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Windows: Not Doomed Yet

Posted by Soulskill on from the cash-on-hand-is-a-wonderful-buoy dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "Earlier this week, ZDNet columnist Steven Vaughan-Nichols wrote an article, 'Windows: It's over,' that sparked a lot of passionate online debate. His thesis was simple: Microsoft's dominance of the computing market is coming to an end, accelerated by the incipient failure of Windows 8. Make no mistake about it: there's no way to fudge the numbers in a way that suggests Windows 8 is proving a blockbuster. But maybe it's not doomsday for Windows or Microsoft. After all, the company still has a lot of really smart developers and engineers, a whole ton of cash, and the ability to let its projects play out over years. So here's the question, Slashdotters: Is Windows really doomed? And, if not, what can be done to turn things around? (No originality points awarded for a 'Fire Steve Ballmer' response.)"

40 of 737 comments (clear)

  1. Shrug... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course Microsoft isn't doomed, and neither is Windows. In the enterprise world, Exchange-Office will still dominate for many years to come.

    The problem is on the consumer end, where Windows is heading quickly to irrelevance.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Shrug... by _Shad0w_ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wouldn't mind fading in to a business which made $16 billion profit last year and still employs over half-a-million people.

      --

      Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.

    2. Re:Shrug... by postbigbang · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is all the result of some pageview whores looking to stir up some hits in an otherwise pretty dull period. Yeah, people are buying tablets and smartphones. No doubt about it. Not buying Windows 8 because they're not strongly compelled.

      So, they do the death watch, change the CEO trick, pile on the the horrible histories, bring up the traditional rivalries, and rake the muck.

      That's you, ZDNet. You listening? Gonna put on the fishnet stockings and red lipstick again? You can do the same thing on Slashdot just by dissing all or any of the Sacred Cows here. The Google Ad revenues must have been stupendous.

      Nothing to see here. Move along.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    3. Re:Shrug... by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As long as Microsoft has the strongest commitment to backwards compatibility, they'll retain their market position.

      Most people don't care about the operating system, they just use it to launch their apps. Businesses don't want to rewrite all their custom software just because they are upgrading to a new OS. Microsoft revenue is still going up.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. Fire Steve Ballmer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fire Steve Ballmer

    1. Re:Fire Steve Ballmer by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

      Fire Steve Ballmer

      Monkey God says no. Steve will rule until he passes, then a taxidermist will pose him in a display like in Planet of the Apes. A feral pose would be funny. Grrrr!

  3. nope by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the only reason they became accepted into the enterprise is because that is what consumers were familiar with, But now that model is going to rot from the ground up, at least three other major players have good inroads to eat Microsoft's lunch. Windows 8 marks the beginning of the fall of Microsoft.

    1. Re:nope by tbannist · · Score: 4, Informative

      I suspect it was Vista that marked the beginning of the fall. Quite a few people got burned on new computers that weren't actually "Ready for Vista". People expect new versions of Windows to be bloated pigs on old hardware, but when it runs like a pig on brandnew hardware? That's an unforgivable sin.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    2. Re:nope by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This, right here.

      The original rationale for Windows in the enterprise began when companies wanted cheap "personal" computers in the workplace. They wanted those computers with a drop-stupid UI and a cheap OS on them. Windows was perfectly poised to fill that need (Apples cost too much, GEM had issues, and Amiga was too much like an appliance to be flexible.)

      Nowadays, if W8/Metro is what Microsoft expects the planet to use, they may be in for a shock. No serious enterprise will touch it (outside of certain "Platinum Partners" who drink Redmond-flavored koolaid by the tanker-truck), since it (currently) hampers the hell out of work. When home users buy a PC, they want a frickin' PC - and not some over-spec'd tablet with a keyboard lashed onto it.

      While I won't say that Microsoft is dead meat, I will say that they're making one hell of a potentially fatal mistake here. They don't have room to bork things up like they used to (see also Steam's decision), and Apple is smart enough to stay expensive enough to make a serious profit, but just barely cheap enough to be within reach of anyone who could be considered a decision-maker.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    3. Re:nope by interval1066 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think a smart move would be to split Mirosoft up into 3 new companies. Microsoft is currently too big and dumb to move quickly. Time to split it up into 3 companies; let Ballmer have the big enterprise contracts, and keep developing windows servers and workstations. He likes playing with the big boys, smoking cigars, and golf. He can have that. Then they need to take the consumer-facing elements and create a consumer oriented company. Tablets, phones, & R&D. Get some new blood in there and let them innovate. Lastly; take the XBox crowd, marketing, and entertainment. Maybe even dip a toe in movie production. Certainly video games. I'd explore splitting Microsoft up as described. Yeah.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    4. Re:nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the only reason they became accepted into the enterprise is because that is what consumers were familiar with
       
      Sorry but you're talking out of your ass. If a "consumer" owned a PC at all at the time that Windows started to make inroads to the enterprise it was either Apple, Atari or Commodore. Windows made inroads because MS-DOS was the defacto standard thanks to IBM and when the GUI was ready for primetime Microsoft was already embedded in the culture. Whoever modded you up doesn't know jack about computing in the enterprise. It's kind of pathetic when you stop to think of it.
       
        But now that model is going to rot from the ground up, at least three other major players have good inroads to eat Microsoft's lunch.
       
      It's going to rot? Really? Show me where MS's domination on a production platform is threated. Do you honestly think that people using Android phones and iPads are a threat to full functioning computers that aren't just running a bunch of small apps? Please. And Windows will still be the largest marketshare (by far) for the home user who still decides to support a PC into the next decade.
       
        Windows 8 marks the beginning of the fall of Microsoft.
       
      I seem to recall hearing the same thing around here when Windows ME was about a year old too. Lo and behold, the next release from MS made Microsoft more money and embedded them further into the end user culture more than any other product ever has.

    5. Re:nope by pnutjam · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If I could right click anywhere and get a menu I wouldn't need a start menu. Since I have to swipe from the side with my mouse, or click a tiny portion of the screen that hijacks the rest of the screen, a simple button starts to make sense.

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
    6. Re:nope by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Informative

      it's extremely jarring because it serves no other purpose than to tie you into metro apps downloaded through the marketplace. for no good reason you can't run the apps (without 3rd party sw) in windows. that's the real beef, that it's so unnecessarely the way it is. and that it jumps on top of your work(that's a big issue actually). and that you have to do reboot tricks to install some drivers for more exotic hw. it comes bundled with a pdf reader sure. but it's totally unusable if you're trying to use it to read a pdf as a reference for doing actual work. it's just so almost there but yet so far away - technically it's better than win7 but not in any way that would matter to any user(stuff just worked in 7, stuff just works in 8) and the political decisions the management took when deciding how it should behave to the user just stink to high heavens.

      they'll just tone it down on next release, the boot times from win7 to win8 aren't that different tho.
      so I don't really see MS being in more trouble than they were in the '90s with linux, beos, os/2 and others.

      but suppose I'd be using anything else than windows.. could I run a binary hardware accelerated 3d program from 13 years ago on any current release of them ? I can on windows, it runs better than on any other windows yet too. If ms would take that away - go all windows rt - then sure, ms would be fucked, there would be zero reason to stick with it.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    7. Re:nope by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That would be false. The enterprise embraced OS/2 and Windows NT while the consumers were using Windows 95/98. Likewise, consumers were not using Exchange. One could reasonable argue that what made them accepted was not Microsoft at all, but IBM which introduced their enterprise customers to relatively low priced desktop computers compared to their offering of mini and mainframe computing back in the 1980s.

      Once Intel PCs were established in the enterprise, when the GUI was becoming standard, the question became which one Mac OS (not OS X), OS/2 and Windows NT. OS/2 was the favorite until Microsoft and IBM had a major falling out and Windows NT and OS/2 went their separate ways. Since Windows NT worked on IBM hardware plus all of the clones and IBM OS/2 mainly worked on IBM hardware (meaning the PS/2 line), Windows NT won out. Then NT became Windows 2000 and after that Microsoft merged their business and consumer products into Windows XP.

      Along the way, there were numerous failings - Windows 3.0, Windows 95 (while successful, was buggy) Windows ME, Windows Vista. Each time it was supposed to be the end of Microsoft, but that never happened. Why not? Because Microsoft also is exchange server which many businesses depend on. It is also SQL server and Office and a whole lot more than simply Windows. That is only the tip of Microsoft's iceberg.

      Does that mean that MIcrosoft will continue to reign supreme, no of course not. Neither will Apple. Both of them will succumb, like IBM did before them to somebody else. The problem is that when you are at the top of the heap, there is nowhere else to go but down. But even if they are no longer the dominate force, that doesn't mean they still aren't a force. Again, look at IBM as an example. Of course, IBM did have to take a hard look at the role they wanted to play in the industry. Whether Microsoft is willing to do that or not is yet to be seen.

      As for Windows 8 failure to launch, there are two reasons, at least in the corporate world. 1st, it is different and being different means money spent on retraining workers and increased tech support costs. Different is fine if it leads to productivity gains or something along those lines, but that gives us point 2 - Windows 7 is good enough. Windows 8 doesn't increase productivity and in a typical business setting often decreases it. Some argue that Windows 8 was a tablet design forced on a desktop. Maybe, maybe not. However, there is no doubt that it is a consumer design that corporations aren't pleased with as it doesn't fit their needs. Corporations don't buy into the consumer marketing hype. They have bean counters that look at the bottom line and things like ROI. In that scenario, Windows 8 doesn't cut it.

      The irony is that Windows 8 contains some great technology. The reason it has failed is not because of the technology or the engineering. The reason it failed is because Microsoft misread its market and produced a product that it's largest customer base (corporations) didn't want or need. If they get it right with their corporate customers with Windows 9, then Windows 8 is just a good product that nobody wanted. Maybe Microsoft should follow Canonical and have LTS versions that favor corporate use and use the intervening years to experiment with the interface. Those things that work and are accepted make it into the next LTS those that don't, well, don't.

    8. Re:nope by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I suspect it was Vista that marked the beginning of the fall.

      Actually wasn't what is being said about Win8 identical to what was said about Vista? And before that XP was a failure until sp1 was released, ME before that and 95 before that. I think Bob and Clippy were also the death knell for Microsoft too. Oh, and the ribbon in Office, can't forget that one. Granted, they can't keep screwing over their customer base with every other release continually. But they still hold a lot of market share. They just don't have absolute dominance like they once seemed to (not that that was necessarily ever true).

    9. Re:nope by s.petry · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While well thought out, there is a very important aspect that you neglect. It was hinted at, but not bluntly called out. That aspect is that a huge part of the reason Windows went into the workplace was because people were familiar with it at home. Marketing played it's part too mind you, but not as much as an exec being able to do everything at work he did at home in the same way.

      The same can be said of applications. MS gave Word away. It was horrible compared to competitive products, but it was free. Everyone became familiar with it. Word Perfect required extra knowledge that a home user didn't have. The same exact statement can be said about Excel compared to Lotus 1-2-3.

      When MS loses dominance on home devices, people lose that familiarity. It will certainly impact the approach businesses take to OSes and Devices. In fact I'll state it already has, since most large companies are trying to develop any-device anywhere platforms.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    10. Re:nope by Dishevel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      95, ME, and Vista were failures.
      98, XP, and 7 have been decent.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    11. Re:nope by sdoca · · Score: 4, Informative

      Many (many) years ago, I used the MS-DOS version of WordPerfect. It was what was on the computers at school and on my friends' computers (those who actually had a PC in their home). I was good at it and was happy with it.

      Windows 3.1 came out and WordPerfect launched a new version for it. It was horrible! We used it at work and I was always frustrated with how I had to "reveal codes" to get any meaningful text formatting done.

      When I bought my first computer, it was mainly for writing papers for university, so a good word processing application was key. At the store, I asked what other word processing programs were available and I played with Word 2.0 for a few minutes. It was beautiful! I went home with Word.

      That may not explain why others went with Word over WordPerfect, but it explains why I did.

    12. Re:nope by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > How does replacing a pop-up start menu with a full page start menu, but otherwise make the OS faster in every way (boot, sleep/resume, use) and fully backwards compatible "hamper the hell out of work".

      Well, because it doesn't do that at all. Basic things work radically differently, the visual cues that help non-geeks navigate computers are gone, the fullscreen paradigm doesn't fit well on large dense monitors, and touch gestures don't work well with a mouse. And even if all of these things were surmountable, the training issues alone are nightmarish.

      When we (just recently) rolled out Win7, we did some pilot programs and app testing as part of due diligence, but we did not have to do user training or amp up the helpdesk because 7 behaved as people have been led to expect. 8 .... well, geeks can eventually figure out anything, so I'm sure there are alpha nerds out there that have put in the time necessary to learn to make 8 dance, but regular users don't want a GUI challenge, they want to run their apps and get their work done. It ain't gonna happen. We'll wait until something reasonable becomes available. Because 8 hampers the hell out of getting work done, for regular people.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  4. Lack of necessity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The only thing that could doom Microsoft (not Windows) is the lack of necessity for a new operating system. Microsoft makes money selling Windows, so they NEED to release new versions every few years. The need for a new operating system might not be a pressing issue for the end user and this will slow down the demand for new versions of Windows, not Windows itself.

    1. Re:Lack of necessity by pnutjam · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The stability and real multi-user support of win7 is head and shoulders above XP. Win7 was a definite improvement.

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
  5. They need to bring back Clippy by BenSchuarmer · · Score: 4, Funny

    that'll take care of everything.

  6. Don't Fire Balmer, by CanHasDIY · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just buy heavier chairs.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  7. How relevant is the PC, still? by morcego · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The regular desktop PC, and even notebooks, are becoming more and more irrelevant. Yes, there is still a long way to go, but we are seeing more and more of a convergence between platforms, what with cell phones, tablets and whatnot becoming more prevalent and main business tools.
    Heck, I'm an IT geek, and I rarely carry my notebook around anyway. I do most of my work from my cell phone (hardware qwerty keyboard).
    I keep seeing more and more people ditching their notebooks for tablets.

    And I sincerely don't think Windows can survive outside the PC market.

    --
    morcego
    1. Re:How relevant is the PC, still? by DL117 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'll do all my gaming on my PC. I listen to music on my PC. I watch TV and movies on my PC. My friends do the same. I'm 19. The PC isn't dead in anyone's eyes but those of marketers who want to sell to cheap to build tablets for the price of a fully functional PC.

    2. Re:How relevant is the PC, still? by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 4, Informative

      Over and over again, how many times do we have to keep regurgitating this...
      Yes, we know, phones and tablets are consumption devices.
      PC's are "work"/creation devices.

      In the enterprise Apple or Linux or whoever is gonna have a HELLUVA time displacing Windows, Active Directory, Office, etc; and all the software that is written to run in that environment.
      For example, how many bioanalytical chemistry/drug testing labs are running LIMS or Lab Informatics software on mac's or google chrome devices? What about companies that process credit card transactions? What about inventory control software for food processing? Apple? Linux?

      Just because all these media consumption devices are "the new kid in town" and basking in their self-referential glow doesn't mean they are going to displace the framework that is in place that businesses run on.
      Agreed, MS blew it in the consumer space, but good luck dislodging them from the Enterprise.

      --
      We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  8. Simply adjust Metro vs Desktop to remove pain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No big move required, but they need to do a few things
    - Allow the return of the Start Button for those who prefer it.
    - Allow start to desktop
    - In multi monitor setup, allow one sreen to be locked to Start Screen and/or metro applications
    - Make it easy for developper to target Metro and Desktop within the same .exe
    - Make apps that with great value in metro, but they need to still show a status icon when in desktop
        - ex: if in desktop mode, the skype app need to show the alert if there is an unread message, particulary when we get back from a game

  9. Q:"what can be done to turn things around?" by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    A:Re-release Win XP, and call it Windows 9.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  10. Same old song, second verse same as the first by davmoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, Windows is dying. Just like this is the year that Linux takes over on the desktop. Or is this the year that Apple takes over? Or CP/M makes it comeback? OS/2? I forget, I've heard them all so often.

    --
    I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
  11. The PC isn't dying by RobinH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone who thinks the PC is in any sense dying hasn't worked in an office that does business with other companies. There is a *huge* amount of work that consists of physically typing stuff into databases (purchase orders anyone?) and retrieving stuff from databases, and all of this work is done with a keyboard and mouse. Spreadsheets. Forms. Stuff still gets printed out and filed! Nobody wants a tablet to do this. I think there might be room for tablets out in the warehouse, but even those are likely to be Windows based. Mac? Sorry, businesses look at the price difference and can't stomach paying nearly twice as much for the hardware. I'm certain that home PC sales are diving, and that's probably a good thing, but in our office we're expanding the number of PCs because we want access to information everywhere, and more data entry everywhere, and they're cheap! PCs are the work-horse of enterprise data. So what if we're buying them with Windows 7 Pro on them instead of Windows 8? MS still makes money.

    --
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
  12. Not any more than HP by MickLinux · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gotta remember when Carly came to HP. It didn't doom HP. What it did do, was turn HP into a typical fortune-500 company: that is, the compost heap of companies failed.

    HP is still around, and will still continue to take over failed companies, and compost them, losing value the whole way. Moreover, they will still be the "standard" for government agencies and colleges, regardless of value.

    And yes, they will continue to have bright people, and waste their prime years in irrelevance.

    Microsoft will be the same. Shoot, I expect Google to become that, too. After a certain size, good management is highly improbable; bad management is highly probable.

    But that doesn't mean they won't have occasional blockbusters again, and won't be a "force to be reckoned with". They are, and will be. They'll just be of marginal value to anyone who deals with them.

    --
    Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
  13. but who are they competing with? by stenvar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Windows might be in trouble, but who is going to replace them? Android and iOS are pretty limited platforms and not exactly fun to program. OS X is getting very long in the tooth, has very limited hardware offerings, and Objective-C is less pleasant to develop for than C#. And just as Gnome/X11 looked like it was going to provide a fairly stable desktop platform, the Gnome, Wayland, and Ubuntu developers have screwed things up big time again. Much as I loathe Windows 8, I think it's still going to win by default on the desktop.

  14. forgetting something, are we? by sribe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After all, the company still has a lot of really smart developers and engineers, a whole ton of cash, and the ability to let its projects play out over years.

    And really bad management, clinging to stupendously dysfunctional and wasteful project management practices.

  15. Lets finish that statement, shall we? by JustAnotherIdiot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After all, the company still has a lot of really smart developers and engineers, a whole ton of cash

    ...and an idiot management team directing it all.
    If I've learned anything working for big companies, it's that it doesn't matter how great your grunt workers are, or how great your budget is.
    If you have shitty management/leads, you will fail.

    --
    What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
  16. Re:There is only one possible course of action. by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Certainly! Capitalism is exploitation of man by man.

    In Communism it is the other way around.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  17. A poor workman blames his tools by RocketScientist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been thinking about the saying "A poor workman blames his tools" a lot lately.

    My conclusion after a lot of thinking is that it isn't that the workman who doesn't like his tools isn't skilled, or doesn't take care of his tools Maybe his set of tools is just worn out and it's the workman's duty to acquire a new tool set. The tools change over time.

    I'm a SQL Server DBA. SQL Server as a product is great. The tools, however, suck. Random crashes. Random issues. Inconsistent UI. Example 1: Mouse wheel doesn't work in a combo box. Why? Who decided that was "OK"? Lots of other piddly issues that just tick me off all day long. I hate my tools. It's probably time to try something else. This really came to roost when we put Windows Server 2012 on a box so we could do cross-subnet clustering. Love the cross-subnet clustering. The UI, however, is Metro. "Go hover over an invisible spot on the upper-right-hand corner of the UI to get to something sorta-like a start menu so you can run SQL Server Configuration Manager". Why? Why?

    The user interfaces, now "improved" through the use of Visual Studio integration, are absolute crap.

    I'm getting tired of being stressed on poor tools when I'm stressed on a ton of other things that actually I should be stressed on, like data integrity, performance, and efficiency. Instead I get to spend a ton of time figuring out how to start applications? Every single day I start working and I find something new that makes me go "Why do these guys think they can make good user interfaces that work consistently? Who allows them to do this?"

  18. Server 2012 - anyone else frustrated by that too? by vinn · · Score: 4, Informative

    So, speaking of frustrating Microsoft OS's, anyone else tried Server 2012?

    It seems to be quite a bit faster than 2008 and set up to run as a VM well. HOWEVER... it has taken a giant step backward in usability. No Start menu? Ok, I can adjust to that. However, getting to all the tools to administer a system is frustrating at best. What the f*ck were they thinking? Right now our average 2012 desktop consists of 20 - 30 shortcuts to administrative tools so we can get into things as basic as a control panel or an Event Viewer.

    I understand Microsoft wanting to move everyone to using Powershell, I get how powerful the commandline is - I've been using Unix/Linux for 20 years. However, using bash and other commandline tools makes sense. It seems sane and has always been intuitive to pick up. A quick man page look up usually fills in any details that are out of the ordinary. Powershell and Microsoft's objects? Wow.. no idea who designed it but intuitive is not a word I would use to describe it. I suppose the command names themselves are ok, a lot of times you can guess them with a "Set" or "Get" prefix, but the way you pass the object references and the various command parameters are a complete pain the ass. Powershell is a nice feature, but completely ripping out nice graphical tools to do complex and infrequent tasks makes no sense.

    --
    ----- obSig
  19. Re:What trend? by All_One_Mind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wrong. Windows 8 has much faster boot up performance, has revamped file operations, has improved text acceleration, geometry rendering, and image performance. These are all performance improvements. Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57478350-75/microsoft-explains-how-windows-8-smokes-windows-7/

  20. I think the Biz PC drove Home PC sales by MasterOfGoingFaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think you are on the right track, but I see it flipped. Most people did not have PCs at home. This was a device they had at work. They were trained to use it because it was a function of their job.

    Then one day this Internet "thing" arrived and they wanted a device to surf the web. The only device they knew was the PC - by now it was Windows-based. So Wintel PCs spiked in sales. But if we are honest, they really weren't ready for your average person - far too complex. But it was almost the only tool available, so that's what they got.

    But now tablets and smart phones let them surf and get email - without a lot of the problems. So consumers are slowly changing to that device. I say "slowly" because the sales curve continues to accelerate.

    I believe the end result will be the PC will return to being a mostly-business device. We'll look back on the last 15 years as an odd spike between the Internet land rush and the arrival of the Internet Terminal.

    Microsoft's mistake? Users have a tough time with change, and MS upset them greatly by creating a confusing interface. Users are much more willing to learn new controls for something totally different (airplane, boat, tablet) but get mad as hell if you change something they are already comfortable with (car, Windows).

    --
    Place nail here >+
  21. Re:What trend? by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In an office environment it's poison though. I don't know about where you are but I've still got a pile of people that never got used to the "start" menu and if they don't have an icon for something they don't think it is on their computer (sucks with new staff - having to set up a pile of icons for the new user login). Win8 is such a massive change in UI from the XP/win2k mode that they are used to that I'm not going to bother trying to force it on them until they've got used to it at home.