Vista “put down” and XP possibly extended on same day as Ubuntu 8.04 release
Some days it takes a reader to point out these things and point it out he did. Steve Ballmer hinted that Windows XP might get an extension at least until Windows 7 is released. This is mainly because Enterprise customers want nothing to do with Vista and all along he has been saying that Microsoft would listen to customer feedback and extend XP if that was the demand; they aren’t listening very well.
Nevertheless, this may be the first step towards getting an extension for Windows XP but there could be an ulterior motive in extending Windows XP. This announcement came on the same day that Ubuntu 8.04 was released, as was pointed out by an astute reader.
The extension isn’t official but it can only be a coincidence that he made this announcement on the same day that a new release of Ubuntu became available. Or, could it be that Microsoft actually senses a threat from Linux.
My personal opinion is that it still isn’t ready for the average "Jane/Joe." There are still driver issues to be solved (meaning that if it’s not included with the release, good luck installing one). The only threat for Microsoft to deal with is from Apple. Maybe some day, Linux will be ready but today is not that day. Not yet.
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April 24th, 2008
I don’t think Apple is very scary to Microsoft, at least until they want to take the business market seriously. That’s not happening anytime soon. Apple has a big hole in it’s lineup, at the $1,000 IT sweet spot. No product life cycle information. Limited server models. A lack of enterprise level repair service. This is not a knock on Apple. That market is made for high volume, low margin, the opposite of a Mac.
The money made from home users, while nothing to sneeze at, is dwarfed by the money pulled in from all Servers, Office, Exchange, etcetera.
Linux is very much in play here. Much more popular outside the US. It runs on the same hardware, is scalable, secure without hardware or OS lock-in. Microsoft has tried bullying, FUD and now seems to be in their famous engage, embrace, extinguish strategy. It torques Ballmer that there is no single company to litigate into chapter 11.
April 24th, 2008
I think you’re mixing up Windows with Linux, Windows is the one with the driver issues, not Linux. Ubuntu was a breeze to install and basically did everything for me, which included setting me up with all the software I needed for free. The update procedure was amazing in Ubuntu, and as expected, a mess in Windows. Linux will never be ready for you, but has been to the average joe for years now.
April 25th, 2008
I think everyone is missing the point about Microsoft vs Apple – although technically in competition they are both much more threatened by Linux than they are by each other. Why? Because they are both dependent on the end-user believing that it is acceptable to pay for an operating system.
The threat is not from each other – you can’t (easily) install Windows on a Mac or OS X on a PC, but you can install Linux on either. I would suggest that Microsoft and Apple are actually partners in continuing the end-user mindset of ‘paid-for operating systems’.
Once the end-user largely realises that there is a realistic, albeit not perfect, (but a heck of a lot cheaper) operating system & office suite, then it is all over.
Microsoft/Apple will probably continue to dominate the small number of users in the US (250m people or so – very small market) because of the lack of patience and disposable income available to the average US citizen, but they are going to lose the rest of the world unless they make their OS’s free of charge.
March 2nd, 2009
I’d agree. Linux is a much bigger threat. Mac is not a company that is going to take the market by storm. They offer higher end, but more expensive PCs than other PC manufactures that ship Windows. There are some markets Apple can’t touch. Linux can be anywhere.