Microsoft getting a taste of its own medicine

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Remember back in the good old days how Microsoft was knocking off one competitor after another? Basically, Microsoft would challenge a competitor, the competitor would panic and make critical mistakes, and then Microsoft would roar past them, taking over that part of the market in the process.

I believe that the same thing is now happening to Microsoft as happened to whichever competitor got in their crosshairs in the past. In short, Microsoft is apparently panicking and is in the process of ditching the desktop!

If this is actually where Microsoft is headed, I believe that they will lose a big part of their customer base to other operating systems such as Mac, Linux, and others.

At least that was my thought when I read the following article:

Why Windows Blue heralds the death of the desktop

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031999/why-windows-blue-heralds-the-death-of-the-desktop.html

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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From my take on the article the author isn’t doing anything that anybody else isn’t doing, and that is speculating, pure and simple nothing more.

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At this point I pretty much say, go ahead MS, do your worst. Is that why over a third of systems are still XP? What we want is a unified approach instead of an appropriate approach depending on where we are and what we’re doing? All users want is a gigantic smart phone at home? This falls under the Adam Corolla axiom, stupid or lying, cuz it’s one or the other. I’ll probably always think that the programs/cloud should be more than enough to “unify,” especially after seeing what a chasm there is between the two “philosophies” that goes far beyond the interfaces alone, at least at this point.

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The desktop is not dead after all!

There’s no post-PC future on the horizon
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2032207/tablets-may-eclipse-laptops-in-2014-but-theres-no-post-pc-future-on-the-horizon.html

Both articles are on pcworld.com.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Again, they are opinions clear and simple.

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I’m confused. Does the expression “killing the desktop” imply that – if it happens – future versions of Windows won’t be able to run any conventional EXE programs? It seems very difficult to believe that is really what Microsoft are planning as IMHO it would be a suicidal policy.

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I have often wondered if Microsoft would panic and get off-track some day, just like they have caused so many other companies to do over the years.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Yeah if one can only get apps from The Store, and they all therefore have to follow some loose conformity, like being touch-centric to follow along with the whole unification thing, we’re talking about a massive undertaking that software companies will be forced into, requiring extensive re-development of programs already perfectly suited for the desktop in order to get them anywhere even close to the efficiency, proper blend of complexity and usability, and very importantly, the interoperability I enjoy with desktop programs that is seemingly absent from Store apps.
They certainly have their place in simplistic environments but in a desktop PC environment, Store apps seem somewhere just short of the Stone Age in development right now.

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It seems fairly obvious that CURRENTLY Microsoft’s long term direction is the elimination of the desktop. IMO, that won’t happen for at least a decade. There is no way that Microsoft will upset its business users by an abrupt change. Each future release of Windows will move more basse functionality to the Modern UI environment. Even for Microsoft this is a long term project and that does not even address the various Microsoft application programs/suites that must be migrated. As with their business customers, Microsoft’s internal applications must be changed/updated too.

This is the way for Microsoft to leave behind all the legacy baggage that has built up in Windows over 20+ years.

Joe

--Joe

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True, there’s a lot of hangers’ on to legacy baggage that has no business in the present but there’s also a lot of mature and comprehensive “baggage” that seems to be on the chopping block. I’m all for change as long as it’s for the better, this just seems like half a step forward, three steps back and well, maybe over the next 5 years or whatever, we get those three steps back. I’d say stop kicking us in the breeches MS and just dangle the carrot until you have a product methodology that is as good or better, but I don’t think MS can afford to think that way because they are already desperately behind Apple and Android.

I use Chrome on all my XP systems now because its available and updated regularly and is as stable as can be; result, I did my tiny little part in ensuring MS would no longer be top dog in the browser wars, despite being native to every system sold, a position they’ve held for how long? 15+ years? 15+ YEARS!!!!  If only it weren’t so popular and functional for users. Like I said, I’m not adverse to change at all but that bridge I cross better be a better bridge; and don’t kick me when I’m trying it out or I’ll turn right around and start kicking back. Consumers may not always know it but they really do wield all the power in a true market economy. Being the 800 lb. gorilla in the PC world seems to have caused some brain fade when it comes to MS’s recognition of that fact.

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all about money and competition…
As a computer I just wanted that its all going to easy and cheaper to use. 🙂

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Microsoft Could Be Obsolete By 2017: Gartner Report

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/microsoft-could-obsolete-2017-gartner-report-154459119.html

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2408515

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wow!
thanks for the link cloudsandskye…
it make sense to me.

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See Ed Bott’s take on the Gartner stuff – Microsoft, Google, and Apple: Which one faces doom in 2017? [/url]. Not necessarily the “sky is falling” disaster that many parroted after the report was released.

Joe

--Joe

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When you lump together all of the Windows OS devices (i.e. anything which is a full-powered PC, no matter how lightweight or heavy), Microsoft’s numbers are going up.

As long as you can connect an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard, as well as other devices, via USB, and as long as it runs the standard version of Windows, it qualifies as a PC.

It makes perfect sense to me that people would want a real PC that is totally portable on the one hand, and can work just like a desktop PC on the other hand.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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