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Funny thing. Back in the day, and possibly today, all windows Hotmail/Livemail servers were Linux.

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[–] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 43 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Just want to say, Google Docs is NOT free. Just because you don't send them money doesn't mean you aren't paying.

[–] hietsu@sopuli.xyz 34 points 5 days ago

What is free though is LibreOffice, or some Nextcloud document addons (to a degree) if ”cloud” is the thing.

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 70 points 5 days ago (3 children)

It sounds like a mixture of Chromebooks, and people simply not owning a traditional computer.

Either way, it seems to be mostly Google that's winning here.

[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 37 points 5 days ago (3 children)

These 2023 stats have Chromebook sales at only ~25M units globally, so this is probably the second scenarion, people decommissioning Windows computers and using the phone and/or tablet instead. https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/global-tablet-market-share-Q2-2023

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[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Just pure greed and giving users less and less control of an OS will push people away. It did for me outside of work. I don't have any reason to touch Windows that often.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago (3 children)

It's because most people use their phones as their main computing device these days. The idea that the average person would give up the convenience, stability, and familiarity of something like windows because of "pure greed" and "loss of OS control" is a fantasy. The average person would buy a screwdriver with banner ads if it saved them $10.

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[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

now they try to backtrack by giving another year of w10 updates if the user:

  1. logs in with the microsoft account
  2. enables backup to onedrive (presumably filling it so they can nag all the time "hey buy our cloud subscription")
  3. uses bing as default
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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 40 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

My new laptop came with Windows 11, but that’s gone now. Steamdeck must be helping with these figures too. Good work everyone.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

M series chips on macbooks are likely helping more.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The article says Mac sales are declining too.
Apparently most of the decline is people that are simply ditching their PC because they don't need it anymore.

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago (8 children)

People ditching their PC because they don't need it anymore doesn't explain that the relative share of Mac and Linux has increased for the past 15 years though. Unless for some reason Windows users are more likely to ditch their PC because they don't need it than Mac or Linux users.

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[–] XiozTzu@lemmy.world 45 points 5 days ago

They don’t care they have Azure now.

[–] WhyYesZoidberg@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Enshittification will do that, yep

[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 32 points 5 days ago (12 children)

It's Linux for me but I also have to assume tablet culture plays a role too.

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[–] Etterra@discuss.online 32 points 5 days ago

It's almost like if you piss off your users then they'll ditch you.

[–] Octavio@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I haven’t had windows for 5 or 6 years when I switched to Mac. But earlier this year I bought a cheap Windows 11 machine because Windows was required for a contract I thought I was going to get (but didn’t). I was going to return it but thought meh it might be nice to have a personal laptop I can play around with. But I was unimpressed with Windows 11 so much that it mostly gathers dust now.

I’m thinking this is the perfect opportunity to take the plunge into Linux. Has anyone on here used Linux and have any advice?

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 13 points 5 days ago

As everyone here will say. Go with linux mint. Haven't used windows in months now and when I do need to its generally way more of a pain to do anything. Plus. Ms wants to shove their shitty ai in my face at all times (so they can recoup the billions they've most pouring into a buzzword). So I refuse to use it.

You will need to have a learning curve with linux. Is basically a German car:" oh wow, this is so genius I love how this was designed! "And then "why the hell do i need a custom 12 pt socket to get this one bolt and why is it completely inaccessbile just to change a brake rotor"

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[–] DetectiveNo64@lemmy.ca 15 points 5 days ago

I'll be joining soon enough, going to dual boot with Linux. Only keeping windows for games that won't work on Linux.

[–] youngalfred@lemmy.zip 28 points 5 days ago (8 children)

No source for the blog post. Here it is: windows blog

Note that the number has been updated, and at the bottom they state that that figure has been updated.

The original text said 'over a billion'. 1.4 billion is over a billion.

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[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 27 points 5 days ago
[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)
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