What's the future of Windows?

[jacatone]

It's pretty much a given that Vista's a flop and all indications are that the new Windows 7 is just repackaged Vista with a few tweaks to make it faster. So it too might end up like Vista. Obviously XP will be around for a while, particularly since these new netbooks use it (Vista's too bloated for them). So what then is the future of Windows? I'm no computer programmer but couldn't someone crack the source code for XP and let the Internet turn it into open source?

[Force Flow]

1) XP is the most used OS because of a few factors. It's been around since 2001 and it's been very well refined between then and now.
2) Vista was a drastic change. People don't often like drastic changes. People don't also like buggy operating systems. Vista was buggy initially, and that colored its entire lifecycle.
3) Windows 7 is Vista refined. More stable, more end-user input through the development process, and slightly better performance. Microsoft has been very open about the development process, which has helped.

The future of windows is just another windows operating system. You can use it or not use it...it's up to you. You can switch to OS X like some people have done, or switch to linux like others have done.

As for the source code, no. It's very difficult to decompile compiled code. The only way XP would become open source is if Microsoft released it as such (both in terms of code and in terms of legal licensing).

Here's some open source stuff microsoft is currently involved in: http://www.microsoft.com/opensource/

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by jacatone Obviously XP will be around for a while, particularly since these new netbooks use it (Vista's too bloated for them). So what then is the future of Windows?

The economy is failing and people in general are not buying new computers. Vista or Windows 7 will not run well on the older XP computers without updating memory and/or video. Add to that, the fact that many changes in Visa & Windows 7 were made just for the sake of change with no good reason. People resist change unless there is some great benefit to adapting to the change.

What all the above translates to is very low sales for Microsoft. The proof is in the market share statistics. After all this time, Vista only holds about a 22% market share, per the chart in link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows

Microsoft is going to suffer now because people are holding onto their old XP computers and repairing them instead of buying new ones. Not many will even attempt to upgrade their hardware in order to run Vista or Windows 7 because MS charges too much for the software and when you combine the costs of the hardware upgrades and the software, the costs can't be justified.

What I believe is happening to our economy and with Microsoft, is that the greed factor finally caused their downfall. MS got too greedy by pushing the technology too far so that their new OS would not run well on older computers, and they charged too much money for the software. Now they are paying the price, just like our economy is paying the price for those who got too greedy. Greed is a basic flaw in man that usually results in disaster.

Widows XP will probably be around for many more years, at least until all those older XP computers remain repairable. MS will be forced to support XP for an extended period of time or risk losing their customer base that took over 20 years to build.

Long Live Windows XP!

If MS was smart, they'd offer a new OS named "Windows XP Second Edition" that simply addressed most of the annoyances of XP and added some essential services such as DVD burning and improved security. To be most successful, they'd have to sell it for about $50 single user, $75 two user, and it must run well on an older XP computer. Most people could justify spending that much and sales would boom. The convenience of having it all on one CD, as opposed to XP, SP2, SP3 and all the updates, would justify the upgrade to Windows XP Second Edition.

---pete---

[jacatone]

WinXP Second Edition. That a good idea. I certainly find my old XP Pro SP3 machine does everything I need to do.

Macs are definitely well made machines but expensive and I find the OSX not as easy to use as Windows, but that's just me. Besides, who knows what will happen to Apple once Steve Jobs is gone.

Linux has a ways to go on the desktop. The only distro I've had any luck with has been Linux Mint 6 code named "Felicia". Looks just like Windows and has all the software you'll ever need for free. Even still, Linux doesn't have the richness and variety of software that Windows has.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

[cmillar6]

To me Windows 7 is a kick in the face to those of us who run Vista. Windows 7 pretty much just fixes the annoyances with Vista and should be offered as a service pack to Vista users instead of releasing a whole new OS. Microsoft has pretty much admitted they goofed with User Account Control, they should give Vista users the option of toning it down instead of making them buy a whole new OS to do so.

[EzyStvy]

I used the option to turn off UAC in Vista and am one with the universe

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by cmillar6 To me Windows 7 is a kick in the face to those of us who run Vista. Windows 7 pretty much just fixes the annoyances with Vista and should be offered as a service pack to Vista users instead of releasing a whole new OS. Microsoft has pretty much admitted they goofed with User Account Control, they should give Vista users the option of toning it down instead of making them buy a whole new OS to do so.

I agree and it will be interesting to how MS markets Windows 7.
If they try to sell it at a high price similar to Vista and with too many
versions, I believe sales will not do very well and MS will be in big trouble.

---pete---

[Force Flow]

Nobody forced anyone to buy Vista. That's what you get for being an early adopter

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by EzyStvy I used the option to turn off UAC in Vista and am one with the universe

Amen to that little adjustment. And to the peace within.

[Berny]

Originally Posted by Force Flow Nobody forced anyone to buy Vista. That's what you get for being an early adopter

That's not correct. The most common reason PPL are using Vista [Bill Gates' Bush moment] is it comes pre loaded on a lot of new computers and you don't have a choice if you want one of those. And to accommodate this, MS did deals with builders to pre-to load the operating system and not provide discs. If you have OS problems, you must go back to your seller to get warrantee which keeps you in their sights for add-ons. They can also add promotional style default home pages etc., to further indoctrinate [and frustrate] the new owner.

It also gave the builders the opportunity to do deals with program suppliers like Norton etc., and load trial programs which need additional payments to be activated. They bank on the fact that the average Joe wont know how to resolve this scam without making the purchase = more $$$$$$

This outrageous audacity has come back to bite them as it well should have, because it causes new owners, who not only need to learn a new computer, and an excessively and unnecessarily complicated OS, which in itself in a huge PITA, but also to resolve these shonky temporary add-on issues without shelling out even more hard earned cash.

Marketing gone mad. What a joke!!!!

.

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by Berny Marketing gone mad. What a joke!!!! .

I agree with your post. In one way, this economic crisis may bring
benefits to the computer consumers. I think that it will force
companies such as MS to get more aligned with the needs and
desires of the consumer. The next few years should be interesting.

---pete---

[EzyStvy]

Originally Posted by Berny That's not correct. The most common reason PPL are using Vista [Bill Gates' Bush moment] is it comes pre loaded on a lot of new computers and you don't have a choice if you want one of those. And to accommodate this, MS did deals with builders to pre-to load the operating system and not provide discs. If you have OS problems, you must go back to your seller to get warrantee which keeps you in their sights for add-ons. .

That is not correct. They make restore partitons at allow you to make cd/dvd's....It keeps the cost down when you buy a machine...Dell will let you order "media" at the time of purchase and or will gladly send you a cd/dvd upon request for Free.

[David M]

What would make most sense for the public is for Microsoft to go back to refining XP. From a profit motive, it makes perfect sense for Microsoft to come out with a new OS about every three to five years....even if there are only minor differences between them. It reminds me of when Detroit used to have a new model car every single year.

Its obvious what Microsoft is doing and I think the public has become aware of it and has decided they are not going to play the "new and improved" game any longer. Because although it may have a new label on the box, its clearly not all that improved, if at all.

Will System 7 be better than XP?...not significantly. People already know this and are not going to play Microsoft's game when they do release release System 7.

Its the classic case of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. "Look how great our new OS is!" ...its not great at all. Its your rehashed old system plus new bugs and incompatibilities...that's all. ..and its going to take two service packs to make it almost as good as your last OS was after two service packs.

My prediction is that this time around, people are once again not going to be standing outside the doors of Best Buy at midnight. People WILL be waiting until XP no longer runs the software that then need to run on their computers, and then they will hesitantly buy System 7 out of necessity.

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by Berny That's not correct. The most common reason PPL are using Vista [Bill Gates' Bush moment] is it comes pre loaded on a lot of new computers and you don't have a choice if you want one of those. And to accommodate this, MS did deals with builders to pre-to load the operating system and not provide discs. If you have OS problems, you must go back to your seller to get warrantee which keeps you in their sights for add-ons. They can also add promotional style default home pages etc., to further indoctrinate [and frustrate] the new owner. It also gave the builders the opportunity to do deals with program suppliers like Norton etc., and load trial programs which need additional payments to be activated. They bank on the fact that the average Joe wont know how to resolve this scam without making the purchase = more $$$$$$ This outrageous audacity has come back to bite them as it well should have, because it causes new owners, who not only need to learn a new computer, and an excessively and unnecessarily complicated OS, which in itself in a huge PITA, but also to resolve these shonky temporary add-on issues without shelling out even more hard earned cash. Marketing gone mad. What a joke!!!! .

1) you can get the XP "downgrade" on business machines. You can also purchase XP seperately.
2) you can uninstall the trial programs. There's nothing that says you have to use them. One handy tool gets rid of everything in one shot: http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/

[jessho]

I've never seen a new version of Windows that didn't have multitude of problems when it was released. I usually wait until the final name is applied, which is usually a new name for the software full of bugs and hardware issues that was released the year before.

Personally, I think Windows will be a player for a long time. Any company that can get people to pay for the final research and development, and then get them to pay for the same "fixed" product under a different name has the key to success.

[jdeb]

i talked to Bill this morning and he told me he was going to buy back OS2 from ibm at a bargain basement price (since he started the OS when with IBM). He was going to use OS2 for his next Windows OS (2010) and call it Vista Warp 7. He assures me this will be able to run any previous version of windows but no versions of Microsoft Office. He also said he will include a Sun Based Java office program and call that version Vista Warp Ultimate Sunny 7 for an additional 125.00. He is one awesome cat.

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by David M What would make most sense for the public is for Microsoft to go back to refining XP. From a profit motive, it makes perfect sense for Microsoft to come out with a new OS about every three to five years....even if there are only minor differences between them. It reminds me of when Detroit used to have a new model car every single year. Its obvious what Microsoft is doing and I think the public has become aware of it and has decided they are not going to play the "new and improved" game any longer. Because although it may have a new label on the box, its clearly not all that improved, if at all. Will System 7 be better than XP?...not significantly. People already know this and are not going to play Microsoft's game when they do release release System 7. Its the classic case of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. "Look how great our new OS is!" ...its not great at all. Its your rehashed old system plus new bugs and incompatibilities...that's all. ..and its going to take two service packs to make it almost as good as your last OS was after two service packs. My prediction is that this time around, people are once again not going to be standing outside the doors of Best Buy at midnight. People WILL be waiting until XP no longer runs the software that then need to run on their computers, and then they will hesitantly buy System 7 out of necessity.

Well said, David.

I've been running MS operating systems since the early 1980's
with DOS and each time a new OS came out I was happy to
make upgrade and adjust to the new way of doing things.
However, this all changed with Vista. Vista was the first OS
that MS released that did not offer great enhancements over
the previous OS. In my opinion the GUI got worse.

What is happening to MS Windows is also happenig with many
other applications, where programs are so well developed that
they don't need much improvement, but the SW companies
won't accept that fact and wind up overdeveloping the SW
to the point where it becomes bloated with features that
most people don't even need.

The simple fact might be that the gravy train is over for
many well developed software applications. Sure there's
always room for some imporvement, so they may get away
with minor version upgrades at dramatically reduced costs,
but the age may be ending where we need whole new
versions of our favorite OS or applications every few years.

Compound those issues with a failing economy and we can
predict what is coming in the future for many SW companies.
I expect to see a downsizing of many SW companies over
the next decade. It's already beginning to happen with MS.

---pete---

[Berny]

Originally Posted by Force Flow 1) you can get the XP "downgrade" on business machines. You can also purchase XP seperately. 2) you can uninstall the trial programs. There's nothing that says you have to use them. One handy tool gets rid of everything in one shot: http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/

It's all very well saying that but the majority of PPL who buy a computer, don't want to have to do all that crap for heavens sake! Even if they knew how to do it, why the heck should they have to? Struth! It's like buying a car but you can change the engine if you don't like it because it keeps stalling, and remove the airbags if they keep going off for no reason, and there's a bloke who knows how to re-tune it to make it go properly, and stop it turning into MacDonalds every time you try to drive passed one!!!!!!!!

If you can find him that is.

Berny

[doubledragon5]

Since getting my main desktop up and running again after a month, I still run dual boot XP Pro, Vista. I haven't used XP since, and not having a single issue with Vista. It took some time to get use to, but it's growing on me.. For what I do I don't see me upgrading to 7 anytime in the future, unless for some reason apps I run will no longer run in Vista..

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by doubledragon5 It took some time to get use to, but it's growing on me..

That quote is what so many people say about Vista. It reminds
me of something that some here may be able to relate to who
have switched jobs from one job to a similar job at a new company.
The first month you start a new job, you notice that they do
certain things differently than your old company. In fact, you realize
that your previous company did certain things more efficiently, but
siince you are a new employee, you keep quiet and just adapt to
the new way of doing things. A month or so later, you get used
to the new way of doing things and and even though there are
better ways, you forget all about them. It took some time to get
to, but it grew on you.

In other words, in some respects the new job was not as good
as the old one, but over time you adapted to it. You probably
found enough good things about the new job to make you not
want to go back to your old job, the fact remains that the old
company does certain things much better.

That's what Vista is like. Over time, most will adapt to it, proving
that people can get used to anything forced upon them.
However, the fact that many people have actually switched back
to XP indicates, in some respects, that Vista is not a change in the
right direction and even though we all eventually move to Vista
we will have lost many things that XP had right all along.

---pete---

[Kasturi]

I went with Vista because of the great deal I got on the software. Comp USA was going out of business and I got the OS for around $60.

I decided that I might as well try it out since I was building a new computer at the time.

I have had some minor issues with it, but that was due mainly to older softwarfe that I was trying to install. Other than that I have been pretty happy with it.


I will probably not get Windows 7, until I really need it.

[glc]

I didn't even get XP till last summer - Win2K did everything I needed. The only reasons I got XP was I built a new computer that wasn't Win2K-compatible, and I wanted to run some software that requires XP. I'm still too lazy to move 15 years worth of stuff over to the new one, so I'm using a KVM. The Win2K box still does 90% of what I want and need. To me, the purpose of an OS is to sit in the background and support applications. Vista is way too much "in my face" for my liking - XP is bad enough but I can deal with that pretty easily.

Win2K was a MAJOR improvement over Win98 and NT4, and let's not even talk about ME. To me, Vista should have been called ME-07.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by glc To me, Vista should have been called ME-07.

Not that i have any bad experience with vista, I just can't seem to find some of the simplest funtions, everything's hidden by bling.

I upgraded from 98, and it was well worth it. the wife's pc has Vista because it came with it, and she's gotten used to it.

I honestly think that the average user doesn't even realize they have more computer than they need. I think most folks want to get on the net, play games, and download music files for thier mp3 players. And as long as there is someone telling them this conputer can do it faster or better, someone else will spend the money to drive the sales and technology.

Windows is here to stay. Which version you have will depend on what each person chooses to buy into.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by glc I didn't even get XP till last summer - Win2K did everything I needed. The only reasons I got XP was I built a new computer that wasn't Win2K-compatible, and I wanted to run some software that requires XP. I'm still too lazy to move 15 years worth of stuff over to the new one, so I'm using a KVM. The Win2K box still does 90% of what I want and need. To me, the purpose of an OS is to sit in the background and support applications. Vista is way too much "in my face" for my liking - XP is bad enough but I can deal with that pretty easily. Win2K was a MAJOR improvement over Win98 and NT4, and let's not even talk about ME. To me, Vista should have been called ME-07.

win 2k rules

mint and OS2 are pretty good too.

[thefultonhow]

I liked Vista better than XP, and I like 7 better than Vista. The beta has some annoyances, but it's a lot faster, and it has all the good things about Vista that I really liked with very few of the bad things. I think Vista's biggest problem was it got a lot of bad press when it first came out due to its high system requirements and spotty driver support -- neither is an issue now for any new computer.