I agree with the article in general, but you lost some credibility by equating Snipshot to Photoshop. I realize that you have an investment to promote, but please.
Microsoft is Dead
31–40 of 454 posts
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#32Being nearly 50years old, what frightens me about MS is that they think they can sell an OS which they can remotely turn off without out a court warrant and then its up to you if your business hasn't gone bankrupt to sue them . This just shows complete and utter contempt for their customers.Which will do for them in the long run.My next box will be linux. Maybe the apple setup etc looks attractive to the younger generation but its only superficial. They have their own history of arrogant greed too. Bob G
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#33I realized Microsoft was dead in early January 2007 when it occured to me that vista was about to come out and I didn't see anyone who really cared. Of course now that Vista has failed to garner any real attention, this view is confirmed.
Further, I think that even on the desktop things are going to change and fast.
I don't think people realize just how well Apple is doing.
Their Mac sales are up something like %50, but they havent' really experienced network effects yet... as MS fails to come up with anything inspiring, PC owners are going to try switching in larger and larger numbers.
We aren't yet seeing the watershet that this is yet-- but the Mac has moved from the margins to a viable maisntream possibility.... and as PCs bought between 2004-2006 come up for replacement, a huge number of those machines will be replaced with Macs.
It was only in 2006 that people outside the software and web industry really started to see the Mac as a viable alternative.
Personally, I am starting to feel a bit odd, since suddenly there are all these new Mac users.
When the Mac becomes mainstream, I'll lose the comfortable non-conformity I've enjoyed since 1988.
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#34Being nearly 50years old, what frightens me about MS is that they think they can sell an OS which they can remotely turn off without out a court warrant and then its up to you if your business hasn't gone bankrupt to sue them . This just shows complete and utter contempt for their customers.Which will do for them in the long run.My next box will be linux. Maybe the apple setup etc looks attractive to the younger gene…
I recently acquired a Mac Book Pro. There was precisely one Windows program I wanted to run on it (SuperMemo) under Parallels, which received good reviews. Rather than wait to purchase a copy of Windows from the local CompUSA, I used an OEM copy of Windows from a defenestrated a DELL box (I replaced Windows with Debian). After installing XP as a guest OS under Parallels, I activated XP online by purchasing a product key through the Genuine Advantage program.
But that wasn't good enough for Microsoft. Microsoft informed me in their emailed order acknowledgment that I was some kind of felon: "To convert your counterfeit Windows XP software to a genuine copy of Windows XP using the new Product Key, you will need to download and run the Windows Product Key Update Tool on the same computer you used to purchase the electronic license for Windows XP."
The following week I received in the mail a Windows Genuine Advantage Kit for Windows XP Professional; it contained a letter asserting that I had "submitted a counterfeit report" with my order, and that this report would be "treated as confidential." Moreover, "...Microsoft's anti-piracy team investigates each and every lead we receive. Since investigations are ongoing and extremely confidential, we are unable to provide you with the status of the particular lead you have submitted. The length of time to bring about enforcements varies depending on the nature of a particular investigation."
Hateful monsters! Frightful miscreants! I suppose I deserve this for having anything to do with Windows.
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#35This is a very thought provoking essay. Very forward thinking. I agree with many of the things that you say, but the fact of the matter is that much of the economy - domestic and global - runs in a Windows environment. Most consumers still run Windows. Am I missing the point? Perhaps. I suppose it is true that anybody who takes personal computing seriously is running Firefox and Thunderbird and Google Desktop on Windows. In that sense, yeah Windows is dead. Personally, I use Macs, so I am well insulated from Microsoft. However, they are alive and well if only because of the Office suite. If I send a an OpenDocument file to ten of my friends, they won't be able to open it. If I send a Word file, everybody can open it. The point is, Microsoft is still quite relevant today. Although, I can see your points and would fully agree that free Linux could easily supplant Windows as a desktop environment (to run your stated Web 2.0 apps) or Macs. I applaud your essay; you take some interesting positions and provide some profound insight. Very interesting. Brad Engelmann.
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#36Wanted to point out a typo. You have:
"Thanks to OSX, Apple has come back from the dead in a way that is extremely rare technology."
I think that should be "extremely rare IN technology."
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would take an incredible amount of sack for Microsoft to deliberately break IE; there's no way they would ever take a risk like that and I really doubt it would play out like you think. Web based applications have way too much momentum. Initially the clueless would go without, but the backlash would be so severe in the development and tech communities that pretty soon the clueless would have a working alternative…
Even if Microsoft does not intentionally break IE, what incentive would it have to improve support for AJAX apps? For example, what incentive would it have to support an offline mode for AJAX apps?
You think Microsoft can stop web app innovation by just ignoring it themselves?
Their incentive is to maintain their market share. IE7 is their attempt to get their ass in gear for precisely that reason. The market's not going to stick around and wait for IE and the web will progress whether MSFT wants it to or not.
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#38Is IBM dead? Maybe Microsoft is just another IBM. In 30 years, they may even be backing free software.
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#39I guess I must be old now, because I find it hard to believe that a company that still has their software running on 95% of the world's computers is "dead". I just don't get this argument. I totally agree that there's this very small, very insular part of the world that thinks it's dead, but that part of the world is apparently not working in large companies, or trading files with professionals in any profession othe…
Quote: "I'm now surprised when I come across a computer running Windows". "Insular" indeed!
Re: Microsoft is Dead
#40Being nearly 50years old, what frightens me about MS is that they think they can sell an OS which they can remotely turn off without out a court warrant and then its up to you if your business hasn't gone bankrupt to sue them . This just shows complete and utter contempt for their customers.Which will do for them in the long run.My next box will be linux. Maybe the apple setup etc looks attractive to the younger gene…
You bring up a hilarious caveat to "No one is even afraid of Microsoft anymore."
The people now afraid of MSFT are not their competitors but instead their customers.