Comment by askonomm
20 days ago
It's difficult to describe just how many people are using Windows not because they choose to, but because they have to. Whether it is because the corporations they work at only give them Windows PC's or because whatever software that they need only runs on Windows. Being able to choose your operating system that you also do work with is largely a luxury of software engineers, I think, but for your average Joe you get what you get, even if it sucks.
Microsoft has an amazing sales team forcing vendor lock-in at corporations, schools and governments all over the world, no wonder they get tons of users.
It's a luxury of market competition as well. Gamers can choose Linux thanks to Valve.
Most gamers rather chose PlayStation, Nintendo and XBox instead of Windows PC.
I believe it was only a year or two ago that a study showed PC gaming surpassed all consoles combined by a small amount by MaU
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If I didn't need to use Power BI or connect to various data sources in Excel I would have requested a MacBook at work years ago.
If you want games, you want Windows. Though Valve is finally chipping away at that.
But mostly it’s cost. It’s simply far cheaper to buy a Windows computer than a Mac if you just want a computer. There are no sub-$300 Macs brand new.
In so many ways, for so many reasons, people “must” use Windows.
It's cheaper to buy a Linux machine compared to a Windows machine by roughly the cost of the Windows license
Maybe in theory, or for power-users, or a couple niche company. In practice for the vast majority of people if it's not a Chromebook, then they're either buying a laptop or a pre-built tower, and it comes with Windows. It should be cheaper to buy a linux machine, but try and find a computer without an OS at Walmart.
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