Yet another sensationalist headline – e.g., Windows 10 usage share climbs while Windows 11’s falls – is doing the rounds, suggesting that Windows 11’s user base is shrinking with a corresponding increase in Windows 10 users. These headlines are predicated on numbers provided by StatCounter, which are inherently flawed.
To use StatCounter’s numbers to produce these types of clickbait headlines is totally misleading, bordering on unethical:
- StatCounter has never been set up to collate “market share”
- StatCounter’s core business model is to provide a subscription service to analyze traffic for individual websites
- StatCounter counts only pageviews, as its business model dictates
- StatCounter only monitors a tiny percentage (around .003%) of websites, most of which are smaller websites
- Any browser or browser extension that blocks tracking also blocks StatCounter
What rankles me is that most, if not all, of these tech writers are well aware of StatCounter’s shortcomings yet continue to prioritize clicks over and above accuracy, producing clickbait titles backed up by totally misleading data.
BOTTOM LINE:
No, Windows 11’s user base hasn’t suddenly declined, with Windows 10’s user base increasing exponentially. The truth of the matter is that StatCounter is incapable of producing market share numbers with any degree of accuracy, and because of its methodology, it will almost always produce wildly fluctuating numbers from month to month.
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Thanks Jim
I’ve waited until now to move to Windows 11. I pay no mind to whatever the statistics say. We all know that even the best statistics can be made to show whatever you want. I make the decisions for myself based on my own knowlege and research.
I was going to stick with extending Windows 10 on a couple of my machines still running it but given there is no real advantage over doing so and Windows 11 is now a stable platform (as much as anything Microsoft can be considered stable) I bit the bullet and upgraded for free. The upgrade went without any issues that I noted (of course I imaged the drives for safety before the move).
To be honest Windows 11 is really just Windows 10 with a facelift and that is why the switch is really just ho-hum. The underlying structure seems much the same. This is just one reason why gaming and other benchmarking programs don’t produce much difference between the two systems. I have software that keeps Windows 11 looking the way I like it and not how the Dark Lords at Redmond would love to have it foisted on us.
It won’t be long and we’ll be going through all this again with Windows 12 with warnings about Windows 11 EOL. Such fun !
Cheers
Reg
I think the choice should be yours if you want to change, and those who are happy with Windows 10 should be allowed to continue as a Pensioner. I don’t do gaming or complicated programs. Yes, Microsoft wants to keep up with technology, but what about us old people who just want a simple program?
Mary