Windows XP turns 25. It's still beating Windows 8 in market share

PCWorld notes that Windows XP is celebrating its 25th anniversary, having officially launched on October 25, 2001, and it remains a legendary piece of software history. Built on the stable Windows NT architecture, XP delivered fewer crashes than Windows 98 or ME, transforming computing through reliability and lasting popularity. Remarkably, Statcounter shows 0.09 percent of users still run Windows XP today, meaning it still edges out Windows 8 in market share. This fall marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of Windows XP, an event worthy of commemoration. Computer manufacturers gained access to this classic operating system on August 24, 2001, but it wasn't available for purchase until October 25th of that same year. Unlike its predecessors Windows 95, 98, and ME, Windows XP was based on Windows NT, which meant fewer system crashes and greater security. Microsoft called Windows XP " the most important version of Windows ever," and in retrospect, that was no exaggeration. Windows XP proved so popular that support for it was repeatedly extended, and even today there are some users who stubbornly cling to this iconic version. According to the latest data from Statcounter, 0.09 percent of the population still uses Windows XP, compared to 0.02 percent for Windows 8, which was released 11 years later.