Windows has reached maturity-Thailand
Submitted by adocthailand on Mon, 2008-05-19 10:52.
The hoopla surrounding the demise of Windows XP is interesting, or should I say Microsoft's business tactics to terminate XP and boost sales of Vista are interesting.
As far as I know, the move from XP to Vista is the first time that consumers have banded together to petition Microsoft to retain a superseded version of Windows.
The versions of Windows sold in the past had many flaws, and users were quite happy to move on to newer versions. I remember well the Blue Screen of Death that popped up when you least expected it.
After all the trials and errors, we finally ended up with Windows XP, a relatively stable OS. Many applications were developed to run under XP, and as the petition indicates, end-users are quite content with it.
However, if consumers are happy to remain with XP, Microsoft would have trouble selling Vista. Hence the normal process of stopping sales of XP with new systems, and winding down free technical support for it.
But faced with such a strong reaction from consumers, Microsoft has softened its stance, and extend the life of XP and its support for the OS, for the time being, at least.
As with any OS, Windows acts as a 'bridge' between applications and hardware - Windows is the software environment that allows the applications to run. In essence, Windows is the critical piece of software required for the applications to run.
In order to keep sales of Windows going, Microsoft needs to add new features all the time. But since the true objective of bridging the hardware and applications has already been achieved, Microsoft keeps adding more features geared toward end-users, such as speech and handwriting recognition, etc. The more user-centric features that Windows has, the more the line between applications and OS is blurred.
Many independent software developers are worried about that, and rightly so. This is because there is no limit to what the OS can be. Technically, all the applications that you have now could become part of the OS.
All commonly used applications, such as web browsers, email clients, business suites, and so on, can be lumped together as OS features.
Applications such as accounting software could be called plug-ins or add-ons and sold as such. Of course, this is not happening - yet - but there's no technical reason stopping Microsoft from doing so in the future. The only obstacles are the various anti-trust regulatory bodies.
The advancement of an OS should be dictated by users' applications. But the way Microsoft sees it, it is the OS that dictates the applications. Once Microsoft upgrades Windows, many applications - usually from niche ISV's systems - that already work nicely with Windows XP, have to undergo rewrites or modifications to run with the new version of Windows that users never needed in the first place.
I don't deny that Windows needs to upgrade its technical features from time to time, but as a true OS, this could be done in the form of Service Packs.
But Microsoft, being what it is, will succeed in making converts of us all eventually. We will all, one day, be using Vista whether we need it or not.
Microsoft will eventually make a lot of money from Vista - not because of the OS's own merits, but simply by withdrawing XP from sale.
For all practical purposes, Windows reached maturity with XP, but the people at Redmond still see room for financial growth.
Microsoft is already planning Vista's successor, Windows 7 (which used to be known as 'Blackcomb', and then 'Vienna'), fully equipped with brand new, fancy and exciting bells-and-whistles that we really don't need.
BANGKOK POST
As far as I know, the move from XP to Vista is the first time that consumers have banded together to petition Microsoft to retain a superseded version of Windows.
The versions of Windows sold in the past had many flaws, and users were quite happy to move on to newer versions. I remember well the Blue Screen of Death that popped up when you least expected it.
After all the trials and errors, we finally ended up with Windows XP, a relatively stable OS. Many applications were developed to run under XP, and as the petition indicates, end-users are quite content with it.
However, if consumers are happy to remain with XP, Microsoft would have trouble selling Vista. Hence the normal process of stopping sales of XP with new systems, and winding down free technical support for it.
But faced with such a strong reaction from consumers, Microsoft has softened its stance, and extend the life of XP and its support for the OS, for the time being, at least.
As with any OS, Windows acts as a 'bridge' between applications and hardware - Windows is the software environment that allows the applications to run. In essence, Windows is the critical piece of software required for the applications to run.
In order to keep sales of Windows going, Microsoft needs to add new features all the time. But since the true objective of bridging the hardware and applications has already been achieved, Microsoft keeps adding more features geared toward end-users, such as speech and handwriting recognition, etc. The more user-centric features that Windows has, the more the line between applications and OS is blurred.
Many independent software developers are worried about that, and rightly so. This is because there is no limit to what the OS can be. Technically, all the applications that you have now could become part of the OS.
All commonly used applications, such as web browsers, email clients, business suites, and so on, can be lumped together as OS features.
Applications such as accounting software could be called plug-ins or add-ons and sold as such. Of course, this is not happening - yet - but there's no technical reason stopping Microsoft from doing so in the future. The only obstacles are the various anti-trust regulatory bodies.
The advancement of an OS should be dictated by users' applications. But the way Microsoft sees it, it is the OS that dictates the applications. Once Microsoft upgrades Windows, many applications - usually from niche ISV's systems - that already work nicely with Windows XP, have to undergo rewrites or modifications to run with the new version of Windows that users never needed in the first place.
I don't deny that Windows needs to upgrade its technical features from time to time, but as a true OS, this could be done in the form of Service Packs.
But Microsoft, being what it is, will succeed in making converts of us all eventually. We will all, one day, be using Vista whether we need it or not.
Microsoft will eventually make a lot of money from Vista - not because of the OS's own merits, but simply by withdrawing XP from sale.
For all practical purposes, Windows reached maturity with XP, but the people at Redmond still see room for financial growth.
Microsoft is already planning Vista's successor, Windows 7 (which used to be known as 'Blackcomb', and then 'Vienna'), fully equipped with brand new, fancy and exciting bells-and-whistles that we really don't need.
BANGKOK POST
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