Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 11th Aug 2009 10:26 UTC, submitted by Moulinneuf
Technologizer has an interesting article about why Windows Vista failed, and it provides 16 reasons why this is the case. A few of those reasons reveal a certain lack of understanding, but a more pressing issue is that while listing these reasons individually is interesting, Vista's failure in the marketplace can be explained in a much more compact fashion.
Permalink for comment 378050
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Member since:
2005-11-05
Most of the reasons given in this article for Vista's poor reputation would have passed most users by. Vista would have come pre-installed on their PC and as for the rest, most people don't follow computing very closely if at all.
Vista had two problems in my experience. First it was slow and clunky and a resources hog (given the average PC's resources at the time). Second, it acquired an awful reputation by word of mouth. Ask almost anyone, even those who had no real interest in computers, what Vista was like and the reply would likely have been "crap" or "OK" at best.
Once a word of mouth view like that is cemented into the marketplace, you are stuffed. Microsoft had no place to go save get out of the whole vibe as fast as possible. It will be interesting to see whether a similar fate befalls Apple, in this case not because their OS is below par but because of the company's high-handedness and obsession with lock-in.
It's a tipping-point thing: there will always be a minority who disagree, but if something is sufficiently foobared then at some point that view crosses over into a majority and then it becomes received opinion in every bar in the land. Corporations ignore this at their peril.
FWIW, I am using Windows 7 RC and it is very good. I think it presents a real challenge to desktop Linux because, again in my experience, neither KDE nor Gnome can hold a candle to it. KDE 4.3 still looks a bit ragged and unfinished (imho, of course) and with limited functionality, while Gnome looks like the DE from yesteryear which in many ways it is. Of course that's only a part of the story, but Windows 7 makes "Why use desktop Linux?" just that that little bit harder to answer.
Edited 2009-08-11 12:16 UTC