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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.'"
The sky is falling, pigs are flying, and the market leader is irrelevant?
Who writes this shit? Or worse, posts it as news.
In exactly the same way a bad rash is relevant.
Thinking outside my Head
How can it not be relevant when it is sat on 90%+ of PCs and laptops? As much as we'd all love to see Windows gone, the fact is for the majority of the population "Internet" or word processing means M$. Outside of IT most people have never heard of Linux/Unix or other alternative OSs. For those that think the OS is irrelevant here, just remember that IT has been through this cycle before with the old thin client debate. Sure we're in a better position now than before, but browsers/webservices have a long way to go before coming close to the the functionality supplied by software running on top of a local OS installation. And by the time browser as platform becomes reality it would also mean Linux as a desktop OS becomes irrelevant as well. I'll also bet a lot of software companies will be fighting tooth and nail for M$ as their businesses have been built around windows software for PCs.
You are right about one thing, though... the connection to the Internet is a deal-breaker. It's just that every OS is the current generation has the ability to connect to the Internet, and a wide variety of options for software that uses it. Heck... most of us can probably get the Internet on our phone. It may be a deal-breaker, but it's an irrelevant one.
Um since when has this been an actual issue? I had internet access in Win 3.11, Win95, Win98, Win2000, WinXP Home, and WinXP Pro. (Ok. The whole trumpet winsock was a pain in the butt for Win 3.11 & Win 95, but you could still easily do it at the time.) Every brand of Linux that I've seen can have internet access if the computer has either a network card or a modem. Macs have had easier to access internet for awhile. Since when has internet access even been part of the equation?