8 ms·
So are mom and pop businesses using Chromebooks and Ipads to do their accounting now? Last I checked Windows was still pretty dominant in both Enterprise and m
by twoquestions 9y ago
So are mom and pop businesses using Chromebooks and Ipads to do their accounting now? Last I checked Windows was still pretty dominant in both Enterprise and midsize businesses, though I could see a food truck being run from a phone (theoretically).
- SonicSoul 9y agoWindows is not going away. it's just been downgraded from primary strategy at Microsoft
- nightski 9y agoAs a long time developer on the Microsoft stack (approaching 20 years now?), it seems to me like this makes Microsoft and it's services less relevant and more easily replaceable in the long run. It's clear Azure and the related services are very lucrative, but I feel this is because of the prevalent use of Windows, not in spite of it.
- pjmlp 9y agoSame here, but I don't see any rush to change those Windows desktops by something else, beyond eventually some Macs.
- SonicSoul 9y agoyou're thinking about desktops. think servers/mobile. that's a highly competitive space you won't compete in by making windows 10% better every 2 years.
- pjmlp 9y agoCurrently Android seems to have lost the tablet war on consumer electronic shops. People are either going for iPads, or hybrid laptops runnig W10. Android devs are to blame, given the little effort to adapt phone apps to tablets.
- SonicSoul 9y agocitation needed http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide
- pjmlp 9y agoSo what, if I find a source that contradicts your's would you just put yet another link? I know what I see when I go into a store, travel across Europe and look around for what the other passengers are using. If you feel vindicated by posting some random link asserting you are right, so be it.
- hesarenu 9y agoWhat you see and reality can be different. I am from third world i do not see much iPhone users at all. And from the link iPad does have commanding lead over android tablets.
- SonicSoul 9y agoi'm not posting a "random link" to prove you wrong. I googled around and saw a few sources all of which seem to agree on current market share, which made me genuinely confused by your comment.
- bitmapbrother 9y agoHere's another link that contradicts your anecdotal stories: https://www.statista.com/statistics/276635/market-share-held-by-tablet-vendors/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/276635/market-share-held...
- angus-prune 9y agoactually, if you drill down to tablets, which the GP was referring to, the iOS has 2/3 market share. http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/tablet/worldwide http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/tablet/worldwide
- bitmapbrother 9y ago
- SonicSoul 9y agowell, as a long time developer in financial enterprise space (18 years) I think MS made a lot of right moves already since Nadela took over. betting all your eggs on Windows dominance proved to be a faulty (and dangerous) strategy especially since a lot of enterprise started using Linux / open source. For example I know a very major hedge fund that went from Windows everywhere to using every open source database they can get their hands on. The whole container strategy is just much easier with linux as well. it's a very hard battle to win. one big co vs every startup betting on OS.
- gr3yh47 9y ago>a lot of enterprise started using Linux / open source. any major players? entire healthcare industry is married to microsoft, at least the big names. same for lots of major enterprises that i know of
- jasonjayr 9y agoMicrosoft could kill Linux's foothold in the server + SMB space right now just by simplifying licensing. Get rid of CAL's. Charge a fixed price for a certain # of simultaneously running Windows instances, no matter how you run it. Even charging an ongoing subscription for this would be acceptable. Simplify the licensing situation for SMBs wanting to run an on-premise redundant systems, without needing diagrams to explain the difference between running, standby, CAL's, virtualization, etc. If you're developing software for a platform, trying to figure out how to optimally license that platform should be the least of your concerns, so you can focus on your product.
- pythonaut_16 9y agoThis is blatantly false. You're assuming that people only use Linux because they don't want to pay or deal with licensing complexities of Microsoft which is not the case.
- jasonjayr 9y agoThat's not the only reason. If the Windows platform brings more to the table than Linux, then for a developer that would weigh more heavily than the complexities of licensing it. I've supported several Windows-centric SMB accounting platforms, including QuickBooks and trying to figure out the right way to license just Windows, in order to support High-availability or redundancy is headache-inducing at the SMB-sized server level.
- Spooky23 9y agoWindows 10 is really difficult for businesses entrenched in Windows to deal with. The work that you need to do in order to unwind from legacy Windows stuff like fat apps, IE-optimized websites, and legacy Office-based workflows makes it pretty easy to move to an iPad to Google, etc. The only thing that Microsoft has going for them is that every other vendor is also fucking up client computing in different ways.
- GordonS 9y agoI've seen problems with websites as IE versions are upgraded, but that happens with or without Windows 10. I haven't seen any issues with apps though, so I have to dispute this claim. We just moved 5,000 employees from Windows 7 to 10, and it went far smoother than anyone really expected - everything just works. It's a wide range of apps too, everything from in-house WPF apps to CAD and engineering software.
- Spooky23 9y agoJanky enterprise crap optimized for IE <whatever> is one big example. The other is old Office stuff like Access databases or workflows dependent on conversion of old file formats. (Last year Office 365 ProPlus purged legacy DBase import for a few months) IE11 support will go away at some point. Many of those apps are now being updated to work on Chrome -- I know of a few large shops that aren't testing IE or Edge anymore for internal apps! I do agree that they did a heroic effort on making the update process incredibly reliable. Most non-prehistoric applications transition seamlessly. Note that I personally equate Windows 10 and the subscription "Office 365 ProPlus". The layers of complexity are astounding. I present to you what I call the "Office 365 ProPlus Build Decoder Ring" - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Version-and-build-numbers-of-update-channel-releases-ae942449-1fca-4484-898b-a933ea23def7 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Version-and-build-n... Windows 10 itself has about 8-10 releases that an enterprise needs to think about. Transition from release to release has gotchas and additional Windows-Office gotchas. (For example, the way Office authenticates changes in certain builds) (See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows-10/release-information https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows-10/release-inf...)
- 9y ago
- amyjess 9y agoI see iPads everywhere at smaller restaurants. Especially in food courts. I've even seen a few Android tablets (including at one upscale food hall in Plano, TX). Not just restaurants, too; independent stores are picking up tablets at a huge rate. If a store has opened in the last three years or so, they're probably using a tablet as a cash register. Tablets are rapidly taking over the market for cash registers.
- pjmlp 9y agoMany of those tablets are actually running W10.
- Twisell 9y agoSources?
- pjmlp 9y agoPersonal anecdote of what I see being sold on consumer stores here in Germany. Or the restaurants or cocktail bars that happen to have tablets instead of paper menus. They started with iPads, but as their chains got bigger they moved to a mix of Android and W10 tablets. Source, personal anecdote getting out of the menu app into the OS.
- amyjess 9y agoI guess that's just a difference between Germany and the US (or at least Texas). Most of the tablets I've seen in stores and restaurants are actual iPad hardware, the virtual keyboard used when entering information is the iOS keyboard, and the Square app follows the Apple design guidelines. And the rare occasions when I encounter an Android tablet, I recognize it from the virtual keyboard. Case in point: the food hall I mentioned in my above post. When you buy something, it asks you if you'd like to enter your phone number so they can text you when your order's ready. When I chose to enter my number, I instantly recognized the keyboard for that as the Android 4.x keyboard.
- 9y ago
- jsty 9y agoAnecdata: most of the SMBs I know are using web/cloud-based accounting products, and like it for varying reasons (not having to manage / upgrade the software, easy to collaborate with their accountant) but a major one is being able to access their accounts from anything with a web browser.
- bluedino 9y agoThey still do 'the work' in Excel
- rootusrootus 9y agoAs a counterpoint, my wife runs her own bookkeeping business and pretty much all of her clients are using Quickbooks on Windows workstations, with no real desire to try anything new. I know a couple people myself that are using cloud-based accounting products but they seem to be the exception. In both cases they are tech businesses, which perhaps makes them more open to trying something new than a typical small business.
- amyjess 9y agoI'll take a guess and say that these are all older businesses. Businesses that started before the advent of cloud software will continue to use QuickBooks because that's what the owners know, and why fix something that isn't broken? But newer businesses that started in the last few years will be much more likely to use cloud software because it's so much more convenient.
- dboreham 9y agoThere are non-technical reasons to prefer locally hosted accounting software. Privacy is one if them.
- dumbfounder 9y agoDo you mean privacy, or security? It would be a massive breach of trust if SaaS accounting products were harvesting your business data a la Facebook...
- GlitchMr 9y agoFor me, the experience is that it's harder to find an accounting software that is Windows-only. Pretty much many of those are running inside of a web browser. Your experience may vary depending on where you live however.
- dmart 9y agoIn my experience... yes. At least in the Pittsburgh area, every food truck, small boutique, expo vendor, etc. that I've encountered has used Square and an iPad to handle payments.
- innocentoldguy 9y agoI own a small business and I run my accounting with FreshBooks, which I can easily use via my phone, iPad, or MacBook. I haven't used windows for 18 years. I'm probably an outlier, but it can be done.
- maxxxxx 9y agoIt can be done but usually going Windows is the path of least resistance for most non tech users.
- Twisell 9y agoI can agree that windows can be the path of least resistance because of legacy business softwares. But please don't even start to argue that windows is more easy to use than an iPad.
- maxxxxx 9y agoFor a lot of professional things windows (Or Mac or Linux) is better. For data entry a tablet is a real pain. I wouldn't want to do accounting on an iPad for example.
- innocentoldguy 9y agoHow is doing small business accounting on an iPad, with a keyboard, any different that doing small business accounting on a Surface? You tap on the screen where you want to put data and type. Also, when using FreshBooks, which is what my comment was about, once you set up your customers, line items, and rates, creating an invoice involves about five taps and maybe typing in the number of hours/quantity, if it differs from the default of 1. That's it. I'm not sure how Windows could possibly make that any easier.
- innocentoldguy 9y agoHow does "going Windows" make doing small business accounting easier?
- SmellyGeekBoy 9y agoAnecdotal I know but my business employs 4 people and a few (including myself) are full time Linux users. I use Xero for our accounts and I'm very happy with it.