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Opinion: Microsoft is doing something half right
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| It's funny that some people actually think that anyone is "pirating" Windows
| 7 betas. It's clear that Microsoft is deliberately leaking them to build up
| buzz around the new operating system. Don't believe me? Then why does
| Microsoft give away free authentication keys that will let any copy of
| Windows 7 work? If the company didn't want those copies of Windows 7 out
| there, it wouldn't do that. This tactic is fairly subtle: By making people
| work -- but not too hard -- to get copies of Windows 7, Microsoft is leading
| them to believe that they're onto something special. And since it has been a
| long, long time since anyone thought there was something special about
| Windows, this is savvy marketing on Microsoft's part.
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http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=337564
Recent:
Windows 7 distrust spurs Ubuntu for the desktop
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| Ubuntu is emerging as an unlikely alternative to deploying Windows 7 or Vista
| on enterprise desktops as many IT managers express concerns over the upgrade
| path to the new Windows operating system.
`----
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/100968,windows-7-distrust-spurs-ubuntu-for-the-desktop.aspx
Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year
,----[ Quote ]
| The survey, of more than 1,100 IT professionals, is one of the first
| extensive looks at Windows 7's early sales prospects. It found that a
| whopping 83% of enterprises plan to skip the OS in its first year. While the
| business market typically tends toward caution when it comes to new products,
| the figure is nonetheless surprising given that almost no large companies
| migrated to Vista and as a result most have been using XP much longer than
| planned.
|
| [...]
|
| The open source Linux OS also could benefit from slow uptake of Windows 7 in
| the enterprise market, as could Google's Android OS -- which some computer
| makers are reportedly testing as a netbook platform. Fifty percent of those
| surveyed by Dimensional Research said they've considered switching to a
| non-Windows OS to avoid Vista or Windows 7
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http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500331&subSection=News
The Windows 7 beta testing disaster
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| So what are Windows 7’s damning problems?
|
| –Windows usage is on the decline, and while Windows XP was an acceptable OS
| from the standards of 2001, both the Mac OS X and Linux distributions such as
| Ubuntu have matured. Microsoft also launched many other business ventures
| that it had hoped to subsidize entirely as loss leaders using Windows and
| Office sales to run the other guys out of business, but with sales of those
| faulting combined with massive XBOX 360 hardware failures, giving up on the
| Zune 2 years in with 4% of the market, and failing to put a chink in Google’s
| services, Microsoft is getting desperate.
|
| –They’re not listening to real users, they’re listening to a focus group if
| that, and the focus group gave us the McLean Deluxe, which was a total
| disaster for McDonalds. But unlike McDonalds, Microsoft has the advantage of
| no competitors. If we want to put Windows in the McLean Deluxe analogy,
| Windows thrives because all restaurants are McDonalds, all grocery stores are
| closed, and the only thing on the menu is the mystery meat. At least til
| lately.
|
| –Abusing their OEM partners for years hasn’t won them any friends, and
| mainline PC vendors such as HP and Dell are marketing Linux systems now with
| no Microsoft Tax. This isn’t helped by the fact that the only thing Microsoft
| has that is nimble enough to run on the Netbooks that they totally failed to
| see coming is 8 years old (XP) and that they are giving Windows away in a
| massive dumping operation to keep Linux off these things, because Linux is
| far more capable.
|
| –There’s no way to actually file detailed bugs and communicate with Windows
| developers or to have any ETA on a patch if one is coming. If you need help
| it costs $49.99 per incident to get someone that probably knows less than you
| do on the phone. You can’t just go to an IRC room and talk to the person that
| wrote it.
|
| –Windows 7 is in short, Vista all over again. It may be masquerading as a
| huge upgrade but the changes have been trivial, superficial, and usually skin
| deep at best, and “eat my data” and “fail to even load my program” at worst.
| Even my dad saw it running on my test system while he was over the other day
| and thought it was Vista. I had to point to the Windows 7 build number on the
| desktop because there’s almost no way to tell them apart otherwise.
`----
http://izanbardprince.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/the-windows-7-beta-testing-disaster/
Related:
Microsoft says to borrow money for Yahoo deal
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| Microsoft Corp said on Monday it may borrow money for the first time in its
| history to fund a portion of its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo
| Inc.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSN0455692920080205
Will Microsoft Survive the Next 10 Years?
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| I am not really an expert in this but when I read all the negative
| headlines and articles I ask myself if Microsoft really will survive
| the next 10 years.
|
| [...]
|
| I am pretty sure that the Open Source Community, the new Ubuntu,
| Google and of course Apple are those companies that are ready for
| our century and they will get more and more people that know what
| they really want.
`----
http://websquirrel.blogspot.com/2007/03/will-microsoft-survive-next-10-years.html
P. Graham: Microsoft is Dead
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| A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead. I was talking
| to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo.
| I said that Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of
| Microsoft. That was why they'd positioned themselves as a "media
| company" instead of a technology company. Then I looked at his face
| and realized he didn't understand. It was as if I'd told him how much
| girls liked Barry Manilow in the mid 80s. Barry who?
|
| Microsoft? He didn't say anything, but I could tell he didn't quite
| believe anyone would be frightened of them.
`----
http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
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