Wait until January before you cast judgment on Windows 8, they said. That’s when the big boost from holiday sales will—or won’t—show up, and you’ll be able to get a better idea of how the operating system is doing. Well, Net Application’s January desktop usage data is in. What do the numbers show? Is Windows 8’s usage rate lagging?

It depends on how you look at it.

Net Applications

Let’s get the bleak news out of the way first. Three months after its release, Microsoft’s new-look operating system was found on 2.26 percent of all the traditional PCs tracked by Net Applications, whose web measurement network is comprised of 40,000 websites that receive roughly 160 million unique visits each month. By comparison, Windows 7 claimed a 7.57 percent browser share at its three-month mark, while Windows Vista was sitting slightly less pretty with a 3.3 percent share three months in.

The monthly gulf between Windows Vista’s uptake and Windows 8’s uptake is only widening, in other words. People still consider Windows Vista to be a stinker, rightly or wrongly, and that reputation no doubt helped to fuel Windows 7’s lightning-fast adoption. Conversely, Windows 7’s all-around excellence is likely holding back Windows 8—there simply isn’t a compelling reason to leap to Windows 8 and its redesigned modern UI if you’re a happy Windows 7 user.

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