Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Putting the Pressure on Bill

Microsoft is feeling the pressure.

They've extended the availability of XP an extra 5 months. I'm strongly considering buying as many copies as I can find come May or so, and hawking them at scalper-blush prices when folks realize they're stuck with Vista otherwise.

From the article:
Microsoft, for its part, sought to downplay the impact of the move, disagreeing with the notion that there is still strong demand for XP.

"We wouldn't term it strong," said Kevin Kutz, a director in Microsoft's Windows Client unit. "We would describe this as accommodating a certain element who needs more time."
That's your spin? You get paid to paint pretty pictures of ugly situations, and that's the best you can do? Way to go, Kevin.
Dell also said it support's Microsoft's decision.

"We believe the additional time will help some customers to prepare for the transition from XP to Vista," the company said in a statement.
"Prepare"? How are people going to "prepare" for the transition? Go get a book on how to use your new easy-to-use OS? What you mean is help some customers get used to the idea that they're stuck with Vista. But of course you can't say that, because you're sleeping with the enemy.

If I were a linux flavor, I'd be going after some serious funding to do a marketing blitz to bill yourself as the new alternative to Windows. You come free with Open Office, you have a better history of security, etc.

Not that I personally would be swayed -- not until the game makers start porting their stuff over to Linux. But, you know, the consumers who only need routine stuff out of their computer. Them folks. Grab a chunk of their marketshare.

Vista sucks, but Linux still doesn't have any good games,
Randy

2 comments:

Cali said...

Hey I hope you don't think it's weird I just browsed to your blog, but I totally agree with you. We just spent a ton of money on a brand-new computer with all the niceties and what-not, and we are having all kinds of problems, but I hadn't known if it was Vista or not. Our most common error is the "Windows Explorer has stopped working", so I guess it is.

Randy said...

Ayup. In fact, if you google "Vista sucks" you get 2 million results; scanning through the first couple pages sees that there are more problems than one mere blog can delineate. I seriously don't know how Microsoft can pull out of this.