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The October operating system market share statistics from Net Applications only contain 6 days of data for Windows 8, but so far, the adoption rate for the new OS appears sluggish in comparison to Windows 7's first days. Net Applications also reported that during October Windows 7 made some gains among users, while Windows XP usage declined.

Gerald Lynch from TechDigest noted, "Windows 8 is being installed by users at a rate 5 times slower than that seen following the launch of predecessor Windows 7, a new report has suggested. Net Applications' data monitoring services have spotted that by the end of October, only 0.45 per cent of all PCs were running the latest OS from Microsoft. Compare that to 2.33 percent by the end of October for Windows 7, and it's certainly a slower start for Windows 8."

"However," The Borneo Post cautioned, "the comparison is tempered by slightly differing launch dates. Windows 7 arrived on the Oct. 22 that year, while Windows 8 only went public on last Friday, Oct. 26."

Computerworld's Gregg Keizer wrote, "Driven by millions of upgrades, Windows 8's global usage share climbed by a third last month, but the new OS's adoption pace remained lethargic compared to that of its predecessor three years ago." He added, "Windows 8's jump, small as it was in absolute terms, could be attributed to the large number of upgrades sold so far. On Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the company had sold 4 million upgrades to Windows 8 Pro in the first three days of availability."

Looking at additional data from Net Applications, CNET's Lance Whitney reported, "As recorded by Web tracker Net Applications, Windows 7 scored a market share of 44.7 percent last month, a slight gain from September's 44 percent. Over the same time, XP's share fell from 41.2 percent to 40.7 percent. Though the gap between September and October is hardly earth-shaking, the numbers show that Windows 7 is slowly grabbing more users from the now 11-year-old XP."