Posted on 11/30/2012 8:52:10 AM PST by SeekAndFind
NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft yesterday.
* Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, Windows PC sales shrank 21% between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.
* Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexsistent" just 1% of all Windows 8 sales.
It hasnt made the market any worse, but it hasnt stimulated things either, Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD, told the New York Times. It hasnt provided the impetus to sales everybody hoped for.
No kidding.
Yesterday, we reported other bad news:
Asus CFO David Chang's comment that "demand for Windows 8 is not that good right now."
Microsoft cut its order of Surface tablets for the year to two million units, down from four million.
This is a very scary time for Microsoft.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I bought it using the upgrade assistant. I bought a new lenvo during the window to get the 15 dollar upgrade. I however installed that on a different PC. it is LOCKED to that pc and according to ms (lack of) support it’s stuck to the old pc.
I guess I’m just feeling burned still from when they made me go from XP to Vista.
Always buy the ODD numbered version of Windows, not the even numbered version
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That rule only works for Windows 7 ...
Windows 98-2nd ed was far better than 95
Windows 2000 (even) was far better than NT3.5.1
Windows XP (2002) was good/great after the first service pack
I'm suprised Microsoft has owned 85% of the OS market share considering their track record for so long.
Better?
The problem with that 40 million sales number is that its not very transparent.
Microsoft hasnt explained how its counting licenses. Without that information, its a little hard to tell what that 40 million figure really means.
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I’m willing to bet that at least 10M of that is corporate PC’s that came with Win8 and had it replaced immediately with XP or Win7 for application compatability.
It's perfectly possible to touch type on a touch screen. It's just not as easy as on a real keyboard. You are giving up ease of use to obtain portability.
When I first saw touch screen computers used in McDonalds I thought the kids were too stupid to operate a real computer.
You want the kid in a McD to greet the customer with a smile, enter his order effortlessly and accurately, and deliver his meal quickly. You don't want the kid "to operate a real computer". Because, then quality of service would decline, and you'd have to pay the kid too much money.
Icons is a short cut for Can't Read
这是众所周知的,图标是更容易阅读。是的,没错!
So you bought a license for a pre-installed PC (MB-locked) and wish you’d read the license (or any of the sites like the one I linked) that warned you before installing it on the wrong PC. OK.
I knew there was a workaround where people were able to spoof MS’ site into thinking they were buying an upgrade. I thought about using it before I’d seen the licensing thing and am glad I didn’t. The web says there’s a workaround that is allowing people to use the media center upgrade key to register Win8 as legit, too; I’ll be interested to see the ‘netstorm when MS locks those copies sometime (my guess, on 1/1/13 after the media center upgrade offer ends).
How about me proving I am a real dinosaur, do they read books? Or is life icons, Apps and a kindle? How are they going to survive when TSHTF? Do they have any life skills? Or are we replacing them with icons and self gratification in angrybird apps? Can they catch a fish, without a battery?
These are an old mans observations on life, silly to the young. Of no “real” relevance. At least until it gets real. Creativity can be done on a tablet. But you can draw and work engineering a lot better with a mouse than a finger. You can write a treatse on anything better with a keyboard with tactile feedback than tap out letters with your thumbs. The tool is the difference between building a building with a hammer vs a rock.
And that, in a long way is why windows 8 is a mistake.
A 128 GB SSD suitable for a Windows 7 system drive can cost as little as $110. Besides giving better boot performance, it greatly speeds up disk IO. Also SSD performance isn’t affected by data fragmentation the way a physical hard drive is.
WIN 8 looks like Balmer chewed up every existing GUI, drank multi colored kool-aid, and vomited the results on the screen.
I have a manufacturing shop and still running machinery and plotters (large format printers) that run on Win 3.11, Win 95, and XP Pro.
I just picked up a 240GB SSD (Intel) from Newegg for $140 on sale.
She's never had a SSD before, so she's suitably impressed by the speed-up.
Ping for later
One must ask. “dear Microsoft. The motherboard failed in my PC so I replaced it, now windows wants to re-activate but it’s telling me I need to buy a new license. How do I correct this”
Expected MS reply
“hear EU, we are sorry you experienced a motherboard failure. Due to the failure of the motherboard that our software was linked to here is a link so you can go and buy our software again”
A license to software as, up until now, been a license to use said software on ANY computer. With the ability to uninstall it from an old PC and re-install it on a new one.
Microsoft has obviously changed this. Fine. I bought an upgrade I legitimately had coming because I bought a computer (well actually 3 computers) during the time MS said you had to to get the 15 dollar upgrade. I got my key, downloaded it to a thumb drive and installed it on one of my computers.
I stole nothing.
However, I won’t be buying any more windows 8 licenses for ANY of my computers. I’ll stick with 7.
I did also get my free media center key but not to cheat the system. I paid for the software and I guess I’ll keep the old dual core around a while.
I repaired a machine at a metal company today. Old 286. Ran some expensive milling machine.
Power supply pooped the bed. Thank god I had an old AT power supply laying around. You can’t just run to Best Buy and buy one any more.
Not sure what they are going to do if the HDD ever goes out. I did ask and they said they had all the floppies used to load the machine burned to CD’s and made several copies in case they ever need um. The HDD in it was 20 meg and of course, the size of a brick.
We are simply at the point where the hardware/software from 3 or 4 years ago is still “good enough”. There just aren’t enough benefits to upgrading.
Oop .. yea, my response did kinda read as if I were implying you used the loophole to get a $15 copy. Sorry.
What I meant is that the existence and publication of this loophole made me think “this can’t be the same as the $40 license” and it wasn’t.
Similarly the people who are using this other thing to get a free copy will probably be disappointed soon.
So ... on your old dual-core ... how’s the boot time? Faster boot, lower memory footprint, and (for the gamers) more DirectX features are good Win8 points.
You may end up happy that you put your Win8 on the older machine for the leanness alone.
My Laptop running Windows Vista finally died. Vista sucked, and just when you thought it couldn’t suck any worse, it sucked more.
Bought a cheap Lenovo Laptop with Windows 8. Startup is almost instantaneous unlike my old HP. Still getting used to Win 8, but it grows on you. For the money, the Lenovo is a pretty good computer.
Only problem is the loaded IE (9 or 10) doesn’t like Adobe Reader or Flash. I just switched to Firefox and no problem.
Just got the new Nokia Lumia 920 Smart Phone with Windows 8. My old Droid was acting up and after using the new phone, the Droid can’t hold a candle to it. The more I use the Win 8 Phone, the more I like it. Contrary to the buzz, there are plenty of Apps available if you are so inclined.
Just my .02...
the mac will identify your router right out of the box...
Heck, I can go to Tiger Direct and find half a dozen laptops under $200.
Without even seeing it, I'll wager the problem is not replacing the PC, but the AT-bus controller cards that are providing the interface to the milling machine.
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