Windows: It's Over - ZDNet Article

killadoob said:
Yea interesting article, basically it isn't all doom and gloom and windows 8 isn't crashing the market like many people say. I reckon give windows 8 sometime, it's new and let's see where we are at year end.
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That's not what the article says at all. The amount of profit (and full credit to them for being able to generate a profit - Steve Ballmer is at least good at one very important thing) is partly a result of deferring the deeply discounted 7->8 upgrade offer. Without Surface the number would actually have gone down quarter on quarter, on the back of a NEW version of Windows.
The conclusion? Despite the brave top-line numbers, Microsoft's Windows business is actually hurting. Surface isn't contributing much yet, traditional PC sales are sliding, it doesn't have a tablet competitor yet (though Klein said clearly that it will have a "smaller" competitor – aka a rival to the iPad mini – soon enough), and the only thing really keeping everyone smiling is upgrades from businesses facing the wall of XP's end of life.
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The article i posted said windows 8 was basically flat in terms and microsoft have said windows 8 has sold as well as windows 7


So it's a bit confusing, one thing though windows is certainly not driving the pc sales down. Pc sales as mentioned were already down before the release of windows 8.

It's too late in the game i think for microsoft to ever compete in the tablet market, well not compete i should say dominate because the tablet market is going to be or is already bigger than the pc market so if windows 8 can take off in the tablet and smart phone market microsoft should make tons of cash. Pricing needs to come down though because they are trying to enter a market with high pricing and it isn't going to work but at the same time they don't want cheap android type stuff out either so they have to find the balance between being cheap but having the quality as well.
 
Basically Microsoft have been ... hm... 'finessing'.. their bottom line to make Win8 appear much more successful than it is; manipulating deferred sales, tablet numbers and OEM deals and timing the XP transition with Win8 to force companies into upgrading. The result is, it's quite difficult to get an accurate picture of how Win8 is performing at pure retail, like for like with Win7. If a new version of Windows doesn't provide a boost to sales from the get-go (which Windows7 definitely did), it doesn't bode well. Even notwithstanding the decline of PC's, we should see an uptick because, well, new Windows.
 
In my previous article, no idea if you read but it doesn't like it

Microsoft Windows sales spiked 23% in the company's fiscal third quarter. Even if you exclude sales deferrals carried over from earlier in the year, Windows sales were essentially flat -- that's pretty good in a PC market that is in rapid decline.
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cerebus said:
Basically Microsoft have been ... hm... 'finessing'.. their bottom line to make Win8 appear much more successful than it is; manipulating deferred sales, tablet numbers and OEM deals and timing the XP transition with Win8 to force companies into upgrading. The result is, it's quite difficult to get an accurate picture of how Win8 is performing at pure retail, like for like with Win7. If a new version of Windows doesn't provide a boost to sales from the get-go (which Windows7 definitely did), it doesn't bode well. Even notwithstanding the decline of PC's, we should see an uptick because, well, new Windows.
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I think we'll see that Enterprise will merely extend their Win 7 licences when XP support ends.

Win 7 will exhibit a huge and embarrassing jump in market share.
 
If someone struggles going from Windows 7 to Windows 8, then they must also have struggled going from XP to Vista/Windows 7 because there were major interface changes. I know people who hate Windows 7, and have tried to make it as much like XP as possible.

Maybe Microsoft will struggle in the tablet market, but then I remember many saying there was no way they could be successful in the console market.
 
noxibox said:
If someone struggles going from Windows 7 to Windows 8, then they must also have struggled going from XP to Vista/Windows 7 because there were major interface changes. I know people who hate Windows 7, and have tried to make it as much like XP as possible.

Maybe Microsoft will struggle in the tablet market, but then I remember many saying there was no way they could be successful in the console market.
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There was nothing difficult about going from XP to Vista or 7 - the general UI is identical. Windows 8 imposes a hideous Modern UI and removes the start button. I kid you not, I have installed or instigated an install of Start8 for every single Windows 8 user I know. No one was comfortable with the new interface. I put up with it for a few days, but it's just not as productive as the start menu.

People should have no trouble on Windows 8 though. There's no excuse. If you like it as is then no problem. If you don't, then Start8 turns it into a mildly improved Windows 7.
 
I only have 1 use for windows.. to game, most games I have are not supported on 8 or run better on 7, it is over, I ported to Linux then to OSX years ago since I saw this coming, but now that my gaming is in jeopardy I see it failing hard.
 
A couple of years there were around 10 applications that I really needed that did not run on Linux. Last year it was down to 5, this year it is 1 (Battlefield 3). Im that close....

Almost all my games (and I game every single day of my life) and applications basically run on Linux now.
 
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ghoti said:
A couple of years there were around 10 applications that I really needed that did not run on Windows. Last year it was down to 5, this year it is 1 (Battlefield 3). Im that close....


Almost all my games (and I game every single day of my life) and applications basically run on Linux now.
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You mean Linux right? That's quite impressive can you elaborate? What games and where do you source them from?
 
cerebus said:
You mean Linux right? That's quite impressive can you elaborate? What games and where do you source them from?
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Yeah, thats, corrected that.


Applications:

Dreamweaver
Photoshop
Outlook
Microsoft Office

Games I need:
Heroes of Newerth (native client)
World of Warcraft (runs smoothly in Crossover)
Team Fortress 2 (linux steam)
Minecraft (native client)
Quake Arena (runs in browser)
Counter Strike (but hardly ever) (Steam)


Games I am still waiting for:
Battlefield 3

DOTA2 (but its in linux testing already and expected soon).
 
Hah please. Linux is still broken. Even Ubuntu. I tried the latest build not too long ago and lets say it was less than satisfactory. And there's not way in hell I'm buying those overpriced coffee shop machines with that stupidly complicated OS. Many people cried foul with vista and then came 7 and everyone was over the moon. Wait for the next version. Windows 8 isn't even bad, sure the start is a bit much but it's by far the most optimized windows I've used.
 
ghoti said:
Yeah, thats, corrected that.


Applications:

Dreamweaver
Photoshop
Outlook
Microsoft Office

Games I need:
Heroes of Newerth (native client)
World of Warcraft (runs smoothly in Crossover)
Team Fortress 2 (linux steam)
Minecraft (native client)
Quake Arena (runs in browser)
Counter Strike (but hardly ever) (Steam)


Games I am still waiting for:
Battlefield 3

DOTA2 (but its in linux testing already and expected soon).
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How can you be waiting for battlefield for? it needs directx 11, it won't ever run on linux. if you love gaming and linux you have no option but to dual boot.

Why mission to run games? just dual boot and get it done with. Unless you want to run games that are 20 years old :D. Although at least you have almost all your stuff working on one OS, battlefield 4 won't run so sadly you gonna need windows for awhile. I doubt they will get direct x 11 games running on linux.

duke nukem original more than likely works as well ghoti. Doom 1 as well.
 
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killadoob said:
How can you be waiting for battlefield for? it needs directx 11, it won't ever run on linux. if you love gaming and linux you have no option but to dual boot.
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No.

Right now my home gaming machine is windows. Its got powerful enough hardware. My laptop is also pretty high end and I only have linux on that. Because its high end I install games on it. Battlefield 3 is probally the game I play the least. I prefer HoN.

Why mission to run games?
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I dont mission to run games. All the games I run were easy to install and run fine. Be them windows or linux. I wont try install bf3 on linux unless it becomes compatible like all my other games.


Unless you want to run games that are 20 years old :D.
Although at least you have almost all your stuff working on one OS, battlefield 4 won't run so sadly you gonna need windows for awhile. I doubt they will get direct x 11 games running on linux.

duke nukem original more than likely works as well ghoti. Doom 1 as well.
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I find Battlefield a little boring... but I have a lot of friends who play it so I sometimes just play socially with them. All the games I play on Linux are modern. So none of what you say makes sense.

70% of my computing time is spend on linux, 30% on windows. That windows amount just keeps decreasing....

You are also speaking to someone who played California games and KQ1. Your Duke Nukem and Doom chirps are so noob :D
 
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cerebus said:
I don't think Win8 is bad at all. I think the implementation of ModernUI is bad though.
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I concur again. I personally do not use that-what-was-known-as-metro at all. Others I know do and have taken to it instantly... it has also been responsible for a Nokia Lumia 820 purchase by a family member.

/OT - I am impressed by the Lumia 820 of hers... very responsive... very tempting. Perhaps Win8 touchscreen + RT + Windows Phone 8 are meant to all co-exist to work ??

Again... Windows 8 sans ModernUI can stand its ground admirably for me... for others using it.. IT is the reason they use it. Courses for horses.
 
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ChocolateBadger said:
Hah please. Linux is still broken. Even Ubuntu. I tried the latest build not too long ago and lets say it was less than satisfactory.
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What didn't you like about it?

killadoob said:
How can you be waiting for battlefield for? it needs directx 11, it won't ever run on linux. if you love gaming and linux you have no option but to dual boot.

I doubt they will get direct x 11 games running on linux.
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Well, take it as a sign that EA will want to have the Battlefield series compatible, at the very least, with OpenGL for the desktop OSes because Origin recently launched with a native client on the Mac. There is very little that Direct3D is capable of that OpenGL can't do to the same degree or better. It only took Valve a year to port Source over to OpenGL.

Remember, OpenGL and DirectX are just APIs that a OS uses to tie code from the drivers, the hardware and the game engine into something that can be eventually displayed on-screen.

More and more indie titles are using OpenGL as well and there's a greater chance that, with both the Nextbox and the PS4 running on x86 platforms, OpenGL will become even more popular, enough to warrant some attention from the bigger development studios to extend their reach to UNIX-based environments like OS X and Linux. Everyone who devs for the PS3 already uses OpenGL to some extent and that means that EA's Frostbyte engine is already running and compatible with OpenGL. Opening the floodgates for porting to OpenGL for UNIX environments and older OSes like Windows XP would be, relatively speaking, a piece of cake.

They just won't do it yet because they don't see any money in it.
 
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