Windows8-The Last Nail
Knowing that nothing is forever, I’ve always wondered when we’d see the fall of Windows. Unfortunately, I think we are seeing that happen now.
In the past two years we’ve seen mobility reshape the form of computing. Cell phones have become mini computers and tablets have become the fastest growing form factor of computing today.
Where is Microsoft during all this? That’s right, they are not there. While Apple and Google have been selling tablets like hotcakes,Microsoft has managed to sit on its corporate backside and watch as once small competition gobbles up today’s new market.
A few years back Apple users were portrayed as a small group, a nerdy few, in casual garb. They had maniacal allegiance to a small company, selling overpriced computers. Not anymore. Every day I see more and more people switching to Apple. Three years ago I never heard anyone say” I’ve bought a new Apple computer” and now I hear it almost every day. Are they saying they bought a Tablet? Who knows, but the fact is that because of Tablets, Apple is now in a lot more homes and has a lot more recognition. Heck, my wife has an iPad, both my grand daughters have iPads. I have an iPhone.
Google/Android is the other big player in the tablet and phone market. Android is now huge, and when there is a comparison of new kit, it is between Android and Apple.
Windows phones? Windows Tablets? Not yet, maybe in October.
The point is that Windows has already let the cows out of the pasture. People already know that there are excellent choices other than Windows. The fear of the unknown is gone. iStuff and Android are established, they are well received. What appeared to be the small Battle of Phoneville and the Battle of Tabletsburg has changed the momentum and the landscape of the whole war. Microsoft will fall because it failed to fight what it thought were small battles. Apathy, and lack of vision were the downfall of this overstuffed, self suffocating King. The king is dead. Long live Mobility.
Let me know what you think.
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Rob Cheng
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Terry Stockdale
I’ve been predicting the fall of MS for about 10 years back when it really seemed unfathomable. Now the time is closer than ever. Completely wretched usability, poor reliability and bargain based hardware is fast becoming their achilles heel. People are fast realizing that PCs aren’t so much of a bargain when you spend a few days reinstalling your OS every other year and you loose all you settings and some if not all of your data. I’ve seen many case of just that turning a $800 bargain PC into a $1400 ball and chain. I’ve had my iMac since 2006 and not until this year am I planning to replace it. Apple haters may laugh but the day gets closer and closer when windows fails in the marketplace. The only thing keeping them afloat is the residual of tremendous momentum they had in the late 90′s.
Are you kidding? Have you tried to use Mac (or Unix, for that matter) on a business network? Have you seen Windows 8 Phone or Tablet?
Microsoft's product management continues to hit home runs. I suppose you're too cool-centric to notice Windows Server 2012.
Why should we take anything you write seriously?
Windows is computing.
Certainly, it’s corporate computing; and for me and many others who require the freedom to use their personal computers any way they want, Windows is the past, present and future of the PC, too.
To me, Apple is ‘The Evil Empire of the Drones’, due to its straightjacket policies. Apple has a market, though: People who know nothing about computers (and have no desire to learn how to use a computer to its full potential), the tragically hip, and educational environments in which such rigor in the operating system becomes advantageous/desirable.
Still, the entire computing world owes an immense debt of gratitude to Bill Gates’ savvy — and IBM’s shortsightedness — for creating a competitive world of PCs that everyone can afford, not just the wealthy.
Long story short: IBM terminated MicroSoft’s contract to write the BIOS code for IBM’s proprietary PC hardware. Gates offered to sell the ‘leftover’ code to IBM for $1 million. Had IBM agreed, we’d never have heard of Gates, Microsoft or a sub-$3000 PC. Apple and IBM would have kept the industry in a stranglehold with their top secret, proprietary hardware and machine code. (NB: Torvalds would also never have invented Linux, since he’d never have had access to IBM’s code; therefore, we’d never have gotten Android, derived from Linux. So, you’d also have no choice in smart phones, either. You owe Bill Gates for any freedom in technology you have.)
But because IBM refused, Gates was able to write MS-DOS based on the IBM hardware BIOS and then the Windows 1.0 graphical user interface/overlay to run on “IBM PC-compatible” computers, and competition — both in the hardware and software arenas — allowed the rise of the affordable PC.
…And Gates became the richest man in the developed world (I don’t count OPEC’kers).
That was Apple’s death knell in the PC market, where they still have less than a 10% share. Phones and other mobile gadgets? They’re the leader there; but that’s mostly based on a boutique-mentality, and none of those devices is a proper computer, to include the hyper-hyped iPad (now with wings!)…
So, “I’m a PC”, as the slogan goes. I will purchase a Surface with WIN 8 when they come out; but, I will also stick with WIN 7 Ultimate — which has never crashed on me — on both my desktop and laptop.
WIN 8 is touch-centric and strictly for phones and tablets, imo. For proper hardware platforms (and gaming, hello), WIN 7 (64-bit, if you’ve got more than 3GB RAM or you’ll get memory-related BSODs, nimrod) is the only choice, until WIN 9. AeroGlass is too beautiful, too elegant, too good to throw out with the bathwater…
Windows is far from dead. Long live the King!
One more time. My entire 2 cents worth
Again….RIGHT
Can you imagine if the scenario your wrote about was allowed to take place? IBM and APPLE ruling the world of computing?.Computers stayed in the dark ages as a result of the indignate culture of IBM in not seeing the future of a personal computing world and the industries, technologies and thinking created by microsoft.Again, I’m no devotee of Bill Gates nor do I agree with all of microsoft’s policies, however I would never do business with a company that kept me from using a product in the way it would best benefit me.Add to the above that the products are and have always been way overpriced and hyped. If Jobs had any talent, it was the fact that he made a good carnival barker.
I’ve just built a new blazing fast PC, as I’ve stated in my earlier ‘rant’ with Win 7, an i5 2400 and use it for music and video and am thorougly satisfied. So far, flawless for hundreds of dollars less
if this is so what do I do with my desktop?
I disliked the Windows phone when I purchased it & promptly sold it because there were too few options, whereas Android lets me customize to my hearts content. I’m not happy now about how Win8 looks like it’s pushing me to use my PC in a way I don’t want to go. My Android Galaxy Note & iPad are extensions of my hand BTW, so I’m into mobile. So death is a slow process & there will MS & PCs long into the future but I wouldn’t blame the author for his view because they’re squandered so much potential, & I think people who call him stupid or whatever need to get a grip & realise it’s an opinion piece & get some manners!!!
I agree that the author is stupid as hell for writing this. Most of Corporate America runs on a Microsoft Network. That is not changing anytime in the near future. PERIOD. MS will be around for a long long time. Apple is just an overpriced PC with an over priced operating systm. That is the plain truth of it.
Windows 8 may, or may not, be great for tablets and phones. It is, however, an unmitigated disaster for desktop users. Where or why Microsoft got the idea that the world runs on portable devices is beyond me. As an IT professional, my CAD users aren’t going to want Windows 8 as it is today.
The graphics in 8 are crude by 1980s Atari standards.
As for Apple – I run Apple both at home and at work. BUT – if *ANY* other company did half the Xenophobic and planned obsolescence nonsense Apple does routinely, they’d be laughed out of business! This kind of thinking permeates the entire “Apple World”. Software title “A” by Company “X” won’t run on a 3 year old Apple, but will run fine on a 10 year old Windows box. What’s up with that?
While I know PC's will suffer from tablet and phone competition – those devices have a long way to go in order to deliver the full power and performance of a PC. If you're satisfied with small text messages, ebooks and tiny views of the web – fine. If you're an avid gamer and photographer as I am, than only a very high priced laptop can come close to my Dell XPS 9100. And though I own both a Kindle and an Ipad, they are just small toys in comparison. And an Apple computer still costs a lot more. I sure hope you're wrong.
Yeldarbderf
All right, so your wife uses an i-something. What about the multinational corporation which has her brother on its payroll ? Don’t they use desktops and servers anymore ? And did they switch to Apple ? Do they do their spreadsheet work on cell phones ? Their project management ? Their CAD-CAM product design ?
It seems to me, on the contrary, that Microsoft is getting its act together. First Windows 7, which is (almost) a joy to use. Then (not necessarily in chronological order), online Office. Then, Outlook.com, which is vastly more attractive than Gmail as far as the user interface is concerned. Then, Sky Drive. Then, Microsoft Security Essentials, a product many experts recommend against the competition, free or otherwise. Then, Microsoft Updates. Then, Bing.
Certainly, there are still areas where Microsoft is a nuisance : Office pricing, licensing policies…
But saying Windows is dying is ridiculous.
I’m still a PC person and Windows works just fine for me. Apple is just another choice in the market place as is Android.
I bought an Asus Android tablet. My wife now has it to read her books and do crosswords and word searches etc. Why? Because every time I wanted to do something meaningful I found myself reaching for my Laptop if I was out of the office or my desktop if I was at home.
Typing on that stupid on screen keyboard is not a pleasure. The WiFi connection is poor to say the least, if you are not really close to the AP.
The damn thing cost more than my laptop and is nowhere near as capable
Web browsing is to say the least flakey. Everything requires another App, half of which are nowhere near well written. Because they are free does not mean they should be of poor quality.
Maybe when it matures and gets out of the clutches of Google things will improve a little more.
If Microsoft produced this sort of junk today they would get roasted for it.
As well as which Google seems to have appointed itself as the guardians of our morals in some instances.
Believe it or not I subscribe to an adult magazine (Oh you perverted horrible little man) through Zinio, but the Android reader blocks it because Google won’t allow the adult material switch in the reader for Android. WOW censorship is alive and well in America in the form of Google.
Long live Android, Apple and Microsoft.Competition is good for us consumers.
There is nothing so grand that I'd switch to a Mac. I have no intention of getting into an iPhone, either. So expensive! Mr. Hogan's granddaughters and his wife have iPads and he has an iPhone. Three people have them? Not impressed. Oh, and how's that upgrade of your Mac or iPad going? What? No way to upgrade? What Apple gives you is what you get.
The title of the article is "Windows8-The Last Nail". I read this assuming there'd be some info on Wait. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
Perhaps he should talk to Leo Watson on Pit Blog who wrote about why he changed back from a Mac to a PC:
http://techtalk.pcpitstop.com/2012/07/30/why-i-switched-from-mac-to-pc/
or Dwight Silverman:
http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2010/03/the-rarest-of-birds-switching-from-mac-to-windows/
Jeff Ward-Baily:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2012/0308/Switching-from-a-Mac-to-a-PC-Five-lessons-from-an-Apple-fanboy/Windows-has-Mac-touches-if-you-know-where-to-look
Windows and Mac are both great operating systems. I switched to Mac because of the fact that it's more stable than Windows is; although Windows 8 is showing a big improvement in the stability department. Now just because I switched to Mac doesn't mean I left Windows in the dark. I upgraded my laptop from Windows 7 to 8 RP and it's the best thing I've done so far. I don't see any reason why people would use only one platform. Why just stick with one when you can get the best of both. It's not about war, it's about how much can you get out of both.
And as for the upgrade of the Mac, it's going great, and I love how easy it is to do so. And I hate the iPad, it's just an oversized iPhone but I do use an iPod Touch which is also easy to upgrade (software-wise).
People who think switching from Microsoft to Apple or vice-versa is making a big mistake.
P.s: Before you go and knock down the iPhone, I strongly suggest you at least try it before saying you'd never use it.
There is an old saying/question in regards to Apple. Do you know why Apple keeps coming out with new computer Iphones & Ipads. The Answer is simple – because an Apple turns ROTTEN after a short period of time.
Wouldn't that apply to any company. If Microsoft suddenly stopped making Windows they would become boring too. It's all about improving your product with each new release. In the tech. world nothing goes slow, it's always done fast because of high demand for the latest and greatest.
Have you ever considered the long term affect usage of Iphones & Ipads. There hasn't been enough time (only 15 years) into the research effects of exposure to radiation and brain tumors in correlation with using these Iphones. There has been no research in regards to the Ipads. Think of the children and the very long term effects of say, 40-50 years. Microsoft knows this. The other companies don't care as they are just in it solely for the money.
Whether this is true or not it's not just iPhones that do that. Almost every electronic device that sends out signals will do that. To be honest, too much of one thing is bad for anybody no matter how much a company says it's okay. For example: If you eat too much junk food then you're killing yourself inside, but if you use electronic devices too much such as computers, TV's, cellphones, etc. your health will be affected. It's a matter of, will people actually listen? If you want to stay healthy then you need to have proper balance.
I'm going to stop reading these pretty soon.. MS isn't dead. I don't need a tablet. My laptop does fine on the road and my desktop is a custom made monster that is more powerful than any apple computer you could go out and buy from the store and still costs less.
… Not all Mac computers are insanely expensive. The Mac Mini is only $600 which is better than paying over $1000 for a computer, don't you think?
I prefer desktop computers. They do not have to cost $1000. You can build them for much less. I have three homebuilt computers, all Microsoft Windows 7, all very stable.
The key to this is a single word – mobility. People can cart around a form factor of a computer easily. But – the limitations of a tablet’s capability compared to a desktop are known. There is no reason to suppose people will automatically dump a desktop having acquired a tablet given the tablet’s limits. Yes – Microsoft haven’t done themselves any favors with the tablet oriented Win 8,and ignoring the desktop market. Unless there is a compelling reason to switch people will likely run Win 7 until forced to change by support time running out.
I am totally amused by the comments complaining about Apple et al swallowing up Microsoft. I'm sure those who've been around from the 80s know this is exactly what Microsoft did to Lotus, Netscape, Corel and others by forcing computer manufacturers to use their software if they wanted Windows. Talk about Microsoft haters, there are quite a few of us around and rightfully so…
One of the most repugnant articles about computing ever.
Have you actually used Windows 8?
Well, schmuck, I have – on two computers that previously had Windows XP installed. I don't go for flash – I want a stable operating system – and I have had two Apple computers and both were the worst products I've ever owned. I sold one and the other is a huge paper weight that has consumed its operating systems more times in 6 months than any windows machine I've ever owned.
Windows 8 runs extremely fast on these two Dell laptops – the Start screen is something you get used to – just like the backwards on everything Apple operating system that requires two steps to close a program. I've been running Windows 8 for nearly a month and kept the XP operating systems on their hard drive and put them on the shelf never to be used again. Every program I used on XP installed and runs fine on Windows 8. Yes, there are things that are different, but as I've seen in different versions of the Apple knucklehead systems, they change things around for the heck of it too.
I wish the media would stop bashing Windows 8 – it is faster than all other windows operating systems I ever used (and I've used all since 3.1). It is fast on boot and shutdown and is even better than Windows 7 in most instances. And you can make the start screen into whatever you want – it is customizable and works – I removed the worthless gadget "apps" and use it almost as a modified desktop – and yes – there is a traditional desktop.
So Windows haters, get a life. Apple sucks even though you all hype it as something better. It clearly is not and is only the "in thing" that will quickly be replaced by the next "in thing" for the next generation. It isn't better than Windows – just oddly different.
I think mobile computer is dumbing everything down to the point that we won't even need to know how to type soon into the future. Our younger generations' creativity is being lost because the APPs on mobile devices and tablets are limiting people's potential. Garage Band on an iPad? What about Sound Forge on a PC? Don't even get me started with Microsoft bringing Office to Tablet form. Countless other computing experiences are being dumbed down to limit the everyday user's potential. What a joke. If one day their remains a small niche market of big picture thinking creative individuals out there, I hope they aren't being held back by this "mobility" movement.
Why do you think that it's dumbing everything down? And what's wrong with bringing Office to the tablet. I like the idea of being able to go wherever I want and have the opportunity to open up and/or edit any document I want.