An Open Letter to Microsoft: Re-Release Windows XP

Yahoo Tech (excerpt) ^ | February 28, 2007 | Christopher Null

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Dear Mr. Gates, Mr. Ballmer, and the many good folks at Microsoft Corp.,

It's time to sober up on Windows Vista. This just isn't working out, and your users are getting frustrated to the point where they're souring on Windows altogether. In case you haven't seen some of the more noteworthy blog posts on this topic, I refer you to Chris Pirillo, Scot's Newsletter, or Spend Matters. Or check out the recent bug reports regarding product activation and security flaws. This is all stuff I managed to dredge up that was written yesterday.

People are unhappy with Vista. Really unhappy. And though I know Microsoft has its own form of Steve Jobs' reality distortion field, it certainly can't keep you from seeing at least some of the sobering sales figures and the crush of disappointing reviews of Vista. I don't want to dredge up all the reasons people are unhappy with Vista in this letter. I want to talk about what you ought to do stop a mass migration to Linux and the Mac.

~ snip ~

[The_Reader_David]

Take it up with Rush Limbaugh. EIB studios is standardized on Macs.

[HAL9000]

Best of luck catching up at that "9000" per day rate.

Most of those 9,000 new Mac users per day are in the United States, where Microsoft seems to be suffering a net loss of their installed base. Vista should do well in China.

BTW, your link is to a guy that is talking baloney.

The writer, Tom Yager, is the Chief Technologist at Infoworld. Infoworld is a respected weekly journal for professionals in the computer industry for nearly thirty years. What are your credentials?

[Southack]

http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1292.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=104
http://www.palmblvd.com/articles/2006/12/2006-12-4-Palm-Desktop-Not.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=71
http://forums.zuggsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=102679
http://actblogger.com/2007/01/18/vista/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929490

[Southack]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929490

[Barrett 50BMG]

Vista already has more marketshare than linux.. LOL!

[HAL9000]

Vista already has more marketshare than linux.. LOL!

The new figures were just posted at Net Applications tonight.

For February 2007, Windows Vista has a 0.93% usage share and Linux has 0.42%.

[Barrett 50BMG]

yep, Vista has been out one month and has over 2X's linux's marketshare. Apple is next, it shouldn't take long.

[miliantnutcase]

I really love XP. They'll have to force me to switch while kicking and screaming. On my primary home workstation I haven't needed to format in 4 years now. I don't think there's an original piece of hardware in the rig, but the install is the same since lol.

[Barrett 50BMG]

"I really love XP. They'll have to force me to switch while kicking and screaming. On my primary home workstation I haven't needed to format in 4 years now. I don't think there's an original piece of hardware in the rig, but the install is the same since lol."

If you love XP you will love Vista even more.

[KoRn]

"VPN's DO NOT WORK with Vista."

That isn't true. I had to download and install a new release of the Cisco VPN client, and was able to connect to work from home without any issues.

[ShawTaylor]

"Most of those 9,000 new Mac users per day are in the United States, where Microsoft seems to be suffering a net loss of their installed base"

Apple had a share of 2.5% in the US in December, and is actually predicted to lose share in Feb and March, due to sharp increases in sales of Windows PC's running Vista:

"In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray & Co analyst Gene Munster said that the pent-up demand for Vista will put more Windows-equipped PCs in customers' hands in the January-March quarter of 2007. That, in turn, means Apple's share of the market will slip slightly, from 2.5 percent in December 2006 to 2.3 percent in March 2007. "

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=8456



"The writer, Tom Yager, is the Chief Technologist at Infoworld"

He has no basis upon which to make that assertion apart from yet another boast from Steve Jobs, that is neither backed by IDC or Dataquest, the two recognized authorities on measuring market share for desktop and server computers.
Tom Yager makes absolutely no claim to have conducted any thorough, detailed research of PC sales by gathering actual sales data like Dataquest and IDC do.

[HAL9000]

Vista benefited from a 167% jump in PC sales on the week it was released, but that rate will slow down for a while. There is no doubt Vista's usage share will pass Mac OS X at some point.

But if you look at the monthly trends - Linux went from 0.35% in January to 0.42% in February. That's a respectable rate of growth in one month.

Mac OS went from 6.22% in January to 6.38% in February.

Windows operating systems went from 93.33% in January to 93.05% in February. That is a big drop in one month, especially considering the temporary boost it got from the Vista release. Vista is just cannibalizing older versions of Windows and Microsoft is losing net share. Vista will not obtain the usage share that XP had at it's peak. I won't be surprised if Microsoft's net share drops below 90% by the end of the year.

[HAL9000]

Munster was talking about market share. I'm talking about usage share. The percentage of installed base is a more important measurement than market share - unless you are a computer salesman.

The Net Applications statistics show that Windows is losing their aggregate percentage of installed base, while the percentages of Macs and Linux are growing. It's that simple.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

[Quix]

Nice that you think so charitably of me.

LOL.

[ShawTaylor]

"The Net Applications statistics show that Windows is losing their aggregate percentage of installed base, while the percentages of Macs and Linux are growing. It's that simple."

Net Applications don't measure market share or actual sales of Macs or PC's. They don't even come close to doing that. They merely measure what OS/browser etc that people use when they visit certain sites they monitor. Their browser market share figures for example have consistently overstated Firefox figures, when compared to figures from Websidestory, which have been in that business longer.
Actual unit sales and market share for PC's are measured by IDC and Dataquest. In fact PC makers and Wall Street analysts don't even quote figures from Net Applications when talking about PC sales or market share, but they regularly quote Dataquest and IDC. Net applications is irrelevant.
IDC/Dataquest have Macs at 2.5% for December, and will probably have Mac market share down for February when the figures come out, due to PC sales rising faster than Mac sales for February.

[arderkrag]

Yet another reason I'm switching to Ubuntu Linux on my next PC.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Nice that you think so charitably of me.

You should be flattered.
Howard was a visionary.

You and I share many of the same sentiments regarding MS and Vista.
Howard's rant was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read yours.

[MadIvan]

I have a 4 year old laptop that I was looking to discard because XP had ground to a halt on it (yes, even after a clean install - all the service packs and updates add up). By putting Ubuntu Linux on it about 2 years ago, I revived it. It's running the latest version of Ubuntu - the great web browsers associated with it, and is very fast.

I will have to replace it eventually - wear and tear will take its toll - at that point, I'm going Mac.

Regards, Ivan

[HAL9000]

You can try to spin it any way you want to, but it won't change the fact that percentage of Windows users is shrinking. Market share doesn't measure cannibalization or PCs that are thrown into the junk pile - but usage share does, and Net Applications is showing Windows usage is in a slow, steady decline. Over time, Microsoft could easily drop another 10% or more.

One other factor to remember about market share - PCs tend to be low-quality, disposable computers that have to be replaced more frequently. Macs are more durable and have a longer useful life, which is bad news for computer salesmen.