[Vince Ferrer]

Microsoft's recent problems may be an omen of bad times in the software industry. The business model was centered around getting your core customers to keep upgrading their software every year, or every two years. This is much easier than winning new customers. But lately, this has broken down with Vista, with customers rebelling and deciding they already had enough functionality.

So to fix this problem, here comes Windows 7. Apparently Microsoft thinks this will be the best for both the customer and Microsoft. Microsoft will get the money from the upgrade, and the customers will have a pre-installed downgrade back to what they already had.

[ConservativeMind]

Microsoft is doing everything they can to make XP run slow and make “7” look as good as possible.

[Glenn]

The business model was centered around getting your core customers to keep upgrading their software every year, or every two years.

Windows 98 was released in 1998. Windows XP in 2001. Windows Vista in 2007. Hardly the business model you describe.

[aft_lizard]

Yawn.

So much FUD in one little comment it’s unbelievable. Repeat after me “I am a luddite”. Thanks.

[HangnJudge]

Gosh
Where have I heard this before

Oh yes,
Classic Mode, running in emulation under Mac System 10
Motorola x68 code running under emulation on PPC
and yes, Windows on any Mac

Apple got this one down a long time ago.

[bigbob]

Ctrl-Alt-Del

[billakay]

Apple did this years ago when they introduced OS X. While they were by no means the first to do this type of virtualization, it allowed them to switch a new OS that was not even close to similar to the old, seriously outdated one, without the need to have the API compatible with EVERYTHING all the way back to God knows when. Before the switch to OS 9, Apple had a seriously outdated OS that had a lot of shortcomings, and no clear way to fix it. This emulation allowed them to switch to the new OS without alienating all of their customers who owned software made for the newer OS.

Fast forward to today with MS. One of the biggest problems with Windows is all the code that supports all the old APIs back to Windows 95. This mess of code is unwieldy and largely insecure. I've suggested for quite a while that one of the best things MS could do is dump most of all of the legacy junk in favor of a new, clean API and support older applications via a compatibility layer, just like Apple did. Maybe they are finally getting around to this realization.

[FreeManWhoCan]

I still miss DOS and Basic.

[Paleo Conservative]

I wonder if it will allow me to import my sofware and other settings directly into the Windows7 virtual XP mode?