Fashion trends may go out of style, but for operating systems, it’s a different story. According to a recent survey, almost half of Windows users are still running Windows XP on their computers, even with the forthcoming arrival of Windows 8 and Mac OX X Lion.
And we all know Windows XP is so last decade.
Even with the advent of six new versions of Apple’s (News 
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Meanwhile, Windows 7 comes in close with 36.5 percent of users holding on tight, and only 7.1 percent still stuck on Windows Vista.
It’s hard to tell what’s stopping users from adopting newer versions of the Windows operating systems. According to Yahoo News, many users who initially embraced Vista ended up returning to XP following the emergence of issues.
While Windows 8 is designed to be tailored for touch-centric hardware, it isn’t garnering rave reviews from loyal Windows developers and tech insiders. According to a Business Insider report, and as reported by TMCnet, Windows 8 will now run on a range of different hardware, such as traditional Intel (News - Alert) x86 chips, new Intel systems-on-a-chip, and at least four different flavors of ARM. This means programming will be quite tedious for developers, whom will be required to recompile their code for each platform and possibly have to rewrite portions that don’t work.
The next-generation platform is expected to feature quick launching of apps on a tile-based start screen, replacing the traditional Windows start menu; Web-connected and Web-powered apps; and complete touch-optimized browsing with the power of Internet Explorer 10.
TMC’s (News - Alert) own Tom Keating voiced his thoughts on the new version, in which he boldly stayed, “I hate it.” And, it seems he may follow suit with many of the users whom have chosen to stick with the familiar:
“It's designed with a touch Windows tablet (i.e. iPad) in mind,” Keating wrote in his blog. “The Start Menu is replaced by these humongous graphical tiles taking up way too much screen real-estate. All I have to say is Windows Classic Mode is looking good!”
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Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Stefanie Mosca
