Its a humorous story. To be honest...Windows XP has pretty much maxed out whatever you wanted it to do...and I think the mass of users really don’t have any huge expectations anymore. The geek squad might....but most of us see no reason to buy into the next round.
Even if we discuss Office 97...most of us with copies of this...will agree that upgrading to Office 2003 or Office 2007...is really not necessary. Office 97 does what ninety percent of us want.
I admit being a humble daily user of Microsoft products and certainly not a Geek...but if you asked me...saying that Windows is just about “finished”...would be a joke.
Seems that the main focus of this article is corporate adoption, which is historically slow for any new OS, Windows included. Chock this article up to a big yawn from me.
Open Office will do 99% of what people want. But that 1% makes all the difference, especially to a programmer creating an application needed by a client.
What I really want is a basic software suite, word processing, web browsing, photo editing, book-keeping, media player and a few standard games. I want that all to run off of a non-writable platform, like a CD perhaps or maybe BIOS, so that it could not be effected by malware, and if it was, it could be reloaded easily. The only thing I want to write to the hard drive is data files, that I could back up.
Then if the thing blows up, it is easy to fix. Such a system would do 99.9% of what I want it to do.
Having tried Office 2007, I would call it a jump backwards. It does nothing I desire better than 97 or 2003, and many things worse.
MS’s problem, as you said, is that most of us are happy with XP and Office 2003 at the latest. My computer already does everything I want it to, and does it well - so why do I need to upgrade to anything?
Furthermore, I would pay a premium to NOT upgrade. I’d cheerfully pay more for my next computer so I could have it running XP/2003 and save myself the hassle of trying to figure out where MS hid the ‘save as’ command!
Maybe the solution is for MS to act like Coca-cola, and offer Windows/Office Classic...a bundle with XP/Office 97. Since it is older software, they could sell it licensed for 5 machines. Their only problem is that almost no one would buy anything else!
XP is fine. Leave the crap alone. Just say NO TO VISTA.
Also, use Linux for good security.
Make your machine dual-bootable. It’s not difficult, and some of the linux flavors are very easy to use.
Email, browsing and the normal things that connect to the internet (other than gaming) can use Linux with no problem.
Everything else? Use XP.
I use Win XP at work, and use Solaris X (linux freeware from SUN) in my x86 and Mac’s at home. Stable, virus free, and full of wonderful features if you need them.
Solaris X is highly recommended.
Windows98 worked great. The only reason I ever end up with a newer version of windows is because my old computer broke so I threw it away and got a new one.
Gartner has to sell subscriptions to its service and makes these kinds of pronouncements every so often to get attention. They used to have the inside scoop, but the internet has put them on the road to obsolescence.