Teflon Windows

Forbes ^ | 01.29.07 | Daniel Lyons

[ShawTaylor]

Boston - Can’t anyone find anything nice to say about Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system?

-----snip-----

Funny thing though--go back to October 2001, when Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) released Windows XP, and you’ll find lots of griping then too. And some of it sounds eerily familiar. Pundits called XP a resource hog and “power mad” because it needed a 400-megahertz processor and 192 megs if you wanted fast performance. Shocking!

Our own reviewer, Stephen Manes, sniped about XP: “The world's richest chief software architect continues a record for design elegance unmatched since the Yugo. … If your current computer is working well, XP offers no compelling reason to replace it. And XP offers plenty of compelling reasons to avoid ‘upgrading’ existing machines.”

So what happened? Well, there are now 665 million copies of XP installed worldwide, giving it 74.3% share of the PC installed base. Other versions of Windows account for another 190 million units, or 21.6% share.

The Mac, for all of Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) snazzy advertising, has less than 1.6% share of the PC installed base. Linux, for all of the millions of column inches devoted to its wondrous abilities (many of those lines by yours truly), holds about 2.5% share. (All figures are from Gartner Dataquest.)

No wonder nobody at Microsoft seems too upset about the bad reviews of Vista. First of all, it’s easy (and fashionable) to talk trash about Microsoft. And it’s all too easy to overlook Microsoft’s achievements, like making operating system software that works well enough and is priced well enough to attract 96% of the world’s PC users. -----snip----- Microsoft’s two Internet TV channels drawing a combined 4.5 million viewers each month, the company doesn’t need to rely on the mainstream media.

[Calvin Locke]

I saw an Apple commercial tonight. Personifications of Vista/Vista's "firewall"/Mac. Clever, but how effective?

[Starwolf]

No, Apple has been reduced to a boutique computer vendor and a music player powerhouse. The reasons for it are many and varied, and they can not all be laid at the feet of an evil Microsoft. Some of it was their own doing.

Being boutique is not necessarily bad, but don't expect a lot of revenue or respect in the open market.

[dhs12345]

What is the compelling reason for upgrading?

Win98 to XP was a huge improvement. XP to Vista?

[ShawTaylor]

"Oh yeah. Steve Ballmer (Monkey Man) admitted Vista sales were dismal"

Steve Ballmer said Vista sales "were dismal" did he?

Read this will ya?:


"Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said the company's Windows Vista operating system had been incredibly well-received.

"People who sell PCs have seen a very nice lift in their sales. People have come in and wanted to buy Vista," said Gates.

Gates made the comments when asked to clarify last week's comments by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer that analysts' forecasts for fiscal 2008 revenue for the Windows Vista operating system were "overly aggressive"."

http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=46224&src=site-marq

And this was after Ballmer's speech, where he did NOT say Vista sales "were dismal". What were you saying again?

[MediaMole]

The biggest problems with Vista come from device manufacturers. I've been running Vista since October and the real problems are device drivers.

My Vista box is an HDTV DVR and until I switched from Nvidia to ATI, the playback was poor. Nvidia's drivers wouldn't even consistently run the Aero interface, even though I had a modern video card with 256MB ram.

There is a lot of FUD about the DRM, as well. People seem to think Vista will add DRM to all video recordings and prevent CD ripping. It doesn't. It does aggressively enforce copy protection where it already exists, but things like recordings from over the air HDTV are not DRM'd and can be copied, transcoded and played on other computers and portable devices with no limitations.

[ShawTaylor]

"I saw an Apple commercial tonight. Personifications of Vista/Vista's "firewall"/Mac. Clever, but how effective?"

Apple's "clever" commercials against Vista will be about as effective as Apple's "clever" commercials against XP 5 years ago.
In other words it's going to get them nowhere.

[Redbob]

"Second point -- of course, there's a zillion copies of XP out there. Every major manufacturer included it on their new computers..."

And an excellent point it is:

I wonder who went out and just plunked down the money to buy a copy of Windows XP?
And what is his name?
<LOL!>

[AFreeBird]

XP to Vista?

No reason what so ever.

And if the suckers actually read the EULA...

[ShawTaylor]

All valid points, about standard for most new operating systems. Device driver issues will get much better with time.

[dhs12345]

You have to admit that they have done well with the IPOD.

Why the rest of the industry didn't figure it out doesn't make sense. Let me guess: they were afraid of RIAA.

I saw it coming -- the demand for a high capacity mp3 player and I am don't have a Harvard MBA.

[ShawTaylor]

"You have to admit that they have done well with the IPOD."

Incredibly well.
No question about that.

[rlmorel]

Oh, I am very sorry. He said they were overly optimistic. Revenues only dropped 28%, and their stock is hovering around $29.

Orwell would have understood that statement completely, but it is lost on some.

[Mr. Blonde]

I bet these ads work better than any attacks they made on XP. Apple has much higher visibility now thanks to the iPod. And with more and more Apple retail stores opening they will get more looks from people. How can you not be at least interested when you walk by one of those stores in the mall? They look so different from everything else.

[georgiarat]

A company that wants to really improve productivity and security will look seriously at Macs unless all one is doing is rote keying on a single application.

The protection of the Windows monopoly is most fostered by the technical staffs in the corporate departments that depend on Windows based PC's for job security. Likewise for consultants, Best Buys etc.... If only the US Auto industry had been so smart.

[dhs12345]

Yeah. I bet. XP was bad with licensing. Bet Vista is worse.

Still XP has it's place. I have spent many hours trying to find this driver and that for my Linux PC. Something that takes a hour to set up on a PC, takes hours on Linux and you might not even be successful because your hardware isn't even supported.

As file, email, print, etc. servers, Linux wins out. I am still a Newbie to Linux, though.

[georgiarat]

Oh, and while some will start the flame, I am a CIO at a 6 billion dollar organization and we have seen significant productivity gains as we are switching and have been able to reduce technical support costs by over 1/3rd. Cost of equipment is in line with what we were paying for PC's and as more of our field staff have become mobile the clean networking capability has reduced the need for support at off hours.

[PAR35]

Forbes used to have qualified writers. Sad to see that their standards have dropped. The original XP was a pile of manure. Vista will probably be OK in about 5 years or so as well.

[Mr. Blonde]

And this is because?

[grey_whiskers]

Dang! Are you hiring...Americans?

As opposed to "Asians" ??

Cheers!