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 ~

[ShawTaylor]

"But a percentage of the millions that are end up being part of the broken window fallacy"

There is no Window fallacy.
Windows creates vastly more jobs than Apple does because Windows totally dominates the computer business.
It's common sense.

"It will be hard to get an IT department to admit that because getting a system that's easier to maintain makes empire building kind of difficult"

Plenty of IT departments switch to Windows very single day, after doing extensive analysis or comparative platforms.
On the other hand, Apple computers,ipods and other products from Apple have a failure rate than is going to drive ya up the creek, but the apple zombies would much rather swallow poison than admit that.


"You gotta be kidding me. You're trusting vendor hype?"

I am trusting facts, and documented statements from highly reputable outfits like the London stock Exchange(which has a much better track record on veracity than the known liar that Steve Jobs is) and Continental AG that chose Windows over Linux after extensive studies.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/facts/casestudies/cag.mspx

[CedarDave]

My sister, a complete computer newbie with absolutely no knowledge of how they work or why except how to save a Word document at the office, went and ordered one from Dell last month so she can get email when she retires later this year.

They sent her one with a Vista OS and what she is finding out is the almost no one can help her do the most minimal of tasks -- friends who know about XP can't assist and even her new high speed internet provider says they do not support the Vista system. The put the cable modem in and that was it.

However, she told me today that, BTW, they sent her an XP disc with the computer!! I'm planning on calling Dell for her and see if the XP system version can be installed. Do I want a dual boot or should I just have the Vista OS un-installed and run only XP? Comments anyone?

[antiRepublicrat]

There is no Window fallacy. Windows creates vastly more jobs than Apple does because Windows totally dominates the computer business. It's common sense.

Since it takes more people to manage and secure (remember viruses and such) a Windows platform, then those extra jobs are a waste. That Windows dominates only multiplies the waste. Thinking that those extra jobs is a good thing is a prime example of the broken window fallacy.

Plenty of IT departments switch to Windows very single day, after doing extensive analysis or comparative platforms.

Those switching from other OSs to Windows are few and far between. Those switching from UNIX usually switch to Linux.

Apple computers,ipods and other products from Apple have a failure rate than is going to drive ya up the creek

I would like to see evidence for the average failure rate of modern Apple computers being above the industry average. Remember, they started moving to a new platform over a year ago, so the problems of IBM's PPC are gone.

and Continental AG that chose Windows over Linux after extensive studies.

You need to read what you link to. Continental's "out-of-date and disparate client-server infrastructure" was already Windows-based. They chose to stay with Microsoft because of high migration costs if they chose Linux.

Microsoft likes high migration costs, and they probably do anything they can to keep migration from Windows to other platforms as expensive as possible.

[antiRepublicrat]

There is no Window fallacy.

BTW, you maybe confusing the real and economically correct "broken window fallacy" with some "Window fallacy." Look up the broken window fallacy and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

[HAL9000]

Get back to me when you get back to reality will ya?

I'm reasonably certain that I have far more experience in the industry than you, noob. Here are some ugly realities from my personal experience -

Several years ago, my wife accidentally ran over her Mac PowerBook with the Cadillac. It cracked the screen and the case - but I still got it to boot up sufficiently to recover her data.

I have a 29-year old Apple computer that still works like new. I've carried it around the world, to third-world hell-holes and back, tortured and abused it, and it still works just fine.

In my decades as an Apple customer, I've had only one computer virus - and that was in the late 1980s.

I've been in the biz long enough to remember when IBM had a monopoly on computers. IBM was not invincible - and neither is Microsoft.

Everybody knows that Windows is low-quality crap. That is why Apple consistently ranks at the top of PC Magazine's user surveys -

Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey - again

[rzeznikj at stout]

If possible, run XP instead. Trust me.

...and yes, I do have a PC with Vista.

[zeugma]

...I'm used to just downloading the .exe file, installing and moving on to the next task.

I feel for you man. I'm used to just entering:

    yum install packagename

to install new stuff. 

[Swordmaker]

Mac sales growth up over 100 percent in January, says firm

By Katie Marsal

Published: Thursday, March 1, 2007 - 11:00 AM EST

Sales of Apple Inc.'s Mac line of personal computers saw year-over-year growth accelerate over 100 percent during the month of January, with revenue growth rising even further, according to Pacific Crest Securities.

In a brief research note distributed to clients on Thursday, the firm cited NPD market research data which implies that year-over-year growth in Mac unit sales accelerated in January to 101 percent, up from 55 percent in December.

Meanwhile, a rise in the average selling price (ASPs) of Macs is reported to have driven even greater year-over-year dollar sales growth of 108 percent during the same time period, again, up from 55 percent in December.

"Mac ASPs grew 4 percent in January on a year-over-year basis and 1 percent sequentially," wrote analyst Andy Hargreaves. "Apple's ability to maintain stable ASPs is a strong indicator of its brand equity and consumer demand, in our view."

Hargreaves said that sales of Mac notebooks grew 194 percent year-over-year in January with a rising ASP that drove 221 percent revenue growth in the segment.

"January was the third-largest revenue month for Mac notebooks ever," he added.

The analyst noted that over the past eight quarters, the first month of NPD data has been between 7 percent and 9 percent of Apple's quarterly Mac unit sales.

"If this relationship holds in fiscal Q2 (March), Mac sales would significantly exceed our Q2 estimate of 1.495 million units," he said. Source

[Southack]

"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."

For whatever reason (e.g. failure to grasp, denial, personal blinders, etc.), you aren't admitting what it means that Windows Vista can't run a mainstream Windows 2000/Windows XP program like Peachtree Accounting's "ACT!"

And what it means is that Windows Vista isn't backwards compatible with Windows XP (or with Windows 2000, or with Windows NT, or with Windows 98, etc.).

This fact has *enormous* implications for proprietary software...in other words, the software that each business writes in-house to run their operations.

Knowing that Windows Vista isn't backwards compatible with mainstream XP software like "ACT!" means that any company that upgrades company-wide to Vista en masse is risking *all* of their deployed software.

To put it simply, everything that they've written in the past may not run...or may run with bugs in unexpected places.

Proprietary software, after all, typically complies with fewer standards and seldom ports as easily to new OS's as does commercial software.

So when a mainstream commercial package like "ACT!" fails on Vista...well, that pretty well sounds alarm bells for all in-house tech deployments.

Vista isn't backwards compatible. Companies looking to upgrade to Vista are facing new error checking tests at the least, and potentially new software re-writes from scratch at the most...

...but those re-writes wouldn't even offer new functionality. Companies would be spending new money just to have what they once had under XP and Win2000.

Well, that's not going to be very attractive to the average CIO. Why spend money to get what you've already got?!

Thus, Vista's lack of backwards compatibility is a hurdle for every corporate software salesman to overcome.

[aft_lizard]

Dude get over your snotty asshole condescending self. I will not continue to respond to a dick like you who cannot speak on normal terms but instead find it necessary to immediately insult, if thats how you run your day I am surprised you have any friends. So 'for whatever reason (e.g. failure to grasp, denial, personal blinder, etc.)' I will not respond to you again, as you see I have personal choice in life just like OS customers due in making decisions to upgrade there OS. Now continue on and cry to somebody else dickhead.

[aft_lizard]

OK I am over you insulting me twice in two posts.

Let me actually respond to your post.

ACT 2007 is compatible with Vista with a patch. If you are running an older version of Peachtree that more than likely means you can't run Vista anyways. Besides that any CIO worth his salary would not upgrade any PC's to Vista just because its a new OS. If you would need to replace a PC on your system for some reason, guess what, the corporate XP license is still going to be good.

SO basicly I am saying a company would not migrate to an OS until all implications of what they are running is considered in the matter, if they deem the migration necessary then they will adapt to it.Once again ANY change by any corporation if done right will be weighed properly and shouldnt effect them. Vista itself is not forcing itself on anyone, it is the choice of the company to make.

This isnt a failure to grasp its reality. It costs a company zero dollars to maintain what they have. Sure eventually they will migrate to a new OS but eventually they will also update there other software also(shock, but hey its OK for the other software just not the OS, right?)

[Southack]

"ACT 2007 is compatible with Vista with a patch."

That's proof that Vista isn't backwards compatible. A backwards compatible OS doesn't require patches for older software to run.

This is a big deal.

Companies contemplating a move to Vista should consider that their existing proprietary software may very well *not* run under Vista.

[aft_lizard]

Well yeah, but its only proof its non BC with that program, I am using many programs that are XP, and one win98 program, a game but its all the same. ALso I was just reading that ACT 2000 thru 2004 do work(they didnt test 2005-2006), and you should also be using Office 2003 instead of 2007 in Vista or XP with ACT. I understand the frustration it would be for some small business owner whos computer just took the big BSOD of death and needs a new PC and then finds out that there current ACT! program wont work, but I am not so concerned about the big corporations who have paid IT professionals, on staff programmers and cost analyzers running through every scenario of cost to the company on an OS change, they will and should know if its going to work.

At the college the other day we were installing Vista and Office and other programs on a couple of test PC's to see what the college needs to do to change. The consensus was that since the college has in its budget to change all of the PC's in 2008 it would be best to wait until the winter break of fall 2007 because the current PC's there on average wouldnt handle the new OS and they should receive all of the new licensed products from adobe and various other companies.