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Microsoft Suffers Leaks, Lagging Sales Numbers As They Look Forward To Windows 8
nandemoari writes "With only a few weeks until Microsoft's Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is released, Microsoft is already looking for people to help with Windows 8. An April 14th job ad posted by Microsoft says the upcoming version of Windows will have new features like cluster support and support for one way replication. Apparently the Windows 8 kernel is being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements. Windows 8 will also include innovative features that, according to Microsoft, will revolutionize file access in branch offices." Relatedly, several users tell us that both 32 and 64-bit versions of the Windows 7 release candidate have been leaked into the wild via p2p networks. The current leaked version shows little change beyond bug fixes, so it would seem what you see is what you get. This all comes as Microsoft posts quarterly sales that have fallen for the first time in the company's 23-year history. Seeing a 6% drop in revenue and a 32% drop in earnings, some within the Redmond giant expect the downward trend to continue.
It's vaporware. Announced features tend get dropped from Windows during the development process. Don't believe anything from Microsoft until it's released.
This all comes as Microsoft posts quarterly sales that have fallen for the first time in the company's 23-year history.
This is a perfect opportunity for trash talk! Suck on failure, Microsoft! Sales looking a little limp this quarter? I guess that's why they call it both micro and soft!
Heh. More seriously, as Joel points out:
Microsoft has an incredible amount of cash money in the bank and is still incredibly profitable. It has a long way to fall. It could do everything wrong for a decade before it started to be in remote danger, and you never know... they could reinvent themselves as a shaved-ice company at the last minute.
It's good to see a hint that this fall might finally be starting, but even in this economy, it will be a long time before Microsoft dies.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I have a great memory, and to be honest it's a massive PITA. I can remember when people wanted MS to succeed against the might and nastiness of Big Blue (IBM). Now it's all comers against MS, with Apple and Google getting most of the plaudits and building an empire. If it continues, Apple and Google will be the big bad corporations in a couple of years and us, the nerds, will either fondly remember "good old MS" or hang on hard to a new trend / company.
:-) *
Or Linux will be ready for the desktop
* I troll, I troll, I'm typing this on my Centos machine
-- For evil to triumph it is enough that good men do nothing.
Neither. It has been posted prior to every previous OS release by Microsoft, replacing only the current and next OS names.
In particular, they include this statement every time: "provide dramatic performance improvements"
And is "revolutionize file access in branch offices" the filesystem MS promised for Vista, or is that still DOA?
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I want Windows 7... kernel... I don't want its shell (explorer et al) though. The idea of moving to an interface that does things differently, I don't have a huge aversion to. The idea of moving to an interface that can't do the things I can do now in Win2003... well that's just plain silly.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Why don't they just sell service packs? As in you get upgrades with X features like Aero Glass, a new explorer, etc. but keep all your settings and applications. Like Apple does. Or some Linux distros except obviously it's free.
In marketing though I wouldn't call it a service pack. But you get the idea.
I'm not sure there's a single industry in which the average business puts out a product without at least starting to plan the next one.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
> I'm not sure there's a single industry in which the average business
> puts out a product without at least starting to plan the next one.
I'm sure you are correct. However I'm pretty sure this is the first time Microsoft has hinted about V+2 before V+1 shipped. Up to now the cycle has been:
1. Release. This is THE product you must have. It fixed everything you hated about V-1 and is just packed full of awesome.
2. As customers actually buy V and find it creates as many problems as it fixed, even after the first service release announce the upcoming V+1 in development. Release some internal builds and screenshots to the tame tech media to begin working the hype up. Yup, V+1 is going to be the bomb, every feature you could possibly want is going to be in this puppy, it will finally be secure and you will even have whiter teeth!
3. As release date passes without a release start removing features. Make sure all the pirates and tech media have a recent build. Ensure all reviews are between the upcoming release and competing shipping products to suck out their oxygen. Nah, who needs NDS when Active directory is coming any day now and will rule!
4. PROFIT! ; Goto 1
This time Windows 7 isn't even being hyped as more than a corrective for the stuff people hated in Vista, no real new features. The new features are now being hyped for V+2. Which is only more evidence that 7 is just Mojave/Vista SE.
Democrat delenda est
Yeah, those retards thinking WinFS nee Relational File System nee Object File System was supposed to be a file system! Rubes!
Well, I'd say that Microsoft dying would be a *huge* step towards more competition...
Every press story about Windows since 1994 reads:
I am so excited about $NEXT_VERSION of Windows. It will go beyond just solving all of the problems with $CURRENT_VERSION, it will be an entirely new paradigm. Forget about security problems, those are all fixed in $NEXT_VERSION. And they're finally ridding themselves of $ANCIENT_LEGACY_STUFF.
Also, there'll be $DATABASE_FILESYSTEM. It'll be awesome!
I wonder how $NEXT_VERSION will compare to $NEXT_NEXT_VERSION.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
We need more competition not less.
If you assume Apple would fill that void, I wholeheartedly agree. In their own way, they are worse than Microsoft.
However, if Linux filled that void, that is actually much better. Have you not noticed?
There is competition on every level on Linux, from the kernel down.
On the kernel level, you can have Linux, Solaris, BSD, Darwin, even HURD.
If you choose Linux, you can use ext3, xfs, jfs, or reiserfs -- and those are just the ones off the top of my head that are reasonably stable and fit for desktop use.
There are alternate init systems -- everything from old-school sysvinit to Apple's launchd to Gentoo's weird dependency system to Ubuntu's upstart.
There are alternate shells -- bash, dash, csh, ksh, rush, emacs...
There have even been a few attempts at alternate X servers, though X.org remains pretty key for now.
There are alternate desktop environments -- GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc -- and alternate window managers which can be used within those, or by themselves -- metacity, compiz, kwin, fluxbox, ratpoison, windowmaker, fvwm, twm... Or none at all.
There are alternate file browsers -- Gentoo, Nautilus, Konqueror, Dolphin, Midnight Commander, bash...
There are alternate web browsers -- Firefox, Konqueror, Epiphany, Galeon, Opera...
There are alternate package managers -- apt, rpm, portage, ports...
And there are alternate distros to wrap it all up.
Trust me, if Ubuntu ever gains a dominant position, that would be more consumer choice, and more competition, not less. The most obvious reason? I'd probably be using Kubuntu.
And that's ignoring the reasons competition doesn't matter as much, for open source things...
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!