Live data from Hacker News

Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8

winsupersite.com

41–50 of 75 posts

Re: Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8

#41
post #33

Windows 9 Core. They didn't like our GUI, so we're sure end users will love learning Powershell.

Am I the only .NET developer who doesn't get the point of powershell? "Look it's C#! But with uglier syntax. And terrible tools. But with a handful of tiny features that let it work like a command-line language!"

What you're not getting is a not-invented-here scripting language with idiosyncrasies deeply coupled to .Net.

If only they had just improved the command line...rather than force every admin to learn a throwaway scripting language that adds no long term value once you use any other platform.

Re: Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8

#44

I hope with this release they resolve some edition confusions between nonsensical words, like Premium, Professional, Ultimate, etc.

If they dont do that they should at least make a list of comprehensive differences between the editions. The page for comparing versions seems to be made by the marketing dept and is mostly fluff. I found out the hard way that professional versions dont support multi monitor RDP and NFS shares. You need to buy enterprise for that. Try finding this out ahead of time using the website.

Re: Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8

#46

So are we now seeing the confirmation of the anti-Star Trek Curse[1]? Windows 9 will be OK, 10 will be terrible, 11 will be OK, and so on... Microsoft's new leadership needs to start thinking about resigning itself to being the stable operating system choice. Nothing fancy, nothing sexy, no major "rebirth" to keep up with the Jonses ever other version. They are an enterprise operating system for 95% of businesses out…

I can see your points, but this is EXACTLY how Nokia and RIM went down the drain. They both thought that as long as we just churn out new iterations of the same thing, it'll keep people on. Look how that went...

The difference is that there were plenty of competitors whose commodity products were overtaking even the premium, business-friendly features in BlackBerry gear, just as generic PCs eventually made dedicated high-end workstations obsolete. Right now, the only credible competitor to Windows for a user-facing business PC operating system is OS X, and even then a lot more of the serious business software is better on Windows today so Apple's penetration seems to be mainly laptops for management and sales roles.

There are plenty of ways Microsoft could develop Windows that would play to their existing customer base and their established strengths; I've argued at length in previous posts that Microsoft are the best positioned business in the world to push a "private cloud" trend, for one possible example, and that they could offer genuine benefits to businesses that would justify upgrading their installations. All they have to do is regain the focus they had a few years ago and play the cards they've been dealt to best effect, and as far as desktop Windows goes, I believe that means not rocking the boat trying to be too clever and "consumery", but instead building out the technical strengths under the hood and making them easy and familiar to access.

But if their next desktop OS is another turkey, I suspect their luck will start to run out. It will take them several years to even try a different strategy, and by then I expect at least one major competing platform will have reached enough maturity to take them head on and start stealing away the big business software market. Apple could do it -- they have the technical smarts, the war chest, and the scale to pull it off -- but I don't think they will under their current management team. I suspect a more direct challenge might come from a start-up with a big name backer building something on Linux. While "year of Linux on the desktop" is still a running joke, the likes of Android phones/tablets, Chromebooks, and probably soon Steam Machines show it can work as a non-geek's OS given the right front-end. Looking 3/4/5 years from now, around the time Microsoft's next-but-one generation user OS arrived, a huge amount could have happened in an industry this fast-paced.

Re: Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8

#47

If Microsoft follows their old pattern of consumer OSes, Windows 9 will be fantastic: * 95: Dud * 98: Great * Me: Dud * XP: Great * Vista: Dud * 7: Great * 8: Dud

>"* Me: Dud, * XP: Great"

Windows 2000 was great and it was between those too.

Re: Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8

#48

If Microsoft follows their old pattern of consumer OSes, Windows 9 will be fantastic: * 95: Dud * 98: Great * Me: Dud * XP: Great * Vista: Dud * 7: Great * 8: Dud

Was 95 a dud? That's not how I remember it, although it was a huge change from 3.x. You also miss Windows 2000 which was a very good OS though not really sold to consumers.

Re: Windows 9 to be unveiled in April, distances itself from Windows 8

#50

I like Windows 8 but there is like 10 people using it. Most of the people are still on 7. I really don't see the need for a Windows 9 that will just bring driver troubles, incompatibility and inconsistency.

not if it's in fact just a rebranded windows 8

You mean like how Windows 7 was basically a rebranded Vista?
Post reply on HN