Posted on 04/11/2008 6:50:11 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The researchers damn Windows in current form, urge radical changes
Calling the situation "untenable" and describing Windows as "collapsing," a pair of Gartner analysts yesterday said Microsoft Corp. must make radical changes to its operating system or risk becoming a has-been.
In a presentation at a Gartner-sponsored conference in Las Vegas, analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions, and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the software developer acts.
"For Microsoft, its ecosystem and its customers, the situation is untenable," said Silver and MacDonald in their prepared presentation, titled "Windows Is Collapsing: How What Comes Next Will Improve."
Among Microsoft's problems, the pair said, is Windows' rapidly-expanding code base, which makes it virtually impossible to quickly craft a new version with meaningful changes. That was proved by Vista, they said, when Microsoft -- frustrated by lack of progress during the five-year development effort on the new operating -- hit the "reset" button and dropped back to the more stable code of Windows Server 2003 as the foundation of Vista.
"This is a large part of the reason [why] Windows Vista delivered primarily incremental improvements," they said. In turn, that became one of the reasons why businesses pushed back Vista deployment plans. "Most users do not understand the benefits of Windows Vista or do not see Vista as being better enough than Windows XP to make incurring the cost and pain of migration worthwhile."
Other analysts, including those at Gartner rival Forrester Research Inc., have highlighted the slow move toward Vista. Last month, Forrester said that by the end of 2007 only 6.3% of 50,000 enterprise computer users it surveyed were working with Vista. What gains Vista made during its first year, added Forrester, appeared to be at the expense of Windows 2000; Windows XP's share hardly budged.
The monolithic nature of Windows -- although Microsoft talks about Vista's modularity, Silver and MacDonald said it doesn't go nearly far enough -- not only makes it tough to deliver a worthwhile upgrade, but threatens Microsoft in the mid- and long-term.
Users want a smaller Windows that can run on low-priced -- and low-powered -- hardware. And increasingly, users work with "OS-agnostic applications," the two analysts said in their presentation. It takes too long for Microsoft to build the next version, the company is being beaten by others in the innovation arena, and in the future -- perhaps as soon as the next three years -- it's going to have trouble competing with Web applications and small, specialized devices.
"Apple introduced its iPhone running OS X, but Microsoft requires a different product on handhelds because Windows Vista is too large, which makes application development, support and the user experience all more difficult," according to Silver and MacDonald.
"Windows as we know it must be replaced," they said in their presentation.
Their advice to Microsoft took several forms, but one road they urged the software giant to take was virtualization. "We envision a very modular and virtualized world," said the researchers, who spelled out a future where virtualization -- specifically a hypervisor -- is standard on client as well as server versions of Windows.
"An OS, in this case Windows, will ride atop the hypervisor, but it will be much thinner, smaller and modular than it is today. Even the Win32 API set should be a module that can be deployed to maintain support for traditional Windows applications on some devices, but other[s] may not have that module installed."
Backward compatibility with older applications should also be supported via virtualization. "Backward compatibility is a losing proposition for Microsoft; while it keeps people locked into Windows, it also often keeps them from upgrading," said the analysts. "[But] using built-in virtualization, compatibility modules could be layered atop Win32, or not, as needed."
Silver and MacDonald also called on Microsoft to make it easier to move to newer versions of Windows, re-think how it licenses Windows and come up with a truly modular operating system that can grow or shrink as needed.
Microsoft has taken some new steps with Windows, although they don't necessarily match what the Gartner analysts recommended. For instance, the company recently granted Windows XP Home a reprieve from its June 30 OEM cut-off, saying it would let computer makers install the older, smaller operating system on ultra-cheap laptops through the middle of 2010.
It will also add a hypervisor to Windows -- albeit the server version -- in August, and there are signs that it will launch Windows 7, the follow-on to Vista, late next year rather than early 2010.
Hank - I've got an XP box from 2000 that's only got 256Mb of RAM and a 900MHz processor that will smoke most anybody's home box.
And I didn't have to upgrade a dime's worth.
LOL!!!!!!!
I am the only person using my laptop.....I don’t need no stinkin Administrator!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the Pope is busy..........:)
“None the less, no one is holding a gun to your head to use Vista or Windows in general, buy a Mac or install Linux.”
Not if you’re into games. And yes, Microsoft has been sort of holding a gun to peoples’ heads because most new machines now come installed with Vista. You can buy XP and wipe Vista off but that’s adding another $200 to the price of your computer “upgrade.”
Computer gaming is on the decline. I think in the not-too-distant future, games will be almost exclusively on consoles hooked to big LCD TVs, and desktop computers will largely disappear, being replaced by laptops and smart phones.
Your motherboard probably only has two slots. You’ll need two 1 gig sticks. You can sell 512M sticks on eBay or CraigsList
How much to train everybody how to use it?
Win98 was a great gaming platform
“Do you know if I can save the outlook emails to a file?
File, Save As.
Oooh oooh!
Got a link for that!?!
“I like Outlook because of its integration with other Office applications.”
That’s a great feature.......if you are a hacker. Send an email, have it fire off a program and BAM pwn3d!
I have one gig already.
My Windows XP is working. I’d does all I need and it’s working. It just works. All previous versions of Windows I’ve had have had annoying problems. I sure don’t want to spend money, upgrade and risk having problems. My experience with Microsoft Windows is problems, reboots, blue screens,... I’m going to stick with what’s working for as long as I can.
XP takes up 256M on bootup on my home machine. It’s a brand new build.
Gaming might have dropped some but it’s not even close to going away. Of course meanwhile media PCs that hook into the TV for watching programs are the big growth direction in home computing, which means at some point PC gaming via the big LCD TV will become the fad and the consoles will be in trouble. The periodic console wars have always hurt the business, every 5 years everybody comes out with new models and to play most of the games you want you need to get at least two. People like to complain about needing to periodically upgrade computers but unless you stick to one brand of console their upgrades cost just as much, and with the computer you get applications and useful things as well as gaming.
Yes but your 1 gig probably filled up all your slots.
Oh please, I've upgraded all of my home machines with no problems at all, and the thruput on my DSL line has increased significantly due to the IP6 layer. Same line speed, but download run much faster. If you're running with 512 mb ram and expect it to fly, it ain't gonna happen though. If you put enough memory on your macine and the hardware is somewhat current, you will have very few issues.
Sure. In Outlook, be sure you're in your Inbox, then go to File\Import and Export. Select Export to File, then follow the steps. I can't help you with Hotmail.
Wow .. aren't you just a bucket of brown stained sunshine.
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