Is Microsoft dropping the ball on operating systems?

Except for Steve Jobs, Bill gates is the second largest stock holder for Apple. IT is a numbers game. There is NOTHING Apple does without Gates ok. All biased on the PC sheep not really knowing what the truth is. Which is better Mac or IBM platform… Have to have a “healthy” competitive environment so Microsoft does not come off as a monopoly. THat is all it is about.

Microsoft should stick with Office applications like Excel and let others do the real things like operating systems.

The tense in your question is wrong. Microsoft dropped the ball, in a big way, with the long wait after XP, the overhyped expectations for Longhorn/Vista, and the disappointing delivery. The question is whether they can recover.

@ChazMaz: please cite sources for your claims that Bill Gates is the second largest stock holder for Apple, or that Apple waits for someone else to tell them what to do.

(Hint: if that were true, the Zune would not have been such a laughingstock, and Vista would not be so worthy of mockery when compared to OS X.)

@cwilbur

Agreed, they really did already. After 1.5 years of OSX, it seems strangely bewildering and bizarre that I was one of the people standing in line for over a day to get a first copy of Vista LOL

@ChazMaz, completely incorrect. Check this link out. Where did you get that information from?
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=aapl

Have you tried Linux?

@mattbrowne; I couldn’t agree more

I was playing around with the first beta of Windows 7, and was quite impressed in comparison to Vista. Windows 7 is what Vista should have been, and is far superior in terms of stability and performance. I just hope vendors can churn out some quality drivers this time….
I still think OS X is far superior to any Windows OS (not counting the servers, OS X server blows), but I might actually buy 7 for Boot camp.

@mattbrowne You mean, so they stop making atrocities like Office 2007?

Well I’ve seen some comparison charts done by Ubuntu and Windows 7 is competitive at last in some key areas…although the fact that its emulating XP as a means to get ‘stuff’ to work has got to be a sign that Windows has lost something along the way…I’ld say Linux is the future, its progressing very rapidly and at last its very usable and not to mention free. I always used to think it was only for geeks till 6 months ago when actually I found its easier to use and still faster than Windows 7 (Ubuntu) :)

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/489193/Screenshot1Ubunutu-XP.png.jpg

@cwilbur yeaaaa xp was the end.

@J0E and @Tobotron ubuntu FTW

there are some neat features for us Network Admins when you pair Windows 7 with Server 2008 R2.

AppLocker – allows you to set up rules for your organization that allow only certain programs to run..if it’s not on the list, it won’t run on your computer. or you can set it to block certain application names if you don’t want to be overly protective. this really has the potential of preventing lots of problems.

DirectAccess – much like VPN (virtual private network) but works transparently to the user if the machine is part of a domain.

BranchCache – allows for caching of files from a shared server at branch offices either dispersed between multiple computers or local server. allows faster access to files for users that share files.

Windows PowerShell 2.0 – powerful scripting tool to complete tasks on machines on a network.

Troubleshooting packs – collection of PowerShell scripts that attempt to diagnose a problem and, if possible, solve the problem with the user’s approval.

and that’s just the highlights…

if you don’t know what to look for, yeah, it does look a lot like Vista. you should really watch this video to find out what you’re missing. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd758778.aspx?ITPID=tnflash

one cool thing is that you can run a virtual XP box within Windows 7. This means if you can’t run it in vista or windows 7, but you know it will run in XP, then you can run it there. sure, this is nothing new if you are a mac user as you can run virtual copies of windows there, but it is new in windows 7. oh and it runs more efficiently and boots faster than vista, but maybe that’s not important to you.

I think the contrary is true..Windows is actually taking a huge step forward with this new version instead of backwards, for once.

and to all of you Office 2007 haters…have you actually used the software for more than 10 minutes? i use it everyday and love it. I was one of those who was convinced that Office 2000 was all i ever needed.

Thoughts? I think that no OS will exist in the future. More often than not, web apps are fulfilling people’s needs for productivity and features. For those applications that do require intense and dedicated computer use, I foresee them using a Linux installation.

I am more than happy with XP when I need it (Photoshop, Maya, playing games), and a Linux installation when all I need is a media player and internet browser. I’ll never buy Windows 7. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever buy a Microsoft anything again (beyond my Xbox).

@ccatron

The actual performance increase over Vista is usually less than 5%, thus, below the threshold of what users actually perceive as “subjective performance increase”

According to most Slashdot reports, XP Sandbox is not even close to be ready for mass distribution as it only seems to work on “template machines”

Branche cache isn’t something a home user would be concerned with, and by far not that new or interesting in the enterprise market.

AppLocker Just a different approach to poledit

Windows PowerShell 2.0 The next security pitfall for windows

@uberbatman; I use Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu but still pretty different.

@J0E i have a friend using that distro. how do you like it?

@uberbatman; I absolutely love it, it is the perfect mix between ubuntu and windows. They just came out with a new version based off Jaunty which is getting amazing reviews already.

hmmm i may have to give it a shot.

well, it’s only in RC1 right now, I haven’t checked it out myself but others love it. I’m going to wait until they release the final edition.

Guys, check this out.

@JOE, @uberbatman:
Linux will dominate the world eventually, just wait and see. ;)

@bob_ – Well they must make something. If they drop Windows operating systems completely, they can keep Office 2007 as a ‘compromise’. We don’t want all Microsoft employees lose their jobs, do we?

@mattbrowne

Personally, I do. :-)

This is no joke: If all of Microsoft software contained only very few bugs and ran as reliably as Linux or Apache or Tomcat, millions of IT jobs would vanish overnight. Microsoft is a giant job creation machine, but I agree that purposeful jobs should be created elsewhere to benefit all of humanity like in renewable energy technology.

@mattbrowne

Which is exactly where the irony is. Lots’ of jobs, but lots of bloated and buggy software.

Of course, not to mention the Microsoft, despite this huge number of employees, is the biggest idea-stealing company in the world. Not even MS-DOS is their invention.

@taosan – well, aren’t you a party pooper…

Imagine what gains the economy could make if businesses could get away with 1/10 the IT staff because they weren’t using Microsoft quality software.

@cwilbur

I didn’t get it..

@archaeopteryx: Suppose a business has to pay 10 staff members to keep its technical infrastructure going because it chose to use Microsoft products. If they had chosen instead to use something else, they could probably afford to only pay 1. That cuts their staffing expenses by 90%, which means that they can then afford to lower their prices, which means people can afford to purchase more of their goods and services for the same amount of money.

This would probably be enough to offset the damage to the economy that would happen were 90% of Microsofties to be laid off.

@ccatron

I try ^^

3 weeks in now, using it on a daily basis I’d say it definitely is less annoying than Vista. But seriously, as some said before, 7 is really just what Vista should have been.

thats too easy. Windows ME.

btw capslock=fail.

@uberbatman are you suggesting that Windows ME was good?!?!

ergh i read that wrong. I missed the word “not” cause i was killed by the block of caps.

In that case, i change my answer. XP was/still is fuckin awesome. Windows 7 is pretty bitchin so far too.