On October 25, 2001, Windows XP was born , the operating system that over the years (and with the occasional Service Pack) would become a true success for Microsoft.
The company stopped supporting Windows XP in 2014, but that has not mattered: its market share, although low, is still surprising, and if not that they tell users in Armenia : 53.5% of their computers continue to use that version according to StatCounter.
In Armenia Windows XP is not used less and less: it is used more and more
Data from StatCounter GlobalStats reveals that the current share of Windows XP is 0.69% globally : it is not very far from that of Windows 8 / 8.1, and given that according to Microsoft there are 1.3 billion devices running Windows 10 ( whose current share is almost 78%), mathematics tells us that there are about 12 million computers around the world with Windows XP running.
The funny thing is that there are countries where the use of Windows XP is abnormally high. The most representative case is that of Armenia, whose Windows XP market share is currently 53.5% according to this analytics company. That share is much higher than that of Windows 10 (32.8%) in that country, and also far exceeds that of Windows 7 (11.97%).
Something strange actually happens in that country, because that share of Windows XP in fact has not been going down over the years, but it has been going up . This is revealed by tweets that precisely already highlighted this curious fact in previous years. In November 2018, the quota was 30% , in December 2019, 41% , and in June 2020, 43.44% . Amazing.
There are several reasons why Windows XP is still used
The truth is that the situation in Armenia is absolutely extraordinary and there does not seem to be a clear explanation for that market share that continues to rise: perhaps there is a problem with the StatCounter measurement systems in that region, but even ruling out that case, the truth is is that there are scenarios in which using Windows XP has a clear explanation.
The most common is that of systems that precisely depend on old operating systems to function properly . There are applications that were designed specifically to work in Windows XP and that perhaps have conflicts with new versions: this means that even with the compatibility options offered by modern editions of Windows these problems can not be solved.
For example, several Slashdot users commented on it. One of them told how he works in a laboratory that analyzes comets: the software was actually “tied” to Windows 95 and there was no way to use that tool in any other operating system than that: they still have a computer specifically for that.
That same researcher told how that laboratory has a microscopic camera that was designed to work with Windows XP : they never made drivers for Vista or Windows 7 and ended up using it in the latter operating system, but it “barely works” with that version.
Another user told how his music studio was still running on an old IBM PC with Windows XP , a couple of PCI audio cards and an old version of Reaper: “I don’t connect it to the internet and I don’t install anything or update it. Unlike a typical Windows installation has not slowed down over the years. ”
That dependency on hardware that only works with old drivers for old versions of Windows like XP is more common than it sounds, and although end users have much more freedom to “leave the past behind” and buy new devices, there are applications and systems. that depend on those old devices to keep working.