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Normally, I wouldn't submit something with what I might consider to be an inflammatory title, but I think John Gruber raises some interesting points on Microsof
by tumult 17y ago
Normally, I wouldn't submit something with what I might consider to be an inflammatory title, but I think John Gruber raises some interesting points on Microsoft's current situation. They're a huge company with products which register on my likability meter from "this is awesome" to "what is this crap?"
It will be interesting to see what happens with Windows 7. It's a good chance for them to turn around the bad image that became associated with Vista. This doesn't necessarily need any technical bearing.
Windows Mobile, to me, seems like a pretty dead platform. I've gone through a couple of WM phones and I have no intention of going back, either as a developer or a user.
- tvon 17y agoI'm picking on you a bit here, but "Microsoft's Long, Slow Decline" is about as gentle a title can be while indicating that the article is about the general decline of Microsoft. Inflammatory would be "Microsoft is Dead", "Microsoft has Jumped the Shark" or "Microsoft Causes Cancer".
- mechanical_fish 17y agoI can't resist forwarding Gruber's most recent Twitter: (The working title was ‘Microsoft Is Fucked’.) Judiciously edited, I'd say. ;)
- Arubis 17y agoOr the working title, per Twitter: http://twitter.com/gruber/status/2940843840 http://twitter.com/gruber/status/2940843840 I wish this all weren't the case. Competition benefits everyone, and Apple's had fairly free reign over the improving-your-consumer-OS space for quite a while now.
- access_denied 17y agoTalk is cheap. If you really care than I see you contributing to an OSS desktop project.
- tjmc 17y agoMy personal prediction is that Windows 7 will be a big hit for Microsoft. I installed the RC on a 3yo media PC with 1GB RAM and it’s really been quite good – it found all the hardware including slightly obscure things like dual tv tuners and an IR receiver on install. The only thing it missed was the graphics card driver but it found it on the first update. The digital tv playback is smoother than XP and it “just works” as a PVR – you can fully control it with a remote from across the room. It plays Xvid and can burn DVDs out of the box. Gruber’s right that MS have lost the enthusiasts and yes, they’re now a bit player at the top end of the market. But then again, so is Toyota. People who use Windows are like people who have a car to get from A to B. MS have always been about the mass market and that’s not changing. There’s still substantial advantages in being the dominant platform – especially as the default business desktop. I think Windows 7 is good enough that the great, unwashed hoards will switch from XP in surprising numbers. But we’ll see…
- shin_lao 17y agoI wholeheartedly agree. Windows 7 is an excellent operating system. People jump to conclusions too quickly. The challenger of Windows Vista is not MacOS X or Linux, it's Windows XP.
- dememarc 17y agoVery good point to parallel MS to Toyota. However, unlike MS, Toyota has Lexus, a brand that does very well with consumers that are willing to pay a premium for a premium experience. MS has no such offering. (see also VW/Audi, Nissan/Infiniti, Honda/Acura, etc)
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]