A reality check for Vista (Microsoft's New OS)

CNN.COM ^ | 9-8-06 | Owen Thomas

[Hydroshock]

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Judging by the grief that Microsoft is getting over delays in the release of Windows Vista, and the buzz surrounding the price it plans to charge for the next generation operating system, you'd think we were all hankering to get our hands on this hot new piece of software.

Don't believe the hype: There won't be lines around the block at midnight when Vista hits store shelves early next year, analysts say.

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"I don't expect anyone's going to be camping out at Best Buy waiting for this product," says Citigroup equity research analyst Brent Thill. "I think the pace of adoption will be slower than the market expects."

They can get it for you wholesale

Microsoft (Charts) gets more than 80 percent of its $13 billion in annual Windows revenue from PC makers, who install the operating system on new PCs. The cost of Windows - estimated at around $70 - is included in the price we pay when we buy a new PC. The proportion of people who buy copies of Windows at retail to install on their PCs is vanishingly small.

And the version of Windows that those retail customers have on their PC hardly figures into the equation. By and large, we buy a new PC when we need another one.

[Labyrinthos]

5 whole years? Jeeze. I have a desktop that has more years than you. Heck, I have CHEESE in my freezer with more time than that. I started in 1977. I have lost count of my Microsoft Certs -- I can get one in 24 hours by doing a class and then doing the Cert course. I get them as needed by my upcoming assignments. I have been tech leader of installations for companies with 200,000 employees and 10+ billion dollars a year. I have 4 servers in my upstairs office (2 linux, 2 Win 2K/XP Pro). Trust me, you don't want to point to your 5 whole years of experience again (at least here in FR) as some sort of proof you are anything beyond diaper trained.

BFD. I invented DOS, WIN95 and its progeny, desktop computers, the internet, and office networking while on a tequila binge back in 1980. Unfortunately, when I drink tequila I tend to get a little loose in the lips, and just my luck, Bill Gates was sitting on the bar stool next to me where he carefully wrote down on the back of a napkin every word that I spoke. The rest is history. BTW, I also own 1,346,211 patents, 266,970 copywrites, 11,999 trademarks, and I just saved money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. In addition, on my 40th birthday, I climbed Mt. Everest while walking backwards, blindfolded, and completely naked.

[tacticalogic]

Yeah, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[dubie]

BFD. I invented DOS, WIN95 and its progeny, desktop computers, the internet, and office networking while on a tequila binge back in 1980. Unfortunately, when I drink tequila I tend to get a little loose in the lips, and just my luck, Bill Gates was sitting on the bar stool next to me where he carefully wrote down on the back of a napkin every word that I spoke. The rest is history. BTW, I also own 1,346,211 patents, 266,970 copywrites, 11,999 trademarks, and I just saved money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. In addition, on my 40th birthday, I climbed Mt. Everest while walking backwards, blindfolded, and completely naked.


Is that you Al Gore? Welcome to FR!

[Tribune7]

2005 - . . .. Joined FR and started posting.

So it took you until '05 to become productive :-)

[Tiny]

Assume MS to stop supporting XP in the 17th month.

According to Microsoft’s Website, their Mainstream Support for XP SP2 will end 24 months after Vista is released, it then goes into their Extended Support, where you can get mainly Security Updates for another 5 years. So basically there are 7 years of left of support for the lifecycle on XP.

Our company is still running Windows 2000 for workstations, and decided to wait a couple of years to see how Vista shakes out before upgrading. Linux isn’t a viable option for workstations in the near future considering the investment in vendor software and vendors unwillingness to produce Linux clients.

[freedumb2003]

BFD. I invented DOS, WIN95 and its progeny, desktop computers, the internet, and office networking while on a tequila binge back in 1980.

I thought you looked familiar. Ensenada with the floppy sombrero, right? ;)

[freedumb2003]

2005 - . . .. Joined FR and started posting.

So it took you until '05 to become stop being productive

;)

[Labyrinthos]

That was me.

[Tribune7]

Good point, actually LOL

[freedumb2003]

Good work! Heckuva weekend! ;)

[dayglored]

> My side is mostly Windows, with a small but growing collection of Linux boxes. Some of those "wierd problems" involve integration to the mainframe. Over a hundred remote sites (and domain controllers) stretched across 3 states.

Wheeee! You ever sleep? Nah, nevermind, I know the answer...

[marajade]

No one wants linux. Who wants to use programming language when all you have to do with Windows is click on an icon.

[dayglored]

> BFD. I invented DOS, WIN95 and its progeny, desktop computers, the internet, and office networking while on a tequila binge back in 1980. Unfortunately, when I drink tequila I tend to get a little loose in the lips, and just my luck, Bill Gates was sitting on the bar stool next to me where he carefully wrote down on the back of a napkin every word that I spoke. The rest is history. BTW, I also own 1,346,211 patents, 266,970 copywrites, 11,999 trademarks, and I just saved money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. In addition, on my 40th birthday, I climbed Mt. Everest while walking backwards, blindfolded, and completely naked.

Okay, that's all cool.

But have you done anything really cool, like write a FORTRAN program that prints a data pattern to a 132-column, 600 line-per-minute IBM 1403 chain printer, that causes it to print out an American Flag, while at the same time the pitch of the sound of the chain plays the Star Spangled Banner?

That, my FRiend, is an accomplishment.

I saw it done, on a Burroughs 5500, in 1972. I wish I could claim to have done it myself. But just seeing it happen in person was a life-changing experience.

[dayglored]

>> 2005 - . . .. Joined FR and started posting.

> So it took you until '05 to become stop being productive ;)

Yeah, that's more like it.

[freedumb2003]

But have you done anything really cool, like write a FORTRAN program that prints a data pattern to a 132-column, 600 line-per-minute IBM 1403 chain printer, that causes it to print out an American Flag, while at the same time the pitch of the sound of the chain plays the Star Spangled Banner?

That, my FRiend, is an accomplishment.

We used to reserve a word for only the best of the best -- true accomplishments: ELEGANT.

It had to be CCW-driven. Dang! I saw one CCW raw program exactly once when I was watching a CE diagnose a bad disk drive. I xeroxed a copy of it, but was never able to test it (yeah, they'll let my application program run in SVC mode [LOL!]).

*sigh* Ah, for the days of elegance.

[dayglored]

> No one wants linux. Who wants to use programming language when all you have to do with Windows is click on an icon.

Wow, where do I begin...

Answer: Nevermind. Enjoy Windows, you're free to do so. Isn't freedom to choose great?

(If you can't figure out whether that's a /sarc or not, you're right.)

[dayglored]

> *sigh* Ah, for the days of elegance.

And for when "that's a great hack" was a high accolade.

[dayglored]

> It had to be CCW-driven. Dang! I saw one CCW raw program exactly once when I was watching a CE diagnose a bad disk drive. I xeroxed a copy of it, but was never able to test it (yeah, they'll let my application program run in SVC mode [LOL!]).

Do you know if anybody on FR has ever posted the old classic "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal" essay? If not, I might have to dig out my old copy and do a vanity someday....

[freedumb2003]

"Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal" essay?

I imagine it is up there with "Pretty Poly Nomial."

I actually retro-acronymed (verbicide, I know), "Pascal" when I was a lad (and introduced to The Church Of The Structured Algorithm): People Against Stupid Compilers And Languages.

To this day I think it was my idea (circa 1978)

[Tree of Liberty]

Don't be a jerk. Perhaps I've got other things to do with my time. You like playing in a text editor all day long, bully for you. I don't.