Windows 7 has been dead for years. Yet, ahead of Windows 10's end of support date, users are flocking back to it.

As the article notes, the increase seems to be driven mainly by users in Asia, where recycling and reusing older hardware is quite common. I wonder if third-party companies are offering extended security patches there, which could make affordable second-hand Windows 7 machines more appealing for people who just need them for browsing or light tasks. It would certainly make sense given recent fiascos and Microsoft’s current stance on AI, especially with generative AI being used to develop system-level code.

  • radix@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1343·
    13 hours ago
    • Windows 7 was used to browse more web pages on a subset of sites that use the Statcounter plugin, and mostly in one area of the world.

    But that doesn’t make a good headline.

      • The_Decryptor@aussie.zoneEnglish
        4·
        3 hours ago

        Ehh, bots have always presented nonsense UAs to servers. And since modern browsers hard-code the OS version in the UA string, pretending to be an old browser on an old OS could be a (probably ineffectual) way to bypass fingerprinting.

    • stupidcasey@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      8 hours ago

      Thanks Microsoft spokesman.

      Why is it that these scores are taken at face value until a corporation doesn’t like them? What you think 4% of a random set of servers suddenly started using Windows 7 to bot pages to drum up Windows 7 support?