Windows 11 doesn’t even have a firm release date yet, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that it’s already proving incredibly popular.
During an earnings call with investors, where the company was celebrating an extremely successful quarter, Nadella provided an interesting insight showing that the future looks bright for the next generation of Windows.
“More people have downloaded our early builds than any other Windows release or update in the history of our Insider tester program,” Nadella told investors. “And, along with our OEM ecosystem, we’re excited to bring Windows 11 to new PCs beginning this holiday.”
A high number of people downloading early builds is actually a fairly neutral statistic, of course. It doesn’t say whether people are liking what they’re experiencing, and really only indicates that they’re curious about what’s coming down the road – which is hardly surprising given this is the follow up to an OS which was once billed as the “last version” of Windows.
All the same, hype is certainly important to software’s success, and word of mouth could lead to people upgrading to Windows 11 more quickly than the move to Windows 10, which proved something of a slow burn, despite being offered as a free upgrade to owners of Windows 7 and 8. Once again, Windows 11 will be a free upgrade to users of Windows 10.
No firm release date has been provided, though it’s notable that Nadella did repeat the “this holiday” window which was first mentioned when the software was unveiled last month.
Just because it’s available “this holiday” doesn’t mean you’ll actually get it on release day, though. As with the rollout of Windows 10, Microsoft will be staggering the upgrade so it may be some time before you’re accessing an official build yourself. If you want it sooner, you can always join the early adopters by downloading the Windows 11 beta.