For weeks - if not months - I've been trying to come up with a way to succinctly and accurately explain why, exactly, Windows 8 rubs me the wrong way, usability-wise. I think I finally got it.
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Member since:2010-03-08
Sure, and in the netbook years, when it was obvious that Vista wasn't good enough, everyone switched to Linux.
I'm all for non-Windows OSs getting more love, even if Apple's stuff in particular gives me headaches, but let's take lessons from the past shall we ? People are not going to dump their daily work OS and re-learn all of their everyday habits just because they don't like the latest release. They will simply find a way to stick with the old release, exactly as happened with Windows XP.
Edited 2012-05-15 06:53 UTC
Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2007-04-25
Perhaps. Of course, Symbian and Windows Mobile are so entrenched in the smartphone world that we know THAT will never change - and after iOS ignored the obvious precedents and took over the smartphone world, how many articles did you read about how Android would never make a dent in iOS sales?
An alternate scenario is that the rise of web apps reduces the value proposition for Windows to the point that many people CAN switch, if an alternate platform receives some serious marketing dollars behind a compelling story. Bombers dropping ARM-based Ubuntu ultra laptops, TVs, and hybrid smartphones, per chance?
I'm not arguing that Windows WILL lose control of the desktop, but "it didn't happen with Vista" isn't a compelling argument that "it can't happen with Metro".
Yes, it can.
And if Windows goes the way of IE, and competition returns to desktops and laptops as it has to the web, it will be a Very Good Thing for the industry and its customers alike.
Member since:2005-11-15
Member since:2008-02-27
50%!? That would be quite a shift. Windows (and before that DOS) has enjoyed a huge percentage of users for at least two decades. Apple, even now, is just hanging on in the teens percentage range. Most of Apple's customers are iPhone users rather than actual Mac users. Apple recognizes this and is responding in kind.
If you're lucky, Apple won't completely kill their Mac Book Pro line. But I hear the 17in model is definitely on its way out, as well as the Mac Pro tower.
So 50% of PC users running off to a company that might just kill off it's own line of PCs... hmmm probably not.
Edited 2012-05-15 11:29 UTC
Member since:2007-04-25
More importantly, it's unlikely that Apple will hold 50% of the desktop market due to their business model. They earn insane profit margins instead. (Not a bad business model, mind you, but not the volume story.)
Windows has dominated the desktop because any manufacturer can build Windows desktops. Android has taken 50% of the smartphone market with the same strategy.
So a viable challenger for 50% of the desktop market will likely be one that also allows anyone to use its OS to build products - i.e., not Apple.
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Member since:
2005-07-22
Apple doesn't have this problem because most of their customers are hip trendy people who either do nothing, or are big enough fans that they don't mind this stuff getting in the way of their work (which is probably art related).
Would you like to get off your anti-apple hobby-horse and get a dose of reality?
I write software for a living and have done for 40 years. I've dumped Windows at home apart from the system I have to use for work. I write for Unix(AIX), Linux, Windows and even Z/OS at times. I choose to use OSX because it works for me. I'm hardly a hip trendy type, I'm more grumpy old man but after having tried the Win 8 preview, I have to agree with Thom. Win 8 is broken by design.
I think that many more average users will vote with their feet and move away from Windows. IMHO more than 50% will move to OSX. These won't all be hip or trendy people that is for sure.
Meh!