The Evolution of Windows Operating Systems from 2003 to 2020

From a strictly chronological point of view, Windows has been with us for almost 35 years, but each new generation of users had a “first Windows” that defined their initial experience with a computer. The changes that have affected the operating system in the last twenty years have been gigantic, and that was also reflected in the popularity of specific versions. Today we are going to take a tour of the Windows adoption percentages from 2003 to date, highlighting the most important successes and their main failures.

Windows XP hit the shelves on October 25, 2001, a strange time on alert after the attack on the Twin Towers. At first there were not many reasons to welcome that operating system with warmth or enthusiasm, but within just five years, 87 out of every 100 computers had a copy of Windows XP on their hard drives. At that moment Microsoft concluded that XP was too popular for its own good, and launched Windows Vista as its replacement.

We all know what happened next, but we can always use a little help to visualize it. A small YouTube channel called Data Broz did just that by creating a chart with the evolution of Windows operating systems from 2003 to 2020. The growth of the yellow bar assigned to Windows XP is clearly impressive, but there are two ways to interpret Vista's numbers: for most users it was a failure that never exceeded 25 percent adoption, and for others, it is notable that it reached that 25 percent despite errors and performance problems.

Obviously, the launch of Windows 7 in October 2009 changed everything. Windows XP had already accumulated too many security crises, and rejection of Vista was still very strong. Windows 7 was an oasis in the desert: it took just eight months to surpass Vista in adoption, and in less than two years it had already left XP behind. What did Microsoft do? Repeat the cycle, and announce a new operating system at the best moment of the existing version.

Windows 8 debuted on October 26, 2012, but it was much more than a “new operating system”. Windows 8 symbolizes the worst of the so-called “touch crisis”, the lack of responses to the extraordinary advance of mobile devices, and the loss of relevance of the Windows ecosystem. Of course, that didn't stop Microsoft from moving more than 60 million licenses in less than four months. The chart makes the (wise) decision not to combine Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, released one year later.

And so we come to Windows 10, with its formal debut on July 29, 2015. The numbers for that operating system exploded for one reason, and that is that Microsoft virtually gave it away for a year (with many facilities to convert previous Windows 7 and 8.x licenses), although we cannot ignore aggressive tactics, the behavior of its updaters (very similar to malware), telemetry and data collection, the bugs, and the introduction of the highly questioned “Windows as a service” model.

Windows 10 surpassed Windows 7 in December 2017, and today it basically controls 70 percent of the Windows ecosystem. We don't like the idea too much, and it still has a lot to correct... but here we are.