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Windows inertia is still very real

Windows users are a strange bunch.

When new versions of a product are released, complete with exciting new features, improved performance and a raft of other benefits, you would expect users to be keen as beans to upgrade.

This is how it works with software such as Davinci Resolve, the video editing software I use on a daily basis. Every time a new version (even a beta version) is announced, users rush to download it and upgrade.

So what is it about Windows users that makes so many of them swim against the tide?

Upgrade reluctance is a very real thing amongst Windows users and it has been around a very long time.

Take, for example, Windows XP.

When it was released, Windows XP represented a huge improvement over the versions that came before it and the uptake was pretty quick -- but then things stalled.

Perhaps people found XP to be so good that they simply didn't see the point in paying money to upgrade to the next version (Windows Vista) when it was launched. It didn't help that Vista was a piece of crap but never the less, huge numbers of users refused to upgrade and Vista was pretty much a failure. Virtually all the Vista installations were new machines that came with the OS pre-installed. Few, if any, Windows XP users bothered to buy into Vista.

Things improved when Windows 7 was launched. By this time even the most dedicated XP user was starting to realise that there were benefits to be had by updating their OS and now that they could skip past Vista, the migration began.

Once again however, Microsoft became a victim of its own success and as Windows 7 gained a growing user-base, people were more than satisfied with what they were using.

Then came Windows 8, another huge failure.

A wonky new desktop interface immediately alienated those who'd become very comfortable and happy using version 7. As with the move from XP to Vista, everything stalled. Nobody really wanted Windows 8 because version 7 was more than good enough. Even five years after it was launched, Windows 8 trailed Windows 7 in the hearts and minds of users.

For some reason, Microsoft completely abandoned the idea of releasing a version 9 of Windows and instead went straight to Windows 10.

Yet again, users of older versions were incredibly reluctant to upgrade to this new version.

How crazy was it that a quite significant number of Windows users were still clinging to version 7 some six years after its release and despite the all new "bells and whistles" version 10 being available for download.

Eventually most users upgraded from previous versions to Windows 10, although there are reportedly still a lot of people on Windows 7 to this day.

Now Windows 10 has reached "end of life" status so its users are effectively being forced to transition to Windows 11. That is not making everyone happy.

Windows 11 has even more telemetry and other intrusive elements than its predecessor and, even worse, it isn't certified to run on much of the hardware that previous versions would. For many Windows 10 users the road ahead is far from easy or obvious.

If you're still running hardware that is unsupported by Windows 11 then you can, of course, remain on version 10 but this means no more free security updates, something that could make you vulnerable to hacking.

Another option might be to kick Windows completely to the curb and install Linux.

Which is the best option?

That entirely depends on what you're doing with your computer and whether you can absorb the cost of the change. Linux may be free but there is a learning curve that could represent an appreciable cost in some situations.

As for me... well I can remain smug.

I switched to Linux for most of my work many, many years ago. There's no way I'd go back to Microsoft Windows even if you paid me to do so.

Sure, Linux isn't perfect -- in fact as I sit here this machine has almost totally consumed its 2GB of swap file because some programs like Firefox still have memory leaks that require an entire system reboot every couple of months. Damned frustrating!

However, as a Linux user I'm a much smaller target in the eyes of malware and virus writers so that fact, combined with the fairly solid security mechanisms built into Linux makes it far less likely that I'm going to become a "victim" while surfing the web.

Yes, I still have one machine that runs Windows here but that's solely used for video editing and is not used to access the Net so I'm not going to be worried by the lack of security updates for the Windows 10 running on that box.

Reports indicate that there has been a healthy uptick in the sales of new computers forced by the end of Windows 10 support so I guess there are some out there who are rubbing their hands with glee but for most users it's just another pain in the arse forced upgrade to Windows they may not want or need.

Carpe Diem folks!

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