Now as any mature user of their products will attest there is a tremendous amount of bullshit associated with Microsoft products especially their operating systems. Here is the gist of it.
Microsoft is the largest soft ware company on the world and they provide operating systems for desktop and laptop computers. More computers use Microsoft operating systems than any other brand. Competitors are Apple and Unix. So you have basically three groups and consequently a continuous source of anti-microsoft opinions. This is an important factor.
Next we have the growth of technology with ever faster and more powerful main processing chips for computers that require the operating system to work. Because of that the operating systems need to be updated on a continuous basis. This is an important factor.
Next we have the necessity for companies to make profits in order to prosper and survive so they must continually develop products to sell to the market.
Finally we have the complexity of the product. In fact thousands of lines of programming need to be written for operating systems to work and every line is an opportunity to make errors. In addition the logic used to write the programming is complex and again there are many opportunities to make errors.
So when you combine all those factors it gives you what we have today.
Its a huge pile of bullshit really. Its very complex and our media simply has been unable to accurately describe what is going on due to the fact they need to dumb everything down to the level of a slow fifth grader. A lot of people are abysmally stupid when it comes to computers and have absolutely no idea of how they work or even what an operating system is or does. But the ones that have been around for a while and have invested the time and effort into it will see the wisdom of these words.
The main arguments against Microsoft are that they put out buggy programs which are overly complex, too expensive, and they conspire to offer upgrades which are not worth the cost simply to improve their bottom line.
The bullshit here is the free market system that we all live in. The way it works is that if there is a demand for something in our society the supply side steps in and provides us with a product that will meet that demand. It works for everything. It also works for computer software. And to date no company has been able to come in and supply a product that is better and more accepted in the market than Microsoft. They have tried and that's why we have the apple operating system and Unix. But neither system enjoys the penetration Microsoft does.
So at this point your brain should be in a state to consider my theory on the two operating systems XP and Vista.
In order for a person to invest the time and money required to upgrade their operating system there needs to be an incremental and significant improvement in the software that is acknowledged by the experts in the field. This apparently has not happened with Vista. The perception is that XP continues to offer enough advantages that switching to Vista would not be worth the cost and effort. Furthermore apparently Vista has some shortcomings compared to XP. There are two basic flavors of XP - XP home for home users and XP pro for business users. The business owners are happy with XP pro and don't want to upgrade.
Microsoft is planning to withdraw XP and stop selling it in Jun/08. This is a trick they use to try and get rid of earlier installs of their previous operating systems in an effort to force users to upgrade. In fact there continues to be demand for the XP product. Microsoft would rather sell them Vista instead.
So there is a petition to save XP and as of writing the list is over 110,000 names long. The rascals are selling advertising on it and collecting personal and business information too so obviously there is more there than meets the eye. I'd be very suspicious. Nevertheless it is what it is -whatever that is.
Here is a source of Windows XP programs:
Both Boeing and Microsoft have something in common. They need to have a continuous string of successful new products coming out or they go out of business. Microsoft has had some duds. Microsoft ME was such a dud and although it seems to work ok on my older Toshiba laptop it is universally dished by computer users. Microsoft no longer supports it. I
It takes a lot of money to do the work required to develop a new product and hundreds of thousands or even millions of systems must be sold before the company reaches its break even point and starts earning a profit on the system. It would be very interesting to know how many copies of Vista Microsoft will sell and where their break even point is. As a guide a major computer game maker suggested that they don't turn a profit on a game until they have sold half a million copies. So clearly with Vista the number would be in the millions or even hundreds of millions.
But it gets more complicated. As one might expect when a company such as Microsoft has customers hooked so to speak they look to ways of generating more revenue from each one. They do it by selling additional programs, by providing technical support information for a fee, by making deals with computer manufacturers and by doing whatever they think they can get away with including breaking the law to improve the bottom line. Then it gets complicated. The more complicated the program is the more technical support and training services they can sell to you. So the advantage to complexity is to them no you. In fact if they sell you a dud of an operating system and you work your buns off trying to keep it operating then you are in a much more vulnerable position to buying a new improved replacement! The marketing tricks can get really nasty. But step back from it all and note who is making the money. In effect Microsoft takes a few cents from every transaction you do so they own a bit of you or to put it another way they are your silent partner along with the government - another organization with their hands in your wallet.
One of the frustrating factors about Microsoft is their pattern of operation where they release what they know to be a buggy program and then quickly follow up with a major fix known as a service pack ie SP1, SP2, SP3 etc. Can you imagine if Boeing did that with aircraft. The other thing that a lot of us find frustrating is that they will release an operating system with two or more flavors at higher costs. So we have XP home edition and XP Pro and Vista follows the same approach. You could end up upgrading your upgrade or paying for the essentially the same program twice. Oh and if you have two computers they want you to buy the program twice. Greedy.
So where is all this leading? As we know EVERY company has a life cycle. It starts with a concept then growth, maturity, old age and then death. For some years Microsoft was the rising star. It was the home of thousands of millionaires and the richest person in the USA Bill Gates the founder. But this year Warren Buffet is the richest man in the USA and Microsoft no longer has the dominance in operating systems it once had. It may be that Microsoft is on the way down. It's also possible that they could come back or maintain a position of strength for several more years or even decades. But it is also possible that we have seen the company's high point and it is gradually on the way down. Vista may be the start of things to come.
And is there really a fiasco with Vista? There are a large group of people who would wish that this was the case. They have something to gain. Or are we just seeing a repeat of a pattern that we have seen before? Will over time customers embrace Vista and then claim by George it really is as good as they say! Who knew? Here is a source of Windows Vista programs:
The bottom line here is that it is too early to tell. The trends are not well established enough. The complicating factor of the falling economy has not been factored into the equation. Who in their right mind would upgrade software when the company was in trouble and times are tough?
So I have stick handled past the piles of bullshit in this topic and left you with?
Nothing really. But what do you do when you live in a shoe?
Update January 09/2009 Update The consensus at this time is that Vista was in fact a failure. Microsoft just brought out it's replacement Windows 7 in beta format.
09/01/2009
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The nice thing about being retired -other that the fact you are older, is that nobody bugs you anymore. So you can pretty much do what you want to. I decided to experiment with websites and the internet as it has been an interest of mine for the last 14 years. To date we have approximately 30 websites. All are interesting and some are more interesting than others. All offer good deals on merchandise and services and most offer free information that will save you money and grief and help increase your enjoyment of life. I hope you enjoy them!
We have a map on our home page of recent visitors. If you look you will find yourself there. The world is a global village thanks to the magic of the internet. Thanks for visiting, keep your spirits up and have fun! -Ron your webmaster.
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Paris is one of the greatest cities on the Planet. Everyone should go there at least once in their lives. Lots of useful information on what to do and where to stay. Start your research today! Art treasures expand your mind and the food is fabulous even from the street vendors. You can enjoy yourself just sitting back and sipping a coffee as the world walks by. A fresh croissant and coffee is hard to beat with fresh jam, butter and a whole day ahead of you to explore and enjoy.
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