Nice tactics Microsoft!
So the oh so famous Gartner Analysts have announced that Microsoft Windows is collapsing under its own weight and that a radical change is needed.
The conclusion of the blog is correct: ‘How fast will Windows collapse under its weight? It’ll take longer than folks think.’. They are not going to collapse. They have a good user base and in my daily work I get customers insisting on Microsoft products, just because they know these products and their features. Or people knowing people telling them how excellent the choise for Microsoft is.
So, what is the deal here? It is simple. Microsoft is starting to prepare people that Windows 7 will not be compatible with older version. As this might be a shock to a lot of people, Microsoft needs to educate people why it is needed. It will be hard to sell that /all/ existing windows software will simply not run anymore on Windows 7. We could already have read that it won’t be compatible.
And that’s where Gartner kicks in. Nothing better then some ‘independent’ analysts telling that Microsoft is doomed and that there need to be radical changes. In a later stage Microsoft can announce the incompatibility and refer to this Gartner statement. And Gartner can again publish in a few years how Microsoft succesfully avoided the crisis.
So please read all those stories in the right context and learn from their tactics. Sit back and enjoy the show. It is good to learn how to prepare users for radical changes. We never know if we can use some of those tactics for KDE 5 or 6.
he has written a follow Story here he has written a follow up Story for any one who wants to read it http://thebetaguy.com/musings/?postid=1967907200&title=followup-on-the-windows-7-exclusive
That TheBetaGuy link… You do realise that’s utterly, utterly fake, don’t you?
Just because it’s on teh w3b doesn’t make it true :).
So, does that mean Windows 7 will ship with WINE? Because that’d be hilarious.
Seriously, though. The “breaking backwards compatibility” thing doesn’t surprise me. That should have happened with NT5.*, much less 6.*. I AM surprised I’m hearing about it so soon. Vists must REALLY suck if Microsoft is implementing such radical changes, announcing said changes so soon, and planning to launch the successor so soon.
I bet all the idiots that thought early enterprise level deployments of Vista were a great idea (like the college I attend) are kicking themselves right about now.
What, the first link? I wouldn’t call it fake but I wasn’t talking about the article, but about the dismissed arguments on those threads. Don’t play Ballmer on me Thom, you know exactly what I meant ;). Regards
“I bet all the idiots that thought early enterprise level deployments of Vista were a great idea (like the college I attend) are kicking themselves right about now.”
I couldn’t agree more :D
No, the 2nd link.
@Mike: for what I’ve seen and heard, Microsoft published not only Api that rely to .NET, but also Api related to the c language and sdk..and it seems that they are more than .NET.
I think Windows 7 will be simply an evolution of Vista, not a revolutionary OS..or maybe you can think that have a system that work instead what Vista do is a revolution?
Ah, I don’t believe that all the info that I find on internet are true..so maybe you can read blogs on zdnet and see other expectation regarding Windows 7 from people that are near Microsoft.
–
Regards
Good post.
“Microsoft is starting to prepare people that Windows 7 will not be compatible with older version. As this might be a shock to a lot of people, Microsoft needs to educate people why it is needed.”
Well, I don’t like these tactics, and I don’t like them when they come from the Linux community itself. Unfortunately some posts at Planet KDE and other sites are no different. :(
And im sure you can show us the evidence of your statements, right?
Why, to fed ms/gnome fans? Pretending that these tactics don’t happen elseware is not realistic. I’m not happy about how things are. Basically if you disagree even politely you are asking for trouble. If Aaron says that “opinions are meaningless”, even in a moment of anger, is disturbing. These are only some cached threads I came across recently, I think I’ll take a break from blogs for a while. Don’t try to convince me that there’s a good side of this.
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/04/re-nine-improvements-needed-in-kde-by.html
http://www.linux.com/feature/120635
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/03/toolbox-roundup.html
http://blog.ruphy.org/posts/23
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2008/01/talking-bluntly.html
Uh, guys you do know what the essential goal of Vista was, right?
Microsoft could never do an API break of Windows. Never; too much relies on it. What? Corporate clients. Corporate clients have old VB apps they still run. Corporate clients are the big money from Microsoft. And are they ever hesitant to new costs…
But… if you introduce managed code… let their developers write in C# or VB.Net… you control the running environment, and can freely rewrite the system!
Vista is Microsoft’s attempt to shoehorn .NET into a default install so that developers write code for .NET, thus *allowing* Microsoft to drop compatibility for the Win32 API! That’s how you bugfix a broken system as people use it.
Well, at least that’s IMO. It’s what I’d do, which I’ve usually found a safe bet, as I’d also use all (and then some) of the market tactics Microsoft does.
But back on topic, yeah, I got the same opinion of that Gartner analysis. Gartner – Microsoft analysis that IT staff can feed their CEOs to justify the changeover cost.
Microsoft needs to do something to their OS. It’s so huge now and includes all kind undeed and unwanted features. That’s why Microsoft is doing what GNU/Linux has followed, keeping the Operating System and GUI separeted and Applications so they aren’t integrated to OS or Kernel so they can be easily removed.
Microsoft has big problems with these ideas to make one giant OS where even browser or GUI is part of OS (or kernel). First problem comes by technical view, security flaws, growing codebase whats is need to be checked when fixing things and then EU and others what gets complains about other software companies that Microsoft is using their OS market share to promote own applications.
Now when Microsoft is planning to separeta OS from all other undeed features, it really need to break backward compatibility. Othery way users are needed to buy and install all other parts of Microsoft Windows 7 System than just the OS.
Cant wait that Microsoft users can buy only a OS and the GUI parts and leave all other undeed away (Ibrowser, mediaplayer, 3D desktop) and use applications what likes to do their jobs.
Aaron comment on a similar topic:
“@algernon: “Please Aaron, no more “vision” talk please. That’s oh-so BillGates-ish. Let the marketing crap to M$, please.”
alrgenon, it’s not about marketing. it’s about direction. large organizations require vision to direct them. this is not hypothesis, this is solid theory that is borne out with scientific study after scientific study.
two books i could recommend that provide such scientific studies along with commentary on them: Built to Last, and The Leadership Challenge.
this is about driving direction not marketing. in fact, as you can see, it’s not great for marketing because by not lieing to people like yourself we end up having to deal with exactly this sort of feedback: off base, irrelevant and discouraging. if i wanted to deceive you, please, trust me, you wouldn’t even know it was happening.”
By no means I want to start a discussion here, just read those threads and take your own conclusions, I already have took mine thanks.