fiddle2 entry

Date: 2007-02-12 23:37:00 (Author: trav)
Link: http://travis.kroh.net/archives/004899.php

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My dad sent me an email the other day: "Heard Microsoft is coming out with a new OS, called Vista, what do you think?"
So I told him:
...my take on things has always been well into the "to each their own" realm. My standard speel is that "computers are tools; tools accomplish tasks; depending on your task, you choose the best tool." That said...
I think Windows has been living on borrowed time ever since Windows ME was released, and Vista hasn't done much to change my opinion on that. It's not management of a bad product, it's just a product of bad management. No vision. No passion. They worship with focus groups and rack up bullet points. That kind of thing works in the enterprise where people are forced to use a certain software by the Powers That Be, but in the consumer world, where people are limited only by their whim, that's a sure way to lose. Until very recently, people used Windows because that's what came on their computer, and most didn't know there was any other option: computers and windows were the same thing. That changed in 1999 with the hoopla surrounding the release of the iMac. Then the explosion of the iPod and the move to the x86 architecture (allowing Macs to run Windows and OS X) pushed Apple right up on the stage of public mind. People who have never used a Macintosh are buying iMacs and MacBooks (depending on who you ask, market share is up to ~5% and growing, Windows still at ~90%). Entire governments are mandating the use of Linux on government machines (France, China). But most importantly, instead of severing what Microsoft does well (enterprise server software, office productivity software) from what it does not (consumer software, operating systems), they are tying the former tightly to the latter in an effort to keep it afloat. The significant risk is they might sink the whole lot: by then, they might not be relevant anywhere outside of it.