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Is Windows Losing Ground?

Posted by Cliff on from the erosion-of-dominance dept.

Rimbo asks: "I work for a small company developing wireless mesh networks to (among other things) give broadband access to large areas where a single access point can't cover the whole place. Since we're small, we made the mesh networking application for Windows, intending to support other platforms later. To our surprise, our first beta site complained: 'Most of our residents use Apples.' Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Is Windows losing its dominance to the point where small shops must consider multiple OS support to get business, either through Java, 'web services,' or cross-platform toolkits like Qt?" With the number of IE vulnerabilities, macro viruses, exploits and other such annoyances over the years, is this really that surprising?

5 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Answer is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful


    No!

  2. Science at its best by daeley · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Boy, glad to see that unscientific guesswork from extremely limited statistical samples is alive and well! ;)

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  3. A bit overly dramatic by quantax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think its pretty safe to say windows is not losing much ground, especially when related to an isolated incident where someone encountered a majority of Apple systems. I could use similar logic when walking into my schools labs, but the hypothesis falls apart when I goto studios running primarily Windows, or large businesses. The editor's comment is pretty much pure conjecture, even if there has been a minor budging towards OSX.

    --
    "What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
  4. Are you listening to yourself? by danaris · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "And your argument seems to be "*I* wouldn't do that, so nobody would."

    No, it is not. My argument is that people don't base decisions as to whether to buy hardware that costs over $1000 on just seeing it at their neighbor's house.

    No, your argument is that YOU wouldn't base such decisions on such events, and are extrapolating that to other people. Well, here's a news flash for you, ego-boy:

    NOT EVERYBODY THINKS LIKE YOU!!!

    Do you get it yet? There really, truly, are people who would go out and buy a $2000+ G5 because they saw their friends using it and thought it looked snazzy. You're clearly not one of them, and you may not even know any of them, but they do exist! Plenty of people in this world base decisions on things other than cold, hard, numbers, things like cool looks, friends' words, and even just plain impulse.

    So why don't you step out of your basement (or bathroom, as the case may be...) and take a look at the real world every once in a while? You might meet some people who (*gasp*) have opinions other than your own (and my own, and those of anyone else on Slashdot). It will be good for you.

    Dan Aris

    --
    Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
  5. Yes by kzadot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes there are a lot of non-windows machines out there. You have made 2 big mistakes:
    1. Only now after the product has been made are you asking questions that should have been asked at the earliest stages.
    2. By using open standards, it wouldnt matter what OS your customers use, they could just plug it in and go. That way your solution would work for any OS that also adheres to open standards.