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Whoa! Windows 7's market share surged, tripling in users last month (www.pcworld.com)
submitted 2 days ago by spicehoarder@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world
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As the article notes, the increase seems to be driven mainly by users in Asia, where recycling and reusing older hardware is quite common. I wonder if third-party companies are offering extended security patches there, which could make affordable second-hand Windows 7 machines more appealing for people who just need them for browsing or light tasks. It would certainly make sense given recent fiascos and Microsoft’s current stance on AI, especially with generative AI being used to develop system-level code.

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[-] FalseTautology@lemmy.zip 1 points 44 minutes ago

JFC I wish I could go back to win 7, I had to get win 11 and I've never hated an os like this in my life. My favorite part is how I have no control over it changing the things I actually use. No sorry, my favorite part is how right around the time an update is about to come out my windows starts crashing and locking up. It's amazing.

[-] DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 12 points 17 hours ago

I don’t get why people prefer to go to an unsafe version of windows instead of trying Linux. Nowadays there is many friendly distro.

[-] bytesonbike@discuss.online 1 points 2 hours ago

Lack of education and training really.

I only knew of Linux because I saw some dude use Linux in 2012. And then a few years later, I finally decided to try it out as it was easier for work. After a lot of false starts, I finally started switching around 2021.

Going to imagine most people are the same - get experience from it and then have a reason to use it daily.

[-] kepix@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago

win7, my beloved. that uxtheme.dll got patched so many times...

[-] polle@feddit.org 16 points 1 day ago

A friend of mine was still on win7 and just recently made the switch to linux. In the end the issue was that most of the software stopped working.

[-] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 5 points 19 hours ago

I hated when software didn't work on Windows. After switching to Linux my mouse, keyboard, monitor, hard drive, OS, and software don't work 😂

(this comment is a joke I love 🐧)

[-] NateNate60@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

They should make a Windows version called Windows 10P which is the same as Windows 10 but only the bare-bones necessities and no extra crap or required online services, and sell it for $59.99 (seeing that Windows is already de facto freeware). That's probably an order of magnitude than what they make from intrusive advertising anyway to a single user over the lifespan of a computer.

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

This already exists, and it doesn't cost $60. What you want is the Windows 10 IoT LTSC Edition.

https://massgrave.dev/.

(Brought to you by Carl's, Jr.)

[-] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Why do you keep saying that? Lol

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

I don't know, but I find myself mentioning it often enough I feel like somebody ought to be paying me for it.

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

I use this on my DJ laptop. It's nice because it doesn't constantly bother you with bullshit, and is extremely stable.

Anyone still stuck on 10 who isn't ready for Linux just yet should give LTSC a try. You'll probably like it. It's not going away anytime soon, either, because it is used in mission critical things like ATMs and cash registers that need to just work without being bothered with constant updates and reboots nor being bombarded with ads.

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

No way they will do that. The value for microsoft these days is in harvesting their victims info and forcing them in to their walled garden.

[-] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 2 points 1 day ago

Computers that are too new for Windows 7 come with Windows 10 preinstalled on them though. Who would buy an extra copy? You can debloat Windows 10 with a debloater tool

[-] NateNate60@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

People who build their own computers, AKA the group most likely to complain about this

[-] jaxxed@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

It would be of lower value to them without the data-gathering and the AI injection.

The data makes them money. The AI helps th justify their investment, but also gives them data to ad to their models.

[-] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 18 points 1 day ago

Nobody should be using old versions of Windows that no longer get security updates. Either switch to Linux and install all of the latest security updates, or enable the coming year of security updates on Windows 10, or run Windows 11.

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago

Agree for a main computer but there's no risk when using Windows 7 or XP on an offline machine.

[-] filcuk@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago

If it were offline machines, then they wouldn't be on these statistics

[-] SleafordMod@feddit.uk 5 points 1 day ago

Fair point, I guess some people might want to do that to play old games or something like that.

[-] radix@lemmy.world 194 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
  • Windows 7 was used to browse more web pages on a subset of sites that use the Statcounter plugin, and mostly in one area of the world.

But that doesn't make a good headline.

[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Could it be that something is spoofing a Win7 signature?

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I personally just edited the registry to stop my Win10 upgrading to 11. If it fails, it's Manjaro time.

[-] kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago

Manjaro might not be the best starting point tbh. So many better choices.

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

It's not that I'm disagreeing with you. I'm just not agreeing with you.

I personally think that (as unpopular an opinion as it may be) Flatpak's largely make the choice of first distro irrelevant. The weakness in Manjaro is that you either risk using the AUR or stay on old versions of the software. Or with Mint/Ubuntu/etc... you either risk adding random repos to your sources list or you use older versions of the software.

Either way, you run the risk of a new person mucking up their system with a bad repo or a bad aur package.

The alternative, using flatpaks, largely solves both issues for when you need newer versions of a certain software, and are dead simple to install/remove/update, etc...

And I say this as someone who was super skeptical of flatpak's for a very very long time.

[-] kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 hours ago

The weakness in Manjaro is that you either risk using the AUR or stay on old versions of the software.

That is part of it yes. But Manjaro has so many other things specially new users will not expect and know how to fix, It is not a great starting point as they claim it is. From DDOS'ing the AUR to forcing users to rollback time because they let ssl certificates expire. their are many things they dont do right and for new users this can be a major turn of when they are hit with these issues. for a distro aiming to be arch but user friendly. And the user doesn't have to do anything weird for these things to happen just use your system as you would no AUR and update and break the system. this has happened so often with Manjaro that i would steer away from it unless you know how to manually fix those breakages. but at that point just use arch.

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[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 days ago

I think that it's a possibility for the rest of the world.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 days ago

Still, it's unusual for that to happen.

[-] The_Decryptor@aussie.zone 14 points 1 day ago

Ehh, bots have always presented nonsense UAs to servers. And since modern browsers hard-code the OS version in the UA string, pretending to be an old browser on an old OS could be a (probably ineffectual) way to bypass fingerprinting.

[-] Kailn@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 1 day ago

So more ppl are re-purposing old, legacy win7 machines despite security risk...
Completely clueless about anything linux or floss in that matter wether even if there where lighter distros with better hardware support & enough apps for everyday office needs & more.

Like win7 can't even run any UWP apps, photoshop or steam anymore.
It's great livin' in 2025

[-] rozodru@piefed.social 10 points 1 day ago

within the past month? what all these people in Asia suddenly found a stockpile of machines with Win7 on them and all, collectively, decided "yeah lets just use these"?

I don't buy it.

[-] themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 14 hours ago

It is spoofed someone wants people to thinks it it Windows 7.

[-] carrylex@lemmy.world 41 points 2 days ago

[-] BilSabab@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

It's almost as if there's a demand for meat and potatoes OS.

[-] Luci@lemmy.ca 86 points 2 days ago

It’s okay, Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows you’ll need!!!

[-] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 84 points 2 days ago

It was. Linux Mint has been beautiful since I switched last year. Certainly nicer than windows.

[-] Marshezezz 27 points 2 days ago

My laptop runs so much better now with Mint after getting rid of windows

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[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 61 points 2 days ago

Possibly from people booting up 15 year old laptops to see if they‘re still running so they can install linux on them before trying it on the big machine. Yes, this is my made up narrative but I believe that more than in a Win7 comeback.

[-] TaterTot@piefed.social 31 points 2 days ago

Year of the Windows 7 Desktop?!

[-] mormund@feddit.org 25 points 2 days ago

Don't have a link to the thread on Mastodon, but it was only in Singapore. So it is likely a troll or some glitch.

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this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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