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 ~

[TheSpottedOwl]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Reintroducing Windows 95. I'd love to see that...

[Swordmaker]

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:

That statement is false. The 2.5% figure is worldwide sales, not US sales and that does not represent installed base.

Apple's 4th quarter 2006 market share in the US was 6.1% (Gartner) or 5.8% (IDG which includes servers). In the worldwide share topped 3% in January 2007. Webapplications.com shows that in February web usage on worldwide websites that are heavily PC weighted was 6.38%.

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.

Steve Jobs "boast" is backed up by the sales figures reported to the FTC in their annual and quarterly reports which are a little more accurate than the guesstimates made by analysts. Apple's report for its 2006 Fiscal Year said "For the fiscal year, Apple sold 5.3 million Macs." Jobs cited the "over 19,000,000 OS X Macs" at the WWDC conference which took place in early August, after their 3rd quarter ended. The figure is accurate as of that quarter. It does not include the 4th quarter's 1,610,000 Macs nor the 1st Quarter 2007, 1,608,000 Macs as reported in their 10Q's. That would bring the total number of Macs to 22,218,000 OS X Macs at a minimum.

It is further stated, and backed up by industry surveys, that 1/2 of all new Macs are sold to either switchers or first time computer buyers. So, using the 1,608,000 Macs sold in the quarter ending December 31, that translates into 17,867 Macs sold every day (90 shopping days, Thanksgiving and Christmas don't count)... and 1/2 of that figure is pretty damn close to 9,000.

60.1% of the Macs sold that quarter were sold in the United States. That makes "Most of those 9,000 new Mac users per day are in the United States..." a true statement.

[Swordmaker]

So you like IDC... OK... here is the data from IDC for the US computers sales, 3rd quarter 2006:

Notes:
• IDC estimates for Gateway & Toshiba are prior to financial earnings reports.
• Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM
sales are counted under the vendor/brand under which they are sold.
• PCs include Desktop, Notebook, Ultra Portable, and x86 Servers.
• PCs do not include handhelds. Data for all vendors are reported for
calendar periods.
Source: IDC, October 18, 2006

Incidentally, that 975,000 figure for Apple's sales is only 60.1% of their worldwide sales of 1.61 Million. I don't see a US market share of 2.5% on there, do you? In fact, Apple holds 2.8% worldwide market share using Apple's stated 1.61 million Macs (Apple's fiscal Q4, calendar Q3) and IDC's 57.052 million total worldwide PC shipment 3Q numbers. IDC and Gartner's numbers vary slightly due to differing methodologies.

As I mentioned earlier, Apple's worldwide market share topped 3% in January... also according to IDC.

All apologies and retractions for posted misinformation (FUD) graciously accepted... if you make them. ;^)>

[Shimmer128]

Bad timing on the woman's part, of course, that's all it it. Bad timing. It's the customers fault! ha!

[aft_lizard]

And the people that cant run programs like ACT wont upgrade, simple. Most people that run ACT still run it on Windows 2000 anyways and didnt bother to upgrade there machines to even Windows XP.(its funny that you bring up that program anyways since it is/ and has been one of the buggiest fatabase programs I have ever come across)

It will run Windows Video Games and run quite a few programs, the list continues to grow. Alot of people simply havent even bothered to try to run older programs in Windows XP mode or other modes. I have yet to find one single program of mine that will not run on Vista, not one.

So no, not game over, game beginning.

[aft_lizard]

Thats all you can do, a few blogs and a network problem? Thats hardly worth mentioning man, do better than that. Tell me how the kernel is bad, or how the security is worse or something, I dont read blogs as a source BTW so you have to do better than that.

[aft_lizard]

Actually that would be the salesmans fault for not making sure she was Vista capable.

[Shimmer128]

(whispering) I knew that.

:)

[aft_lizard]

The cost of the initial purchase for a Mac is higher sometimes, but you get better hardware with more features. The expense of operating a Mac is cheaper than Windows after the cost of PC repairs, anti-virus subscriptions, etc. is factored in. And the resale value of Macs is better than PCs. Overall, Macs are a better investment. You do exaggerate too much. I havent, and most of my friends never pay for virus subscription, nor do we spend an inordinate amount of money on PC repairs(news for you that the PC and MAC have essentially the same innerds now). I wouldnt be surprised though that the MAC has a higher resale value, lots of gullible people out there. Actually, you can just pop in OS like Windows or Linux on a Mac. Macs can run more operating systems that ordinary PCs. Wrong a PC can run anything a MAC can run, including OSX and run old PPC based Kernel OS's from Apple in virtuality, the only difference being is that the PC has to trick apple OS to get past the Apple ROM check. And let's not forget that Microsoft is very slow to release updates. Will they get SP1 for Vista released before Christmas? Who knows? Actually while you wait for those major updates you have numerous of miniupdates, now once a month. Also Apple must have changed then since I used them because they had numerous pay as you go updates it seemed to me as you went upto and uncluding 10.4, including crappy ones that would freeze you MAC without notice and wouldnt run PPC program variants worth a damn. So Leopard will cost less than $159 dollars? Also you can purchase family packs from Microst for a little extra, I believe 3 more licenses for $50.

[aft_lizard]

Ahhh, lol. One can never be sure when you are on a MS bashing thread.

[aft_lizard]

Sorry about the formatting, its too early and my coffee hasnt kicked in :)

[aft_lizard]

Actually that link shows quite a few VPN clients that work and also in developement.

[Shimmer128]

I see you are joking too. You must be :D

[DaGman]

Overall, I have been very happy with XP. It is the best version of Windows, ever. Win2000 (NT 5.0) was a good step forward, but in Microsoft tradition, XP (NT 5.1) is more stable and versatile.

That said, and now with Vista out there, I'm thinking about the future and installed Ubuntu on an old box (Pentium II 400 mhz, 319 or so Mb of RAM) I have. So far it looks pretty good. Ubuntu is very intuitive and handles some network tasks easier than does XP. My other boxes and laptops we use regularly are Pentium IV 1.5 ghz or better with at least 500 mb of RAM. There may be some compatibility issues with hardware,but I think I know where I'm going when I have to upgrade.

[steve-b]

Vista itself is not buggy, not in the least

Vista is a flawless operating system! We will roast the stomachs of Mac OS and Linux in hell!

[HAL9000]

Sorry about the formatting, its too early and my coffee hasnt kicked in :)

No prob.

Wrong a PC can run anything a MAC can run, including OSX and run old PPC based Kernel OS's from Apple in virtuality, the only difference being is that the PC has to trick apple OS to get past the Apple ROM check.

My understanding is that there are some significant hardware incompatibilities - and unfortunately, it is also software piracy - although Apple hasn't had anyone prosecuted for it yet. I would advise against trying to run Mac OS X on a PC.

The past pricing for a major new Mac OS release has been $129 SRP for a single license - or $199 SRP for the five-license family pack. You can get a good discount at places like Amazon.com. Then Apple distributes free updates to that version for at least a couple of years. And it doesn't have any onerous registration procedures like Vista, and it won't nag you about not being a "genuine product" - as has happened to millions of legit Windows users.

[HAL9000]

In my opinion, Linux is the best available OS for servers, but it's got a long way to go for desktop usage. The configuration tools and user interface standards are a mess. I wish that situation was better, but there is too much chaos in the Linux developer community to deliver a consistent, high-quality desktop OS.

[ShadowAce]

[antiRepublicrat]

Perhaps we should just eleminate the hundreds of thousand of jobs supported by this evil company

That's a broken windows fallacy. That Windows, due to its difficult nature, creates thousands of jobs is not necessarily a good thing.

[antiRepublicrat]

The only OS of Microsofts I would consider a failure would be WinME.

MS-DOS 4.

Microsoft is cheap when compared to Apple, which if you want to go Apple you simply cant just pop in an OS and reformat your HDD you have to buy the whole system

You may be able to get a Windows machine cheaper for home use (although your price goes way up to get Vista Ultimate, the closest thing to OS X), but forget it for servers, where Windows can have a server costing thousands more than the Apple equivalent.

hey and lets not forget if there is an update you have to pay for it, not with Windows you just download the SP1's or 2's.

Windows' service packs are minor, as are Apple's free updates. Apple's paid upgrades are the equivalent of going from 2000 to XP, which Microsoft also charged for.

Vista itself is not buggy, not in the least,

ALL software of that size and complexity is buggy. Now add in the extensive backwards compatibility and application-specific hacks to make it even more buggy.