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The Relevance of Windows
Josh Fink writes "ZDNet has up an article exploring whether of not Windows is still relevant. In the age of 'Web 2.0' both older folks who remember the days before Windows and younger folks who have never known anything else are beginning to see Microsoft's offering as old news. From the article: 'Before closing the books on the Age of Windows, however, let's not get too caught up in the fashion of the moment. The water-cooler crowd may take a dim view of "Win-doze" for all the right reasons. Still, Microsoft's archrivals continue to view it as a product with a potentially make-or-break impact on their businesses. In fact, two of them--Adobe Systems and Symantec--are lobbying European regulators to get tough on Microsoft. The European Union already has an unresolved antitrust dispute with Microsoft, and Adobe and Symantec would be silly not to play that card for all it's worth. So this is what they're doing.'"
Yay! you've supported your point by the 1 in 5000 users here that don't know Office has been avaiable for Macs for years. Does this make MACs more relevant? Or just support the Microsoft platform, and feed the monster.
Mac User 1: "Coke sucks! Screw them!"
Mac User 2: "Yeah I only buy iCoke! That will show them!"
Bill Gates: [Grins]
Yeah, if I wanted to surf the internet or chat online, I'd go for the OS with internet access. However pretty much every OS has that now.
...
/core/ OS is a pretty moot point these days. The libraries that make up the bulk of an Operating System Platform are far more important, KDE, Gnome, Cocoa, .NET, etc, and then the applications available on top. The choice between Linux, BSD or Mac OS X is one I don't really care about, as long as it works. However having access to Microsoft Office or Firefox or Photoshop is what users care about.
.NET and Cocoa are the three APIs in use, each with different UI standards.
Now say I want to do some programming and the choice is an OS with compiler tools out of the box (Linux, BSD, MacOS X) or not (Windows). I guess I'm going to use one of the former. Maybe the prettiest one, or the one where I can install required libraries easiest. But oh noes, my client wants a Windows application. I could program against Wine I guess
The
20 - 10 years ago: Hardware Is Paramount. Amiga/Mac/PC platforms specialise in different areas.
10 - 5 years ago: O.S. Is Paramount. Hardware becomes generic between platforms. Amiga realises they have a decent OS and promptly goes bankrupt.
5 - future: Applications and Functionality Are Paramount. Users switch to the Mac because it is easier and works with their iPods and there's no evil intarweb softwarez.
+5 years: Applications are written to cross-platform API on virtual machine / universal binaries. Platform even less important. Java 6 starts trend of 'seamless' desktop applications written in Java that people simply aren't aware are running in Java. Java,
+20 years: DOS makes a comeback. CP/M wins! Microwaves come with switches to program it.
Who writes this shit? Or worse, posts it as news.
No. This isn't shit. This really is different. See, it's Web 2.0, not just plain, old www!
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
"Troll"? Alright, who gave mod points to Bill Gates?