Slashdot Mirror
Celebrate Your Next Birthday At the Microsoft Store
theodp writes "Chuck E. Cheese, meet Bill H. Gates. A leaked PowerPoint posted at Gizmodo provides a glimpse of what Microsoft's retail shops may look like, noting that you'll even be able to pay to celebrate your birthday there. Some of the stores that were profiled for ideas were Nike, Nokia, Sony, Apple, and AT&T. Microsoft's take on the Genius Bar is the Answers Bar (aka Guru Bar, Windows Bar)."
'Cause I'd really like to throw a chair at a Google logo.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Will i be able to bake my own copy of Windows there?
Forged of eight Geniuses.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/7/20/
"...noting that you'll even be able to pay to celebrate your birthday there."
Will it include, complementary, one or two members of the Vista dev team that decided to break the reasonably good UI in Windows XP? Or one of the Office guys that thought getting rid of menus would be a great idea?
Because then I'd pay to have my birthday party there.
Oh, yes.
I don't think Microsoft has built them yet. But they sure look a HELL of a lot like Apple stores. Right down to the layout.
I think they're still a concept. I'm not an MS basher (I work on whatever makes me money), but this idea for a retail store is stupid - really stupid. Apple pulls it off because they've got flash, Nike pulls it off because they've got the same thing Apple has.
But a Microsoft store? Give me a break. MS has always been a geek company, period. They're software is complex, relative to Apple and they're brand is more power and flexibility driven more than Apple's simplicity and style driven brand. Outside of a borg alcove, I just can't picture a MS store with any "look" whatsoever.
I think this vid puts the distinction between the two brands perfectly... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=36099539665548298
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
I'm a spoiled tecno-weenie and I only want the best high-end stuff so make sure when we have the party at the MS store to put an iPhone, an iMac, and an iTouch on my gift registry.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Will the MS~Store's business go through the roof at the beginning of the month?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
So you're saying the store should be bloated in size and the checkout lines slow?
Actually, if you had said the reverse there might have been a truth in there, rather than a pathatic attempt at a joke.
[ irc.p2p-network.net -> #zomgwtfbbq ][ http://zomgwtfbbq.info ]
I think Microsoft's new campaign of "personalization" is worthwhile, especially as a way to counter the "hipness" of Apple. With Apple you get popularity, but there's no uniqueness. Microsoft gave up on popularity, hipness after the failed Bill Gates/Seinfeld "quirky" commercials. Uniqueness and customization is a good strategy, I think. The "I'm a PC" commercials pushed it and the stores, as per the article, are making it a big focus.
I don't really have any need to buy Microsoft products, but it's certainly interesting. It's new at least, and I think it has a shot at succeeding. Plus, having real people to talk to is a step towards making it easier to use a valid, purchased product than a pirated product, which is step 1 in fighting piracy (the real way).
b) I wonder if they'd object if I stood outside and handed out Ubuntu CD's?
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
Last time I checked, the only Sony store I know of, across from the Moscone Center in San Francisco, closed. Can we persuade MS to take their lead?
-Charlie
Unless they let me decorate the place.
Decoration including numerous pictures of Tux and banners pronouncing the greatness of Linux.
And the entire party being themed around how Linux is a great desktop OS and Vista sucks.
Maybe someone could have a LUG meeting at their BDay party at the MS store, and invite such illuminaries as Linus torvalds to publicly espouse the virtues of Linux, especially to any shoppers coming to the MS store consider buying Windows laptops.....
Spending to have your birthday there would more than likely be to do with games.
It makes sense actually. Get some music playing, play some Xbox or games on LIVE...it's not a bad idea, and certainly not sinister in the least. Arcades have somewhat died in the last few years, so it could very well make sense to book something like this instead of an internet cafe, depending on what you get for the price...
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
Technical information: *** STOP: 0x00000050 (0x8872A990, 0x00000001, 0x804F35D7, 0x00000000)
*** ati3diag.dll - Address ED80AC55 base at ED88F000, Date Stamp 3dcb24d0
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
the Task Bar.
While it's still a monstrosity, it's interesting to note that the Zune box looks nothing like the parody video suggests it should.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
At least Chuck E. Cheese lets the parents get a pitcher to ease the pain of the entire experience.
Microsoft better do the same.
While Sony isn't very popular on slashdot for obvious reasons, they have some kind of rock solid customer base who keeps buying/upgrading their products.
Used (in fact, restored) a Sony Vaio high end laptop for 2 days, I ended up telling its owner "This thing tries to be Apple but the operating system (Windows) kills the experience". I mean they are really unique in terms of EFI etc.
MS is a general operating system vendor. There is no "Vista Air" to show there.
I can tell what they should stock. Input Devices, lots and lots of them, all models and they should allow people to try them physically.
Also if they will show laptops (which will make excluded partners mad), a tip from me: Use your own products (update services) to make them turn on 08 AM, install all updates, shut down or sleep until shop opens. All without "status windows" which you love. Staring at 20 laptops having that yellow "critical updates available" is really absurd. Hope some computer shops read this. Add "Wireless signal low" and you have complete "don't buy me, I will really fsck up your life" product display.
They don't even think about a shop edition of Windows right? A basic CD could do all the things I said above. While I don't have that MSCE thing, I can do it myself.
Then maybe they could convince people to host their birthdays there.
Architectural Renderings
What's sad about Microsoft is that they've long stopped innovating... if they ever did.
The Microsoft Store is a ripoff of the Apple Store.
The Zune is a ripoff of the iPod (or a turd... I'm not sure).
Bing and Live before is a ripoff of Google.
They don't create anything any more. They just copy others and wonder why it doesn't work. (Indeed copying others and doing enough versions seemed to work for them. It just doesn't work any longer.)
Even Windows is a ripoff of Windows, and since XP that's been on a downward trend as more apps more to the web. They killed off Windows as a gaming platform with their idiot decision to restrict DirectX10 to Vista. Vista. Vista. Vista....
(Bill Gates wakes up in a cold sweat. "Oh Melissa I've had the most horrible dream...")
Normally to decide what to eat you would select stuff from a menu. Given the Vista and Windows 7 experience, will it be present but requiring you to do an easter hunt to find it?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Its easy when you can 'innovate' a few years later ;)
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Call it the Task Bar.
"I see that you're trying to celebrate a birthday. Would you like help with tha--aARAGGGHHH!"
Another satisfied customer discovers the joy of killing Clippy for his/her birthday.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Is Microsoft ever lamer than they are when they're badly imitating someone else's success? They can throw as much money as they want at this idea, but the gig is essentially up for The Bill ... everyone sees Microsoft as the big, monolithic, boring company that's associated with things like spreadsheet drudgery at the office at best, or slow, buggy, crashing computers at worst. They're not hip and trendy like Apple; they're not grassroots like Linux and Open Source; they're not even gee-whiz cutting edge like some of the cell phone companies. They're Microsoft. I'm sure "The Microsoft Store" will be about as well-received as the Zune. For that matter, who's going to bother walking into a store where someone's going to try to sell you a Zune? Customers are going to keep walking right past the store and go get a Cinna-Bon instead or something.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
The Apple store works because Apple's customers are the kind of people that buy their computers from stores. Microsoft has those customers too, and they shop at Best Buy. If they can capture some of those customers, that's profit directly into their pockets.
You're right about that video; while it's cheesy and sophomoric, it does (accidentally) capture the distinction very well. Nobody walking down an aisle sees an iPod and wonders "what is that? let me take a look at the features." Everyone knows what an iPod is and, unless they're rich or Christmas shopping, they already know they're going to get one when they walk in the store and don't need any more convincing than the $100-budget artwork on the plain box. Apple doesn't need anything on their box except the size of the storage. Every music player is called the same name, and customers don't have to know the generation number or anything because they don't have a choice. Microsoft's offerings are more conventional: diverse and complicated.
Microsoft is clearly trying to recreate their consumer image to push ahead on this ridiculous trend of hip tech. They're going for sleek and simplified, which is obvious in Windows 7. Their packaging is getting simpler and more artistic. Some of their commercials play the quiet-and-confident keep-it-in-the-public-mind honestly-do-we-even-need-to-tell-you-what-our-product-is-because-everyone-already-knows-about-it game. Check out the amazon product description.. it goes on and on about the simplified interface and clean, innovative ways of interacting faster. I think the Microsoft store is just one arm of that movement. They've got a very modern, artwork-and-buzzword-oriented look with expensive displays and bold, clean colors. It's logical, I guess. But that game is just a huge popularity contest, and counting on fickle teens turning their attention your way is hardly a wise investment on Microsoft's part. Both companies are evil, but Apple is good at keeping its mouth shut and letting the public associate "Apple" with Apple products and not Apple the company. Microsoft's complex agreements with OEMs, retail, and enterprise customers, as well as their more diverse and wordy offerings and their arms in multiple fields (PC games, xbox subscriptions, office apps, software development, operating systems, etc, etc) make that impossible.
Their business side is still mostly consumer-garbage-free. Server is clean anyway.
Dear God in heaven, have these guys *ever* had an original thought? I mean an original though that was good, of course.
Apple pulls it off because they've got flash, Nike pulls it off because they've got the same thing Apple has.
Flash helps, but I don't think that's the main reason why it works for Apple.
Apple can pull it off because:
They sell hardware. Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, iPod/iPhone...
People walk in, try all the models, and if they buy something they know exactly what they're getting.
Microsoft sells^Wlicenses software.
What the customer demos at the store isn't what they take home with them. That little box doesn't contain the obscenely powerful gaming rig that the customer played with. The only two things in the store that will perform exactly as displayed would be MS's two main hardware products: Zune and Xbox.
My parents took me and some friends to Six Flags on my birthday and we rode roller coasters and ate junk food and blasted each other with water cannons and laughed ourselves silly. But if only there had been a Microsoft Store in my day...
Clearly I was born two decades too early. I feel gypped. Today's kids have no idea how lucky they are.
mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
its impossible to see the MS store as a pathetic attempt to stay relevant in an era where the OS doesn't matter.
Are you from the future? Because today, the OS sure as hell still matters.
How? For the average person they want the application to work. Not the underlying kernel and userland.
.exe files, install some of the software the person was used to running and they wouldn't know the difference.
I guardsmen you that if WINE had 100% compatibility with no slowdowns you could stick a Windows XP theme on Ubuntu with WINE set to open up all
Just look at all the iPhone clones, as long as the UI and a few of the apps are there, people will buy it.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Windows 7? Office? and some mice/keyboards?
I don't understand the point? Is there any big product line I am missing, that people actually buy?
As far as I understand it, MS lives from big corporate mass-license sales for Windows and Office. And everything other is pretty much irrelevant.
Sounds to me like the Zune of stores. Something that really nobody cares about, because it's just a knockoff saying "I wanna be just as cool as Apple" (note the "wanna", which is not a "am", and the "just as" which is not a "more" :).
I wonder when Microsoft will stop imitating and start innovating. And I guess: Only when they are forced to. ;)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
There will be a progress indicator at the checkout, but it will vary wildly between 10 seconds and 10^23 years remaining. You'll also be accosted by store security at least 10 times on the way out to verify that your receipt is genuine.
Consider it a performance-art about Slashdot moderation and how easily it may be manipulated.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
At the time, analysts pooh-poohed the idea of Apple's retail stores originally, too. The retail space was glutted with computers, Apple already had a relationship with CompUSA which was best described as "passive-aggressive," and Gateway's retail concept was defecating the bed. Opening a retail store was the silliest thing they could have done, except it worked for them. They weren't just marketing hardware and software, what they were doing was cashing in on the brand's exclusivity, by creating a boutique space where people could interact with the hardware and ask questions about it.
The problem with Microsoft's concept is that they don't have the same culture to sell. Apple has a niche (albeit a very deep niche) market which supports the notion of exclusiveness (which anyone can conveniently buy into). Microsoft doesn't have that kind of exclusiveness (unless you're talking about excluding people who are using previous versions of their OS on older hardware). What Microsoft will instead find they're selling is ubiquity, and not even a nice sort of ubiquity either. It's more of a fetid, horrid inevitability, not so much like death as spending the holiday with in-laws.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
...drink too much, get bloated, turn blue, and crash.
Table-ized A.I.
Microsoft is not stupid. They have absolutely no reason to make "stores". You can find Microsoft stuff at every single computer store in the world. Apple had to make stores to compete. Microsoft is PAID to get their produce put into those stores, they have no overhead or staff salarlies to expense.
Also if it does not sell computers then it hardly is competing with an Apple store. And if it does, some OEM's are going to be REALLY mad if they are not included. Though they could maybe have EVERY SINGLE OEM BRAND represented. Yea, that will make the store work real good.
Seriously this has got to be a joke. It makes absolutely zero sense. Microsoft is running ads already that show that you buy there stuff in the same store that might have an Apple display where you can compare prices, not at a "Microsoft store".
If this is not a joke, I think maybe some Microsoft shareholders should sue.
I have to wonder how many of the wall screens will be displaying BSOD or some other fatal error at any one time. You see it often at airports. Even our NOC center master display is showing a "fatal error" box three or four times a week.
On the other hand, people may be so used to it, they may not even notice.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Not long ago a story ran describing a long term debt offering by MS. The story was noteworthy because it stated MS had never offered long term debt instruments. Old school investment theory, as I remember it, would characterize an MS offering of long term debt instruments as one sign of a mature company. It may be the MS brain trust sees it's revenue flattening out and wants to lock in some long term money. Moving into bricks and mortar is another story, although if they see their revenue base flattening or receding like a middle aged hair line then maybe their looking to generate new revenue from a new venue. The question arises as to the likelihood of their offering their own boxes. I'm pretty sure the margin on PC stuff is as thin as it gets but they must have a strategy in hand. Some time ago Bill Gates rather infamously prophesied that, about now, PC hardware would be free with the OS and software being the only costs. Whatever the present state of information suggests I'd expect some good old extend, embrace and extinguish action.
ideopath @ play
Didn't they go bankrupt very soon, within just a few years of opening all those stores?
Rofl. MS is on the way out, eh?
My understanding is that video, Microsoft iPod parody, was made by Microsoft employees who were annoyed at the way Microsoft operates.
You're one of those people who wouldn't have been caught dead with a computer 25 years ago when technology wasn't utilized by the popular cliques. Now that all those "fucking nerds" have done the work to bring technology into the mainstream culture and it is socially acceptable to be a tech geek, you're going to try to make yourself feel superior because you use a Mac?
Very nice.
Oh, I see these stores as lightning rods for some parts of the geek culture. Live action trolling, anyone?
A leaked PowerPoint
You want to know what is fricking sad? it was all the geeky techy sites that wanted MSFT to be more like Apple, while the home users frankly didn't give a shit. While I have bought Win7 HP just to play with, showing my home and business customers Win7 the same things keep getting said over and over: "what is that? It sure ain't Windows." "If I would have wanted an Apple, I would have bought one" and "Where the hell is the button to make it look like XP? Hell where is the button to make it look like Windows 98? I'll take even Windows 98!"
Steve Ballmer, if you or any of your cronies or shills are reading this, please listen. I am going to impart some wisdom that might just keep you from going down in history as MSFT's version of the Pepsi guy that nearly killed Apple. Ready? Now listen close- A good 90% of your customers, including damned near all the home user H.A.T.E change, okay? Let me say this again: Home user fricking HATE change! All they wanted was a little faster, a little harder to screw up, and a little easier to deal with, that's all. Is that really so fricking hard to understand?
So please, for the love of all the evil at MSFT, quit trying to be Apple! You have 90% to their less than 10%! Grow some balls man! You're a fricking business OS company! You're products are SUPPOSED to be boring as shit! You screwed up the XP driver model, causing countless devices to stop working (strike one), you totally boned the GUI trying to be hip and made things that took two clicks take six (strike two) and you are overloading the GUI with bling bling that only irritates the home users trying to be a bastard stepchild of Apple Inc (strike three!). Go back to your roots and make nice boring low resource desktops again. Remember Win2K? Remember WinXP? You were good at that. What you are NOT good at is the whole "high concept" artsy fartsy stuff that makes Apple the Ferrari of computers. You're more like Ford. Boring but sell by the millions. Be happy already!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
At first, the thought of bored 6 year-olds choosing laptop options made me laugh. But then I thought about the Xbox.
When I was a kid, a party at Chuck E Cheese was like an orgy of endless video games. Today, they have a handful of old arcade cabinets and some carnival games for crappy prizes. I've been dragged there for a few birthday parties with my kids. While the 5-8 year-olds have a great time with the ball-pits and singing robots, the teens and pre-teens look like they're in hell.
A room full of 360s with wall-sized displays and high-end audio, Madden and Halo competitions for games and accessories, all you can eat pizza; it sounds like a dream come true for tween boys. Your kid could fill out a wish list of games for gifts and grab bags would have credits for the Live store. It sounds like a great idea to me.
I guardsmen you that if WINE had 100% compatibility with no slowdowns you could stick a Windows XP theme on Ubuntu with WINE set to open up all .exe files, install some of the software the person was used to running and they wouldn't know the difference.
Sure. And when that happens, maybe the OS doesn't matter anymore.
But the point is, that's not today.
Be careful, hot secretaries may have swine flu.
peole don't use MS products because they love them, they use them because they feel they have no choice . Apple users strive to own Apples, while MS users largely resent MS.
The geek resents Microsoft - and projects his anger on all the world. It is a peculiarly adolescent response.
Facts no longer seem to matter.
The bazaars of the third world are filled with pirated copies of Windows. Here at home, sales of the Linux netbook have tanked.
Walmart has pulled Linux off the shelves and off-line.
No one in the states tried longer or harder to make a go of Linux in deep discount retail.
For the Back-To-School trade, Walmart.com has 53 Vista desktops eligible for a free upgrade to Win 7 for sale - and God alone knows how many laptops.
The Win 7 RC has about 1/2 the global desktop share of Linux. It reached those numbers in less than six months.
The New York Times covered this story on February 13, 2009: Will Clippy Be a Greeter at Microsoft's New Stores?. One way to know that Microsoft is not doing well is to realize that the New York Times has joined the Microsoft bashers. Perhaps the amateur bashers will upgrade their skills now that the professionals have moved in.
I admire Linus Torvald's leadership, but in saying Microsoft hatred is a Disease, he seems to be more and more alone. It's not really hatred, it is dislike, and dislike of Microsoft is becoming widespread. I'm not sure what Torvald's intention was in saying that, but of course the actual social effect is the opposite of what he is overtly saying. The actual effect is something like, "The dislike of Microsoft is becoming so widespread and intense that it is like an epidemic."
Microsoft hired this man to be the head of retail sales: Microsoft Appoints David Porter as Corporate Vice President of Retail Stores. Note in the upper right hand corner of that article, under "Press Resources", that Waggener Edstrom is still Microsoft's public relations agency. That's interesting, since Pam Edstrom's daughter, Jennifer Edstrom, wrote Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, published in 1998, with a former Microsoft manager. Quote from the first Amazon review in the list of reviews: "The authors are evidently very anti-Microsoft, yet at the same time their stories come across not so much as how stupid Microsoft is, but how mismanaged and lucky Gates & Company have been, which is closer to the truth than many people think."
What do you think of Microsoft's new vice-president? Looking at his photo, is he the kind of person who can make retail stores that people admire? He doesn't know how to tie his tie. Can he make stores look good?
Apple pulls it off because they've got flash, Nike pulls it off because they've got the same thing Apple has.
Great, now we're going to get proprietary vector animation in our shoes?
Lock the wife and the dog in the boot of the car.
Return one hour later.
Who's happy to see you?
Doesn't HD need a really large screen. Just saying...
While Sony isn't very popular on slashdot for obvious reasons, they have some kind of rock solid customer base who keeps buying/upgrading their products.
I'm one of those. I absolutely love Sony hardware: their headphones and earbuds are the best for reasonably-priced consumer brands. However, anything that depends on Sony _software_ is a big no-no.
I can tell what they should stock. Input Devices, lots and lots of them, all models and they should allow people to try them physically.
Just like with Sony, I love Microsoft hardware. I just bought a new MS ergonomic keyboard and I love it to death. All my input devices are now MS, and I don't have a single MS operating system in the house (four computers).
Lock the wife and the dog in the boot of the car.
Return one hour later.
Who's happy to see you?
Better than the linux store, where you have to build the whole store yourself. If you don't like the pot holes in the parking area, they say you can fix them yourself.
The only two things in the store that will perform exactly as displayed would be MS's two main hardware products: Zune and Xbox.
You forget their no. 1 reliable product, the mouse!
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
But a Microsoft store? Give me a break. MS has always been a geek company, period.
Microsoft used to be a geek company but it's been a marketing company for at least a decade. All the real geek companies are pretty small and don't make much money. Google might be the exception to that.
Its easy when you can 'innovate' a few years later ;)
Innovate -verb
1) The act of stealing something, changing its color, and telling the world you invented it. This is optionally followed by suing the original inventor for ripping off your ideas.
Let's create a FOSStore, with a Gnu bar, a Hacker bar, free hug promotions and keysigning parties!
for geeks. from geeks. out of geeks_ http://www.freewear.org
I cannot really see the difference here, other than MS has used the broken US-PTO to ''protect its IP'', whereas the profiled stores have not done this.
Don't get me wrong -- I think that looking at how others do things is a great way of helping with a new project, however M$ claims that you must not do that when it comes to its software, so why is it doing it here ?
Do they offer you a complimentary Birthday 3.11 For Workgroups ?
@neonux
If the original inventor was too big to steal from, have tame tech pundits tell the world it was an industry standard that everybody was working on :) :)
A decade later its all just a distant memory
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Microsoft's take on the Genius Bar is the Answers Bar (aka Guru Bar, Windows Bar)
Gurus will be lining up for those vacancies like it was an ATC job at JFK.
GNU Store party - You need to bring an equal amount of cake and party favors for everyone (but triple portions for RMS, who comes and sings the Free Software Song for you and a collection of Spanish-language folk songs). Gifts can only be exchanged if you agree to re-gift on the same terms by which you received the gift yourself.
Gentoo Linux Store party - You arrive at the site where the store should be, and get handed a box of tools and building materials. You miss your party and spend the next year building the store by hand with your party guests, only to find out you don't have compatible windows, doors, or toilets. The store staff assures you these are under development and should be buildable by your next birthday party.
OpenBSD Store party - You drive to the store, and security doesn't let you in.
Ubuntu Linux Store party - You arrive and are welcomed by lavishly decorated and friendly African tribesmen. The staff of the Debian store across the street glares the entire time, disgustedly.
ReactOS Store party - It looks similar to the Microsoft Store party, but comes with all the "perks" of the GNU Store party.
This is so cool! Celebrate your birthday at McSoftware and get all the copies of Windows Vista you can eat, with free refills of McWeb Browser! My friend had his party there and we got to meet the clown guy who squirted us a picture of his kids!
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Well, I don't think that the average Windows user actually feels like an oppressed indentured servant, like he's portrayed around these parts.
I think for most people it's just utilitarian. It's what came with the computer, it's what works, now let me on teh intarwebs already.
Basically it's not as much about the presence of a negative conotation about MS, it's more like just the absence of a positive one. Having a Windows computer or hanging around a Windows store, just doesn't carry the same illusion of somehow being hip and cool. It's just a tool to an end.
Sorta like how nobody would hang around the Bosch power tools section of Home Depot, nor carry around an electric drill to look cool.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Sure, they'll make you feel welcome when you walk in. They'll even embrace you. Then you'll be extended and extinguished...
A successful antitrust suit is a pretty good indication that people are not using a company's product though choice.
No. It's a pretty good indication that the government thinks a company is getting too big for its britches.
At least *read* the article you link to. A settlement is not the definition of a successful suit.
People file class-actions to make companies own up to their mistakes. Governments file antitrust to protect competitive commerce.
Here's a quote cited in the very Wiki article you linked: "Consumers did not ask for these antitrust actions - rival business firms did."
The DOJ suit was about the browser wars. It wasn't about OS/2 or OS9 or Office. It was about letting grannies install Netscape v4.79, and the upshot was all us web coders had to test pissy rendering quirks for an extra couple of years and keep using table layouts. The same was true for IE5 for OSX, thank god they let that die.
From Windows 95 through 2000, which we can now remember fondly, I installed web browsers literally hundreds of times on dozens of machines. From Mosaic to Netscape Gold to Opera, not once did Windows make that process at all inconvenient for me. It took a while, but the browser teams finally realized that browsers weren't something users should have to purchase, and that offering a better feature set was the best way to be competitive.
The real winner here is modern day open source, which removes the potential for corporations to outright buy competing products. My only genuine, non-bandwagon complaint about Microsoft is that it's products are so minimalist out of the box. There's always something missing. This is partly an effect of the antitrust concerns, and succeeds in creating an aftermarket for every product they have. I'm fine with using Microsoft products, I'm just sick of tinkering with them. Spending time looking for more choices and new features is damn annoying!
Now and ultimately, Microsoft will lag behind the curve with its application and OS development, because of its lumbering size, disparate teams, and categorical imperative to protect it's intellectual property; while always succeeding as an enterprise solution thanks to its immense level of tech support and training. Having the government make it lean-and-mean won't actually improve its products or our experiences/respect, and once the government thinks Google's britches are getting tight (and a wee bit evil), I expect we'll see the same things all over again.
Customer:i need help windows is behaving oddly Answers Bar: reinstall windows. that'll be $20 thank you!
Mendacem Memorem Esse Oportet
"If this is not a joke, I think maybe some Microsoft shareholders should sue."
I keep wondering how come no shareholder ask them what the hell are they doing. I mean something like Icahn vs. Yahoo.
Just a recent example: While they are in deep, deep trouble with EU, IE 8 "critical update" made itself default browser. Their usual "oh we didn't think about it" trick in action.
They also sent a message "bite me" to those EU bureaucracy by suggesting they will ship a browserless Windows putting them to target of consumers and sent their web 2.0 abuser army to them. EU is not some third World country to play around like that. At last resort, EU can hire some UI specialists, call some large OEMs to support or die and ship the most advanced, supported, easily used Linux to this date. With those billions of euros in their control and a community already sick of MS, they can really do it. I am not a EU citizen but I know how dirty those EU guys can play in case you really make them mad and degrade their public image.
No Icahn to ask them "What the hell are you doing with MY money?". Why? Forget legal business, even if that was a mafia boss keeps bullying police for no reason and wasting the organizations money he would be taken down by his own men.
The problem with your prescription is that MS has no room to grow under it. That's a problem for them because it will mean stagnation and with it, a falling stock price and a susceptibility to change due to some other company's agenda, not theirs. As much as consumers abhor change, there is a reason they abhor it in MS's case. In MS's case, change usually means pain because of the investment (intellectual and monetary) involved in the use of a computer for anything beyond treating it as an entertainment vending machine. If a user treats it as a vending machine, any OS will do and that user won't notice MS being replaced. If a user needs it for something deeper requiring apps and learning, then that user will resist change. If a user must change, s/he starts looking around for choices meaning MS could lose that user. The paradox is that MS has built their company around being all things to all users. So, if they remain static, they'll lose a segment of the vending machine users. If they change, they'll lose a segment of the non-vending machine users. If their business model is maxed out, as I tend to think it is, then losing any users means a decrease in revenue.
These names perfectly capture what, to me, has always been the difference between Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft is utilitarian, functional, and boring. Apple is flashy, self-congratulatory, and "above the fray". Microsoft provides "answers", whereas Apple lets you talk to "geniuses". How appropriate.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
Anything 720×480 or higher is considered HD.
Although on the other hand he never specified the *size* of his, er, screen.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
Special guest: RMS himself
Theme: "Hasta la Vista! - Taking flash mobs to the next level..."
Personally, the only use I have for Windows is gaming, and as soon as Linux gets within striking distance of Windows in the gaming department I'll switch and never look back. Windows 7 is nice as MS OSes go but it's ridiculously expensive. If they cut their prices in half I could see them as being somewhat reasonable. A Microsoft Store would seem like a palace of monopolistic oppression to me.
It doesn't help that I've had to develop apps that use MSSQL, and I mistakenly subjected myself to some discounted Microsoft courses...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
'Cause that's where the staff do tasks for you.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
If someone ahead of you steps out of the line or doesn't successfully complete their purchase, everyone will have to walk outside the store and start over.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The Apple stores provide for people's needs. This is why the Apple store is profitable. You can buy a computer and have it fixed there with minimal delays (they fix it or replace it in store instead of waiting for round trip shipping to Taiwan). If your XBox is broken, you should be able to take it to a Microsoft store and have it fixed or replaced within 24 hours. They need to hire knowledgeable attractive employees who don't come off like shady car salesmen. All products must be priced similarly to their cheapest vendors.
Gateway's stores didn't fix computers (they'd ship them somewhere and you'd have to wait) and you couldn't even walk out with one because they didn't carry any stock. If Microsoft's stores fail to offer any utility to people other than a chance to look at the products, they will fail.
Some stores are very convenient to use, but there are others where you have to know the cultural customs and language. In those more difficult stores, you don't say "hey I want a media player!" You have to find a sales rep, grab him by the throat and say yum install vlc, and make sure you say it softly 'cuz it won't work if you yell. You sometimes also need to tell the sales rep where to look first, again you grab the sales rep by the throat and say rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm .
:-)
See, it's easy once you know how
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Actually under my ideal MSFT WOULD have room to grow, it is they themselves that are screwing that up! For example, you bring up how MSFT tries "to be all things to all people" when that has to be the most boneheaded idea in the history of bonehead ideas.
Do you remember when it was Win2K and Win9x? That is the way it needs to be again, only I would add the category Small Business. So you would have Basic (a stripped down Home) Home, Small Business (a stripped down Pro) and Pro. And instead of just killing a popular OS like Win2K or WinXP they would let the market decide by selling "add ons" like they did during the days of the Plus! packs. Want DX-1o in XP? That will be $30 as part of the XP Plus pack please. Want us to continue supporting Win2K after 2010? Well if enough of you buy the $30 Plus pack that gives you native support for E-SATA and other latest whiz bang techs we will see the demand and respond accordingly. They could even make it butt simple to tell which Plus pack is included by an OEM by adding a new theme that is applied with the new Plus pack unless otherwise unchecked, like DX-11 would be a...say black & red theme layout.
So in my idea of a MSFT that actually listened to the people they would have still plenty of room to grow. Those that wanted the latest and greatest could easily go with that, while those that simply wanted feature X on what they had could easily whip out a CC and get it. You could leave a few of the latest whiz bang features, such as Flip3D and the improved media center functions only available on the latest and greatest while the nitty gritty stuff like the latest DirectX (you would get all of the same series by default-say Dx9- Dx9.9, but jumping versions to Dx10 or Dx11 would require purchasing a Plus pack or buying the latest and greatest which come with it built in) could simply be sold.
So while I agree with your core premise that like a shark they can't sit still or they will die I think I have just shown how they could still be making revenue even off those OSes they sold years ago with Plus packs. This way you could not only make money with older versions, not only make money with the latest and greatest, but even those that buy a lower version like Basic or Small Business can be a source of extra revenue as they buy add ons to make their OS the way THEY want it to be. And most importantly it wouldn't involve looking like a bunch of fools trying to rip off the Apple bling bling and ignoring what the customers want.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
If every user has to go download a browser, how many do you think will pay for IE when they can download Firefox for free?
San Francisco used to have a Microsoft Store at the Metreon, an "urban entertainment destination", back when Sony ran the building. It seemed to be aimed at "road warrior" types, which, since the San Francisco Convention Center is next door, made sense. Machines were set up for playing some of Microsoft's PC games like "Train Simulator". Microsoft boxed software products were sold. A group training room was used for corporate training and presentations. Not very exciting, but modestly useful.
Sony kicked them out when Microsoft introduced the XBox and became a Sony competitor. The building has a Sony Style store and a Playstation store, so having an XBox store in the same building was too much for Sony.
The Metreon has been going steadily downscale for years. The Sony Style store seems out of place, as well as being cluttered with older high-end Sony TV products that cost 3x current prices. The Microsoft store was replaced by a store that sold miscellaneous electronics for travelers, including a vending machine for iPods. That went bust, and after a long vacancy was replaced with an arcade of crane games. Not a video arcade; just crane games, about twenty of them in one room. The cute exhibits, like The Way Things Work and Where the Wild Things Are, are long gone. The original video game arcade, the Airtight Garage, with custom-designed games and exotic decor, is gone. What remains is a dying mall with movie theaters, run by some low-rent mall operator and badly maintained.
Will alcoholic beverages be served at the "Answers Bar"? Gotta have something to help the geek speak go down easily. "I take one Lemon Drop shot and one answer to my networking problems please!" Windows Bar "tender" "That'll be $10.50" Think?
Mumble mumble mum....
I have a Sony TZ right now, $3400. It started falling apart after 2 days. The SD card reader never worked, and in general, it has the fit and finish that would make a 1970s Detroit auto worker cringe. I got this as a gift, so I couldn't return it. :( All of the 'special' features don't work if you use any OS other than the one shipped on them, and they put you at the mercy of Sony's marginal support and non-existent driver upgrades. Upgrading to XP is so much pain it is not tenable, Linux is....... not easy, but I have Ububtu 8.10 FWIW on it now.
Sony makes beautiful (sometimes) parts that sell for a premium, and fall apart. If you buy a Sony computer, you have to be in their target audience, rich and dumb. If you know anything about PCs and buy one, you are, in my definitely not humble opinion, are an idiot.
-Charlie
Well, it's anecdotal evidence so make of it what you will, but my employer used to purchase Sony laptops a few years ago. Then I tried to buy a replacement battery for an 18-month old laptop.
Let's just say my employer no longer purchases Sony laptops.
Separately, my sister in law has a fairly recent Vaio - I have never seen a laptop with such poor build quality in my life. Even Dell's cheapest Vostro laptops are rather better put together.
Will all the employees have to wear a red ring?
I am a PC. :)
You are a sucker for marketing...
"You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
Better than the linux store, where you have to build the whole store yourself. If you don't like the pot holes in the parking area, they say you can fix them yourself.
Finding out that the potholes haven't been repaired because everyone's inside enjoying the free beer ... win!
Be careful, hot secretaries may have swine flu.
Pfft... this is slashdot, nobody here is hitting that.
...while I slip Ubuntu Live CD's into all the machines inside!
(Do I get bonus points for wearing Ubuntu-themed clothes while I'm doing it?)
=)P
Win7 doesn't look like Windows to normal people? Sounds like a great chance to push Ubuntu right now.
I am not convinced people will start shelling out for addons. They usually get the OS "for free", it comes with the machine. They don't dare change it lest it stop working. Given MS's track record, they will screw up some addons and that will cause enough angst to get the easily spooked (i.e., most of the public) out buying addons.
Corporate might be a different matter. I'm unsure whether they'd go for addons. Also, MS would have to lock their addons down because others may decide to make addons for free. I tend to doubt FOSS would go for it en masse since they'd be supporting a locked down architecture. Every addon would require a Corporate entity to extensively test. That's going to limit the appeal with addons. Right now, they extensively test on major upgrades they feel they must have. A stream of addons would be rejected as nickel and diming Corporate and the testing required for an addon wouldn't be significantly less than a major upgrade.
You will also have to enter your CC PIN after each and every digit of the price, and once after the full price is entered.
Your CC will also be charged 3 times and you will have to go through the court to get your money back
They will call the cops on you right after you left the shop, for piracy concerns. In fact, there will be a SWAT van parked just outside of the store, for fast responce times. The only fast response, that you will be getting in and around the shop.