The news has come down that Windows 8.1 may be getting somewhat more popular. Well at least it’s on more computers than OS X Mavericks, based on a survey from Net Applications, which records Web traffic. While this may be considered significant to some, it’s really not so significant, particularly when you compare Microsoft’s latest and greatest to the legacy operating systems that still dominate.

The survey, which is only as good as the Net Applications sampling scheme, concludes that Windows 8.1, which is a free upgrade for Windows 8 users in addition to being preloaded on new PC boxes, has a 2.64% share, compared to Mavericks, which has a share of 2.42%. But total Windows 8/8.1 market share is 9.3%, which means a high number of PC users have yet to install the free upgrade, which was released in October.

Before I go on, though, I’m sure most of you realize that there are many times more Windows PCs than Macs out there, so this development may not be as significant as implied by some of the lurid headlines you read. You see, as of the first month since Mavericks was released as a free download, it was installed on nearly a third of all Macs still in use. It took five months for 10.9’s predecessor, Mountain Lion, to reach that figure.

To put things in perspective, Windows Vista, generally regarded as an embarrassing failure for Micorsoft, still has a 3.57% share. Yet Windows 7 remains on top with 46.6%, and Windows XP, circa 2001, has a 31.2% share.

So consider that Windows XP is found on roughly the same percentage of PCs still in use as Mavericks on Macs; the latter being just weeks old. Now do you see the distinction? Indeed, the continued popularity of this old version of Windows has to serve as a continued embarrassment to Microsoft, which has established an end of life status for XP as of April 8, 2014. Sure, Windows 7 has moved ahead by a fair margin, but the larger question is whether that number will dip or businesses will continue to demand that older versions of Windows be installed on new PCs.

After all, Microsoft has really yet to make a compelling case for Windows 8/8.1 in the enterprise. The controversial tiled interface, formerly known as Metro, may be consumer friendly, but it’s a huge question mark how that helps a business. The current version of Microsoft Office still operates in the Windows 8.1 desktop layer, with only passing lip service for touchscreens. No wonder the Surface tablet has been a failure, although the closeout gear, at $199, seems to be doing fairly well at Best Buy. Convertible PC note-books, which combine the functions of a bloated tablet with a traditional portable computer, only occupy roughly 10% of the market. This despite the fact that the new version of Windows is more suited to touchscreens than a mouse or trackpad.

Now nobody should be surprised that Windows 8.1 is growing at a passable rate, and that rate should increase during the holiday season. New PCs ship with the current version of Windows. Business users may be able to buy hardware with Windows 7, or require the downgrade, though they may just wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS and software from a customized disk image. That will ensure consistency, but it sure won’t help improve the adoption rate for Windows 8.1.

It’s also true that PC sales have been in the doldrums. Sure, Mac sales were down the last quarter too, and it may well be that these trends won’t change. The best Apple can do is to reduce the erosion. But, in large part, people like OS X Mavericks, and the latest Macs are fast and power efficient, with a little help from 10.9 of course. In contrast, Windows 8.1 isn’t getting the love from media pundits, although it’s clearly somewhat better than the original Windows 8 release.

Where Microsoft will take this is not certain. There are published reports that the Windows RT OS, the one for ARM processors, may be history. Does that mean that Windows Phone will somehow be revised to function efficiently on tablets? That would seem to actually make sense since Windows smartphones are actually decent products, with elegant hardware, and the OS gets pretty favorable reviews overall even though it is somewhat behind iOS and Android in offering the latest and greatest features.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s search for a new CEO continues. You almost think the company is in a waiting mode, although the Xbox One gaming console has earned quick sales, and has received mostly favorable ratings. But would the new CEO have to pledge to continue existing policies, such as completing the purchase of Nokia’s handset division? After all, if an incoming chief executive wasn’t given the freedom to rebuild Microsoft and fix ongoing problems with Windows and mobile hardware, it would be equivalent to taking a job with one’s hands tied behind their back.

So what if the new Microsoft CEO decided to kill the tablets, abort the Nokia sale (though the contract probably makes this move impossible), and order up a refined version of Windows 7 to succeed Windows 8? Since I’m not a corporate CEO and don’t play one on radio or TV, I wouldn’t presume to guess. Meanwhile, the latest Windows 8.1 numbers don’t really provide much in the way of good news for Microsoft.

When my long-time friend Kirk McElhearn, a prolific author and commentator, told me ahead of doing an episode for The Tech Night Owl LIVE this week, that he had purchased an Android smartphone, I paused for as second. After a very few high-profile Mac journalists made well-publicized switches from the iPhone to Android earlier this year, I wondered whether Kirk would be among them.

But he was merely doing what I did last February, which was to have an extended exposure to that other mobile platform. My move become possible because Samsung’s PR agency was only too happy to send me two of their flagship Galaxy handsets for review. I could even hang onto them for a while if I only added the units to my wireless account. So I proceeded to retire an iPhone 4S, and give Android its due.

As most of you know, I attempted to largely duplicate the iPhone experience on Google’s platform with mixed success. I never found an email app that was truly reliable, although one, InoMail, did make a worthy effort to duplicate the look and feel of Mail for iOS. Worse, some apps, such as Time magazine and GCN’s player software, which streams their 70 network radio shows, wouldn’t work reliably, or, in the case of the latter, at all.

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There’s a story this week suggesting that the non-appearance of an Apple branded TV set means the company is losing the battle to control your living room. This theory presupposes that other companies have solved the problem in innovative ways, and that nothing Apple can do would offer a better solution.

Have they?

I suppose the Xbox One might be considered a potential competitor, although it’s first and foremost a gaming console despite the ability to run TV content, and Blu-ray discs. The fundamental problems of the aging living room environment remain unresolved. It’s a sure thing that a set top box from Apple or Roku will give you alternatives to traditional TV fare, but they don’t quite replace the cable or satellite services for most people. Cord cutters have to do without or be creative about getting the shows want to watch by using several services. Doing more things to achieve the same result is not a simpler solution.

All right, so TV makers are busy adding content to their “smart” sets, but it’s just a built-in solution to what Roku is doing, which is to add lots of streaming services. But it may also be true that at least one TV maker, LG — and likely more — are busy recording your viewing habits to deliver targeted ads or otherwise serve the masters from Google and other companies who perhaps subsidize those super cheap sets. Profits in the TV business are quite low these days, competition is cutthroat. Sure, you can buy top quality gear really cheap, but someone has to make up the difference.

So what is Apple’s solution? What secret did Steve Jobs “crack” before he died to provide the best TV solution ever, the best interface? Where is it?

It would seem that today’s Apple TV isn’t providing an answer. It’s hardly changed at all except for the addition of more channels, but that doesn’t make it especially different from other set top accessories, other than offering content from iTunes. Yes, AirPlay is neat, being able to stream stuff from your Mac, iPad or iPhone and all, but that is just a way to get more stuff to the TV set, not offer a smoother, more integrated solution.

Google’s Chromecast, the cheapest alternative, isn’t providing a unique solution either. It also seems that image quality doesn’t quite match an Apple TV or Roku.

Aside from Apple’s magic interface, when and if it ever appears in a shipping product, just how does a prettier or more intuitive environment change the TV/living room paradigm? Does it offer an easier way for you to get all of your content from a single product, without having to browse through dozens of apps and services? What about accessory devices, such as the gaming console or Blu-ray player? Well, iTunes offers the same current movies as you can buy on physical media, although it’s lacking in older content. Besides, customers may have invested a fair amount of money buying movies and other video content on DVD or Blu-ray, so would it make sense for Apple to tell you to forget about it?

Today, switching through your various TV-related devices isn’t always easy. You may get the universal remote, but they are still glitchy to program or to use. Each of your devices has a remote sensor located in a different position, so you aim the remote in a sort of compromise position to control all of them at once. If you fail, you may have to use a Help menu to straighten things out, or start from scratch. Sure, some remote sensors use Wi-Fi, which doesn’t have the directional problem, but not many.

So would the ultimate Apple iTV (or whatever it would be called, since that name is taken by a UK-based network), or Apple TV box allow you to hook up everything, and manage the control functions from a single location? Would you have to attach tiny remote sensor modules on the other gadgets, as you do now with some systems? Or would Apple expect you to throw them all away and start anew?

With Apple, I sort of expect the latter. That’s the Apple Way. You start from scratch, accept the compromises and wait for products and services to get with the program. Certainly there are reports that Apple is trying to sign up TV networks to offer a subscription service as an alternative to existing cable and satellite systems. Yet another rumor has it that Apple is also working with the content carriers, such as Time Warner Cable, to offer the unique Apple interface. Or maybe they are trying to get a foothold wherever they can.

At times, I’ve even wondered if Apple might just deliver TV technology to third-party manufacturers. They will offer licensed sets that have to adhere to a basic set of performance specs, and allow Apple to take over the entire user interface, including initial setup and picture customization menus. Now Apple is certainly moving into the car business with iOS in the Car, and it’s already beginning to show up in some vehicles. Honda recently announced that you’ll be able to buy a dealer-installed accessory to offer this interface for their Civic and Accord vehicles. But you don’t expect Apple to get into the car business, despite the rumors that they might acquire Tesla, a company who makes expensive battery-operated vehicles.

One thing is certain, and that is that nothing will happen until 2014, and maybe not till the fall of next year. Or maybe not at all if Apple can’t put all the pieces together, but that’s not an assumption you can make without evidence. Certainly no existing company has yet offered a compelling new solution to conquer the living room — at least not yet.

On October 22, Apple released OS X Mavericks as a free download. In the previous months, I’ve suggested that such a thing might happen, although Apple went even further by making iWork and iLife more or less free too. I mean “more or less” because you have to buy a new Mac, or be using a previous version of either, to get the new gratis upgrades.

While my OS X upgrade experience was flawless, and Mavericks is near-perfect when it comes to stability, there are some rocky edges, and I’ll only cover a few.

When starting Messages, for example, it sometimes fails to connect to my AIM (or AOL) account. It will either be flagged as Offline or Connecting, but never quite complete the login. In all fairness, I’ve seen this oddity with previous OS X versions, so it may be something on AOL’s end, which wouldn’t surprise me.

Yet another very slight problem I reported in a previous column involved an audio processing app, Levelator, which does sophisticated trickery to normalize the volume levels of an audio recording. In older OS X systems, it would auto-quit after processing a file, assuming I used drag and drop. Now it doesn’t, but the developers of Levelator say that there was never an auto-quit feature to begin with, so maybe it worked incorrectly before. Go figure!

My tiny problems, however, are trumped by more serious issues reported online. If you have a Western Digital external drive, and use their own software, you were in danger of losing your data when upgrading to Mavericks. But the folks at Western Digital have announced a software update to fix that problem, one that I recommend you download and install right away if you’re using one of their drives. It doesn’t apply to the internal drives Western Digital makes for Apple, however.

The folks at Ars Technica are reporting all sorts of glitches with the new multiple displays features, such as docks set to auto-hide failing to appear when you mouse over. Or Finder placements going awry, so you put something on the desktop on one place, and it migrates to another. In all fairness, the reliability of Finder positioning has long been flaky, so it’s not as if any of this comes as a surprise. If Apple ever announced an OS X update that fixed Finder positioning, there would be an extended round of applause from millions of Mac users.

Yet another complaint has it that smooth scrolling isn’t so smooth on apps not recompiled for Mavericks. While I haven’t tested every possible app to see if this is true, at least on a 27-inch iMac, I tried a few that haven’t been updated recently and didn’t notice anything particularly ragged about scrolling. But my testing was casual, and the experiences with one Mac configuration cannot apply to others.

The third complaint, one long standing with OS X, is that the Finder goes into a spinning beachball fit if a shared volume suddenly disconnects. It has gotten better over the years, but there’s still a troubling delay. You’d think Apple would have gotten a handle on this, but I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of the behind-the-scenes process in which OS X engages to determine that a file share is no longer mounted.

To be sure, other OS X Mavericks issues are likely related to individual app compatibilities. There are loads of under-the-hood changes that will probably give developers some conniptions. One example is Audio Hijack Pro, from Rogue Amoeba, which we use to capture Skype audio for my radio shows. Under Mavericks, there’s curious issue in working with my setup, involving an outboard analog mixer, a Griffin iMic analog/USB adapter, and a Bose USB speaker system, the Companion 5. The problem is complex: The audio from the Bose is disabled when I am hijacking audio from Skype. But Rogue Amoeba is aware of the issue, so I expect they will come up with a solution soon.

The long and short of it is that I am quite satisfied with Mavericks overall. There does appear to be a bit more snap in the way the system functions, and overall system load is lower when different apps are doing their thing. I have not fully tested the promise of better battery life on my note-book, a 17-inch MacBook Pro from 2010, but other reports indicate a measurable improvement.

There are also published reports that Apple is working on a 10.9.1 update, which would be the second Mavericks-related fixer-upper to arrive so far. Earlier this month, the Mail for Mavericks update arrived to fix problems with sorting Gmail messages and inaccurate unread message counts. iBooks was also updated. But I gather Mail isn’t quite fixed yet. Other email apps aren’t necessarily better, though. I tried the latest update to Microsoft Outlook 2o11, for example, and it remains barely usable. Performance is dog slow, for example, though Outlook seems more savvy about capturing information on mapping your local mailboxes to your email service’s IMAP mailboxes when you set up an account.

All and all, I remain quite pleased with the Mavericks upgrade.