Microsoft Must Break Free from Itself in Order to Move onto the Future
| by Joe Leo, Columnist | April 12, 2007 |
continued... from: previous page
Case in point, just last week, on the business section of SeattlePI.com, reporter Todd Bishop revealed to the world that Microsoft was being sued over its marketing of Vista, leading consumers to believe that the computers they were buying pre-Vista release, would be ready for prime time.
You know, those stickers/signs that said "Windows Vista ready"? Uh-huh.
Bishop writes, "A lawsuit alleges that Microsoft Corp. engaged in deceptive practices by letting PC makers promote computers as 'Windows Vista capable' even if they couldn't run the new operating system's 'signature' features."
"The proposed class action... focuses on efforts by Microsoft and computer makers to avoid a lull in PC sales by assuring consumers that the machines they were buying last year could run the delayed operating system upon its January release," he adds.
He even points out what I've been trying to say, how the "Basic" Home version of Vista--the less than $100 upgrade Bill Gates was selling on the air--doesn't feature the "Aero" interface, the "Flip 3D" thing that lets your open windows parade across the screen, or even the Windows Media Center application that would be a user's "digital hub."
That same day, AppleInsider.com reported that only 20% of current PCs in the business world are able to run Windows Vista, and these are "premium" PCs that are supposed to be much higher-end than ones found at home.
Who's to blame for all of this? Our good old friend Apple Inc.
In the April 2007 edition of Wired magazine, the annual "WIRED 40" has Cupertino-based Apple Inc. ranked number two on the list while rival Microsoft comes in at last on the list--dead last--at number 40. Why? "Desktop software is vanishing into the cloud, and as balance-sheet replacements, Xbox and Zune don't pass the laugh test."
A blog post based on someone else's researched piece, entitled "Apple's Role in Microsoft's Downfall" (pointed my way by a friend of mine) sums it all up. "...Apple's threat just isn't because of the iPod, it's because of OS X. OS X is the trojan horse for Apple [being the core of every Mac], and is being expanded to the device level with AppleTV and the [upcoming] iPhone."
And there's Apple's only mistake in this game. Mac OS X Leopard v10.5 being advertised, "Introducing Vista 2.0" at last year's WWDC conference as a joke to poke at Microsoft. Why? because it would make it, Mac OS 9.4-- a step back in time, as opposed to a step forward.
Enough said, right? It really is all about OS X, the "trojan horse" to put it as that blogger writes. It's fresh and was designed from the ground up with the future in mind. Windows Vista? It's a holdover from days long horn, uh, long gone. It's time for Microsoft to break free from itself in order to advance into the future.
Vista a copy of OS X? Yeah, right. Hardly. Maybe a doppelganger (those are copies of things that are twisted around in some way, shape, or form from the original).