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.
It’s from people ditching home PCs for phones and tablets. That’s it. End of story. There are no significant numbers of people switching to Linux. They simply with to no PC.
10-15 years ago I could have made an OK living fixing home computers. That time is long past.