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Microsoft has had 90% marketshare for 20 years now. You know who has demonstrated that they are their own worst enemy? Consumers. People vote with their pocke

Microsoft has had 90% marketshare for 20 years now. You know who has demonstrated that they are their own worst enemy? Consumers. People vote with their pocketbook. Now you have to live with that result.

x0x0 8y ago
To be fair, the only serious competition for home users has laptops that (now) start at $1200, plus tax, applecare, and dongles (oh, you wanted a USB-A connection like basically every device in the world uses? Jony is about to courage your wallet. You want to be able to connect it to the odd tv via HDMI, what everything in the world uses? More courage!)... so basically $1500 to walk out the store. I'm aware you can get an old air with 5 year old guts for $1k, but that will prolly not be sold for much longer. My parents do not need $1.5k of laptop to browse the internet, email, and exchange photos of grandkids. Particularly in a world when a decent laptop doing the above should cost $750 or less out the store.
- PascLeRasc 8y ago
  Chromebooks are pretty much perfect for home users, and starting to be decent for developers too.
  - x0x0 8y ago
    My parents live in rural America, and the internet connection is not good. It's manageable for email and browsing, but even the school has problems with chromebooks and their bad internet connection. Plus... if you're fleeing Windows because of the advertising, you're gonna go to a google product? How on earth does that help?
- wild_preference 8y ago
  At the same time, how many cheap Windows laptops are only so cheap because they come with a lot of pre-installed bullshit? Also, 5 year old Air for $1k? That's almost how much they cost new. I'm seeing half that on Ebay/Craigslist. My sister has a new $450 Toshiba and my 5 year old Air runs much better. I got a new battery for it and gave it to her. Unfortunately you went way too far with your rant and buried your point about Windows' real competition being more expensive. But the low end of Windows laptops is pretty atrocious. Someone stuck buying those aren't doing it because Airs lost their SD card port. They're doing it because they can't afford anything other than a computer that serves them ads, has 3hrs battery life, and struggles to buffer 1080p video on Youtube like my sister's new Toshiba.
  - x0x0 8y ago
    The guts are 5 years old in a brand new old-style air.
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    > At the same time, how many cheap Windows laptops are only so cheap because they come with a lot of pre-installed bullshit? I'm going to guess none. $30 of bloatware is extremely tempting when your profit margin is 4%, but it doesn't represent any meaningful savings.
intopieces 8y ago
>People vote with their pocketbook In this case, I don’t think that’s fair. A great number of people can’t devote the time to learning a new operating system or cannot afford a high priced OS X machine.
- melling 8y ago
  Yeah, after 20 years later you’re kind of screwed. Much of the competition is dead. Beats me. Not like we couldn’t see this coming for two decades. Soon you’ll be the product. Maybe next year will be the year of Linux.
- shock 8y ago
  > A great number of people can’t devote the time to learning a new operating system Can't or won't? My experience has been that several people I know would rather stay in their comfort zone rather than learn something new. I'm not just talking about OSes here. I qualify this as a won't. I suspect this reluctance to switch from the status quo might apply to a wider population than my acquaintances.
  - intopieces 8y ago
    Can't or won't is a distinction without a difference. Desktop/laptop computer ownership is flat and has been for the past decade [0] with smart phones and tablets growing [1]. What's the use in learning an entirely new operating system on your desktop whenever most of your time (65%) is being spent on Mobile anyway? [2] [0] http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/the-demographics-of-device-ownership/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/the-demographics-of-de... [1] http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-owne... [2] "Mobile now accounts for about 65% of total digital media consumption" https://hackernoon.com/how-much-time-do-people-spend-on-their-mobile-phones-in-2017-e5f90a0b10a6 https://hackernoon.com/how-much-time-do-people-spend-on-thei...
- swiley 8y ago
  What is there to learn on a Gnome/Ubuntu distro? There's a button you click to open firefox/writer/calc and a button you click to open the (arguably inferior to wpa_gui) wifi network GUI. There is a finder/explorer like shell on pretty much any "popular" DE. External drives are auto mounted and there's better point and click support for pretty much any way to move files over the network. There really isn't any learning unless you're a power user, and those are the people that can handle learning. And even if there was, Microsoft moves their UI around often enough that people have had to "learn a new OS" at least three times by now.

x0x0 8y ago

To be fair, the only serious competition for home users has laptops that (now) start at $1200, plus tax, applecare, and dongles (oh, you wanted a USB-A connection like basically every device in the world uses? Jony is about to courage your wallet. You want to be able to connect it to the odd tv via HDMI, what everything in the world uses? More courage!)... so basically $1500 to walk out the store. I'm aware you can get an old air with 5 year old guts for $1k, but that will prolly not be sold for much longer. My parents do not need $1.5k of laptop to browse the internet, email, and exchange photos of grandkids. Particularly in a world when a decent laptop doing the above should cost $750 or less out the store.

PascLeRasc 8y ago
Chromebooks are pretty much perfect for home users, and starting to be decent for developers too.
- x0x0 8y ago
  My parents live in rural America, and the internet connection is not good. It's manageable for email and browsing, but even the school has problems with chromebooks and their bad internet connection. Plus... if you're fleeing Windows because of the advertising, you're gonna go to a google product? How on earth does that help?
wild_preference 8y ago
At the same time, how many cheap Windows laptops are only so cheap because they come with a lot of pre-installed bullshit? Also, 5 year old Air for $1k? That's almost how much they cost new. I'm seeing half that on Ebay/Craigslist. My sister has a new $450 Toshiba and my 5 year old Air runs much better. I got a new battery for it and gave it to her. Unfortunately you went way too far with your rant and buried your point about Windows' real competition being more expensive. But the low end of Windows laptops is pretty atrocious. Someone stuck buying those aren't doing it because Airs lost their SD card port. They're doing it because they can't afford anything other than a computer that serves them ads, has 3hrs battery life, and struggles to buffer 1080p video on Youtube like my sister's new Toshiba.
- x0x0 8y ago
  The guts are 5 years old in a brand new old-style air.
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  > At the same time, how many cheap Windows laptops are only so cheap because they come with a lot of pre-installed bullshit? I'm going to guess none. $30 of bloatware is extremely tempting when your profit margin is 4%, but it doesn't represent any meaningful savings.

intopieces 8y ago

>People vote with their pocketbook In this case, I don’t think that’s fair. A great number of people can’t devote the time to learning a new operating system or cannot afford a high priced OS X machine.

melling 8y ago
Yeah, after 20 years later you’re kind of screwed. Much of the competition is dead. Beats me. Not like we couldn’t see this coming for two decades. Soon you’ll be the product. Maybe next year will be the year of Linux.
shock 8y ago
> A great number of people can’t devote the time to learning a new operating system Can't or won't? My experience has been that several people I know would rather stay in their comfort zone rather than learn something new. I'm not just talking about OSes here. I qualify this as a won't. I suspect this reluctance to switch from the status quo might apply to a wider population than my acquaintances.
- intopieces 8y ago
  Can't or won't is a distinction without a difference. Desktop/laptop computer ownership is flat and has been for the past decade [0] with smart phones and tablets growing [1]. What's the use in learning an entirely new operating system on your desktop whenever most of your time (65%) is being spent on Mobile anyway? [2] [0] http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/the-demographics-of-device-ownership/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/the-demographics-of-de... [1] http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-owne... [2] "Mobile now accounts for about 65% of total digital media consumption" https://hackernoon.com/how-much-time-do-people-spend-on-their-mobile-phones-in-2017-e5f90a0b10a6 https://hackernoon.com/how-much-time-do-people-spend-on-thei...
swiley 8y ago
What is there to learn on a Gnome/Ubuntu distro? There's a button you click to open firefox/writer/calc and a button you click to open the (arguably inferior to wpa_gui) wifi network GUI. There is a finder/explorer like shell on pretty much any "popular" DE. External drives are auto mounted and there's better point and click support for pretty much any way to move files over the network. There really isn't any learning unless you're a power user, and those are the people that can handle learning. And even if there was, Microsoft moves their UI around often enough that people have had to "learn a new OS" at least three times by now.