On eve of Windows 8 launch, adoption numbers are less than stellar
(Read article summary)Microsoft will release the Windows 8 operating system later this month. But it may be having trouble ginning up interest in the OS.
Well, things could be worse for Microsoft and its forthcoming Windows 8 operating system, but they certainly could be a whole lot better.
According to the analytics firm Net Applications, a mere 0.33 percent of PCs running Windows in September were running a preview or advance version of Windows 8. As Gregg Keizer of Computerworld points out today, that's a far cry from the 1.67 percent of computers running a beta edition of Windows 7 in the run-up to the release of the last Microsoft OS.
Some caveats: Windows 8 does not officially launch until Oct. 26. Plenty of folks don't bother to download beta versions of an operating system – they'd rather wait for the real thing. (Windows 8 went into Consumer Preview in February.) Still, Preston Gralla, a columnist at Computerworld, argues that while Windows 8 is a "winner" on tablet computers, the PC version of the operating system is underpowered and difficult to navigate.
