The end of Windows? Ping for your lists.
I foresaw this coming in 1995 when I had to put those damned PCs together, and every since then when Windows still requires drivers made in Taiwan that still don’t work. I’ve always hated Windows and refuse to use it except in business situations where I can’t, or where it is an entrenched sever. Mac is the perfect work, play, development platform hands down - and right out of the box - and Windows is just, ugh...that thing that doesn’t go away and still gives BSODs, creates its own malware, misfires often (Office still crashes on modern hardware after a few days, Outlook still gets corrupted databases after a year or two, etc.) after all these years.
What’s gonna happen to all those poor con artists in India that won’t be able to claim they’re from “Microsoft Vindows” to run their scams ? Will anyone think of the con artists ?
I am very accustomed to using windows but Linux is OK and so are Macs.
Everyone will be just fine :-)
Stay calm....
You can txt and lol and rofl on phones, but you need real estate do to real work.
The title “The End of Windows” had me scared for a moment. I did not know what government workers would have to sit and stare out of all day.
Windows 10 is hell bent on collecting your information and sending it to Redmond. Even after setting up group policies and disabling “features” it persists. You have to get the Enterprise edition to fully stop it, but then updates can bring it back.
This is an epic change. Of course, having seen a $179 Chromebook at the warehouse club (sold out; back-ordered; when they restock, the price will be $199), it’s not all that difficult to spot some possible reasons. The popularity of the Surface (and it not be cheap) would seem to mitigate in favor of continue OS development, but the big income stream in recent years has been subscription Office 365.
I've always hated Windows.
I preferred OS/2, which the biased media poo-poohed, but was (still is) vastly superior to any version of Windows.
IBM executive poltroons were afraid to stand up to Microsoft and the biased media so they betrayed their loyal OS/2 users and developers and dumped their support.
Serenity Systems took over OS/2 and released eComStation based on the system, which has now evolved into Arca Noae.
So OS/2 still lives, the Workplace Shell is still superior to any version of Windows, and I still use it.
Azure won’t go anywhere. When I evaluated it a couple years ago it wasn’t up to snuff what so ever. There are cheaper alternatives, one even offered by Amazon (which the company I work for uses).
Give me just about any computer built since 1999, and I can run Linux on it and do ANYTHING Windows 10 can do! Or, just let me have my UNIX and leave me alone!
The funny thing is that Microsoft almost KILLED the dummy terminal computing platform, only to see us returning to dummy terminal-like, stripped down, basic laptops, tablets, phones and even some desktops.
Microsoft made it’s mark destroying the big computer systems like IBM mainframes...but how is cloud computing different (other than it’s not your companies specific mainframe on which you are doing all your storage and computing)!
We seem to be coming full circle - which means that Windows will either die or have to change to the new times.
Win10 was the last straw for me. I went Linux native.
Yes, I have to dual-boot for work, play some games or even run some apps that don’t jive w/ WINE/etc. 100%, but my time in the MS world is dwindling down.
Been getting into SBCs (single-board computer) too, and having the Linux as primary makes the hobby a joy (Retro-Pi anyone? Pi-Hole? NextCloud, OpenVPN, etc.)
The power of the command-line (if needed) is great.
Moving to same kind of subscription based service that Office has become.
Excel will keep Windows alive for a long time.
Shortly after Balmer left I immediately bought as many shares of MS as I could afford knowing that it would rise. I’m happy it has doubled. WHY OH WHY DIDN’T I DUMP MY GE STOCK?!?!
Part of the problem with Microsoft that I am first hand witness to, is their divisions have very poor communication with each other. The Windows OS and server teams don’t always communicate changes to teams that say run their enterprise solutions such as SCOM and SCCM. It’s really sad at times.
This claim has been consistently made since the mid 1990s.
Sure, the world is evolving, but so is Microsoft.
Apple has won the device (not desktop or server) war, but the business world is really Microsoft’s focus.
Is there still a future for a desktop? Yes, but businesses want cheaper devices than Apple sells.
And despite the end users (a totally different group than the business world) here that hate the cloud, for a business that make their money using the Internet, why would the cloud be an issue? They’re already on it, making a profit.
Smartphones don’t work all the time it depends where your ta no so with PCs so much for smart.
The search for privacy is real, and as it gets bigger and smarter the cloud will correctly be seen as not where privacy can be obtained (what pays for “cloud” services?, again, you are the product; Microsoft does not have a new paradigm, it is giving in to the current one advanced by Google, Facebook, Amazon, ect.). The disrupting technologies that will give advantage to the movement for privacy will be those taking memory of all kinds to stupendously high levels in stupendously small sizes. Massive memory, on a credit card size device, is what people will take from device to device, whether something that sits at home or something they are “mobile” with.
I started working with computers in 1983. In 1984 I was a Computer Marketing Manager with Tandy Corp./Radio Shack. They taught me UNIX and the upstart MS-DOS operating system.
By 1987 I was working for a company as sales and IT. I wrote the software the company ran on (until 2006). We had, when I left, 36 workstations and 4 servers. I was a Certified Microsoft Network Administrator and I custom built Windows boxes as a 2nd source of income.
I said all that to point out my deep roots in the Windows world. That being said, I now use Apple products almost exclusively.
Driver issues, security issues, hardware issues...I could handle them all. When someone else was paying for my time, I was good with them.
VMWare Fusion was the gateway drug that got me to buy my first Mac. I hated (and still do) QuickBooks for Mac, but really didn’t want to go with Vista. At the Apple store an employee demonstrated VMFusion running Windows and OSX simultaneously and I was hooked. I could have my cake and eat it too.
Over time we have come to use Windows less and less. We have 10 Macs, in various flavors, and one physical Windows machine (for print production). VMWare Fusion/Windows is only running on 3 of Macs - those that need to run QuickBooks.
We have had ONE hardware failure in ten years. One.
The “maintenance” I have to do on the computers, server and network is next to nothing. There are occasional updates.
All my employees and departments communicate seamlessly between their mobile devices and desktops.
Some days I get nostalgic and want to tinker again with Windows boxes...then I come to my senses.
While some will decry Apple’s “closed ecosystem”, we find it gives us a consistent experience at a much reduced cost (in money and time).
So, goodbye Windows...you were good in your time, but that time has passed, at least for us.