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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[–] WhyYesZoidberg@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Enshittification will do that, yep

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 41 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 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 2 days ago (1 children)

M series chips on macbooks are likely helping more.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 33 points 2 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 2 days ago (7 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.

[–] bent@feddit.dk 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think thats exactly it. A lot of the people begrudgingly have a PC. I bet most of those just use whatever the PC came with. Linux and Mac users are more likely to enjoy using a PC.

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[–] DetectiveNo64@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 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.

[–] Octavio@lemmy.world 17 points 2 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 2 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"

[–] kaiserZak@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

We all use Linux here brother 😄 but to be fair, it's not that complicated. Find yourself some simple tutorial on webpage on other device and just follow step by step and everything should be okay :) At least for me was, when I was first moving to Linux 😄 get yourself some good beginner distro like Ubuntu or Fedora and you are good to go :) good luck on your journey brother 🫡

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[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 70 points 2 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 2 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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[–] StarryPhoenix97@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (10 children)

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

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I think it's more to do with phones - people are just more likely to do most tasks on a phone rather than a laptop.

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[–] XiozTzu@lemmy.world 45 points 2 days ago

They don’t care they have Azure now.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 32 points 2 days ago

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

[–] Notamoosen@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

I wonder how cloud accessibility plays into this. In the past if I had a dedicated windows app I might typically have maybe a hundred windows desktops accessing onsite servers. Nowadays I can replace that with thin clients and cloud based RDSH servers.

[–] youngalfred@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 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 2 days ago
[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 2 days ago

Welcome in from the cold. We have hot cocoa and blankets.

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