Can Microsoft Fail?

In anticipation of the Windows 8 release, there has been speculation on Microsoft's future. Will the company break out of its slump? Will it get a new image? How will Windows 8 do? What if nobody likes it? What happens next?

Let's get a few things straight. Even if Windows 8 is a huge dog and bombs the way Vista did, it will not matter. There is still nothing out there that can take Microsoft out of the game. Apple has the only other quality operating system out there, and it is proprietary and still more expensive. Money and cost are important.

Source

A Guy

 

[wmriester]

Internet Explorer 10 on the Windows 8 cannot be summed up by saying it's 'full screen.' IE10 is a hardware accelerated walled garden. The IE10 app does not allow plugins, toolbars or extensions. The desktop version of IE10 is more traditional in the sense that you are able to customize it with various add-ons.

 

[Fredledingue]

If it's safer, it's worth mentioning.

 

[FSeal]

If it's safer, it's worth mentioning.

Also worth mentioning that a lot of websites do not work because Flash is permanently disabled for all but a few "Approved" ones...

 

[Fredledingue]

Well, this is something I aprove. Flash implies that ActieX is enabled and ActiveX is what allows malicious code to hack your PC. The YouTube standard format (Flash) for video is by consequent to most dangerous thing that ever happened on the internet because it forces everybody to turn on ActiveX. On top of that web designers should never make flash-based webpages. It's not conform to W3C (html and CSS based content), it obliges users to lower their safety level (as explained above for YouTube) and depends on a third app to work. It's the worse way ever. I'd go as far as to say that Flash should be avoided as often as possible: Distribute video in the much better avi (xVid, DivX) format or the standard mpeg or wmv formats if you are not so much a geek.

Flash is permanently disabled

Not only Flash and ActiveX are permantly disabled for all websites on my PC but Javascript too. It accelerates my browsing experience ten fold and offer total security against malicious or semi-malicious codes. I enable Javascript only when necessary. And Flash for YouTube's and Games, only on another computer. Not on my professional one. I hihghly recommand everyone to do the same. So for once, MS has done something that goes in my direction. I like it.

 

[tseven]

If they keep it up with the upgrades and improve the system more I don't think they will fail. Just think how much more people might actually buy it this time around just because it's discounted which is unlike what Microsoft has done in the past. Their idea isn't bad they just need to work out the kinks. I feel they definitely need to work on a few things and maybe add some extra features or extra things in general. The difference here for me is Windows vista came out so many years after windows xp but it didn't really make as much of an impact. Here at least they completely give you a touch centric side of the computer. Vista lacked what I feel is something even XP should have had. The windows 7 superbar(taskbar). Yes you could have used the quick-launch but that was small and awkward and minimized. Vista added some good things but overall for something that took so long to happen it didn't include as many features that would have made the experience better. I don't believe Microsoft will fail not if they keep all their products up to the date.

 

[Max Peck]

In anticipation of the Windows 8 release, there has been speculation on Microsoft's future. Will the company break out of its slump? Will it get a new image? How will Windows 8 do? What if nobody likes it? What happens next?

Let's get a few things straight. Even if Windows 8 is a huge dog and bombs the way Vista did, it will not matter. There is still nothing out there that can take Microsoft out of the game. Apple has the only other quality operating system out there, and it is proprietary and still more expensive. Money and cost are important.

Source

A Guy

Windows Eight could be an epic fail and that won't destroy MS. What most people are forgetting is the depth of penetration MS has within not only the home environment but the massive amount of business they do within the enterprise. Oh yeah, failure of Win8 might knock 'em down a notch but they're still going to be selling licenses to heavy-hitting stuff like their server operating systems, SQL Server and other development tools. Even if the uptake on the latest versions aren't spectacular, they don't have to stop selling the previous versions of them. Win7 sales remain brisk as do sales of VS2010, SQL Server 2008 R2, etc. Microsoft has its irons in too many fires to be completely wiped out.

-Max

 

[Max Peck]

I don't forsee everybody liking the design changes of Windows 8, but I don't see these people being so unhappy with the change that they jump ship and go elsewhere. They will simply deal with and grumble every now and again.

Some of us won't grumble, we'll just continue happily using the terrific tools we already have. The presence of Win8 doesn't threaten the functionality of any of the great stuff I've gotten from MS over the years: I (and I suspect many others) just won't be buying any more stuff from them for awhile, that's all.

-Max

 

[TanyaC]

I don't forsee everybody liking the design changes of Windows 8, but I don't see these people being so unhappy with the change that they jump ship and go elsewhere. They will simply deal with and grumble every now and again.

FWIW: I contacted apple and had a lengthy chat about their hardware. Even their most expensive systems, which he priced at well over $10,000 AUD, don't come close in configuration to what I have now. He was also quite willing to admit that (in his opinion), a PC and an Apple with the same basic hardware configuration the apple would outperform the PC, but with the vast configuration differences between my PC and the best Apple system he could sell me, would not even come close to the performance I get.

So, If I want to keep the performance I have I can't even go Apple.

That leaves Linux. Which apparently doesn't have the gaming and media capabilities of the PC. From what I've read.

So, for some, it's not a matter of "not being so unhappy and jumping ship", for some, there is nowhere else to go.

And that scares the hell out of me.

Tanya

 

[DragonPoet]

I don't believe Microsoft will fail not if they keep all their products up to the date.

For me, this is a big point. I don't want something that I am going to have to install every few months. That's my biggest thing with apple. "Oh, hey look at the new iPad we just release, it's thinner" or "Look at our new iPad now, the screen is brighter". I bet you almost anything that they are releasing not only devices such as the iPad and iPhone, but also their Operating Systems every few months or so just to make that much more money. I just don't want to see Microsoft do the same thing. How many years was XP in the picture before they had released Vista? And how many OS's have they released since XP? I mean I know several business''s who have just switched over from XP to 7.

I guess for argument's sake you can take the sand of "Well, the big company's are just trying to make money" or "They are just trying to keep up with technology."

And I keep hearing about the changes to the welcome screen in Windows 8, how much EXTRA resources does that take than Windows 7. I have only installed it under a virtual machine and that's when the beta release had first just come out, but I haven't messed with it since because to me, it seemed to be just too much hassle.

Reading through all these posts, I sure am getting to think about it differently than when I first started. Good discussion everyone! LOL! :thumb:

 

[Imageman]

Microsoft is a beached whale!

 

[Max Peck]

Microsoft is a beached whale!

Yeah, but they are a very, very BIG and PROFITABLE beached whale! Win8 might affect that some but, as I said in another post, they've got their irons in a number of very hot fires.

-Max

 

[Fredledingue]

So, for some, it's not a matter of "not being so unhappy and jumping ship", for some, there is nowhere else to go.

I agree. Most of us are stuck with Microsoft Windows no matter what crap the last OS is.

Which apparently doesn't have the gaming and media capabilities of the PC

It all bowls down to compatibility issues. Had W98 stayed compatible with new hardwares and new software, that's the first OS I'd recommand. Unfortunately it isn't. I managed to run a w98 system until now (and it's almost as fast as new computers with twice the processor speed and ram) but I face more and more problems as things evoluate. For some tasks I must go to XP-or-above (actualy W7). W7 may still be supported by MS for another 7 years, it doesn't mean it will stay compatible with a new Metrofied world. W98 became uncompatible well before losing support from MS officialy. So may W7 and XP. Let's say in 5 years the next unavoidable stuffs (like today Facebook and Google) will be Metro apps running only on W8 and we are toast. Or some hardware come with drivers that require the Metro environement... and you start thinking of switching for that reason.

 

[speedy1979]

Can Microsoft fail? If history is any guide the answer is yes! History is filled with examples of extraordinarily powerful entities that have either been conquered, destroyed through calamity, or absorbed (e.g. the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, etc).

I think a better question is when will Microsoft fail? That unfortunately, is a question no one here is equipped to answer.

 

[R0bR]

Can Microsoft fail? If history is any guide the answer is yes! History is filled with examples of extraordinarily powerful entities that have either been conquered, destroyed through calamity, or absorbed (e.g. the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, etc).

I think a better question is when will Microsoft fail? That unfortunately, is a question no one here is equipped to answer.

Anything is possible I guess but the chances of Microsoft failing are quite minimal. There is no company out there that can provide what Microsoft provides at the scale they provide it. Even if Microsoft lost a large portion of their consumer desktop and laptop share they are too big at the Enterprise level to fail. The only way that Microsoft would fail is if a company could come in and take their Enterprise market share away. Apple being one of the largest out there failed miserably at the Enterprise and they pulled out, they couldn't compete. It didn't help that the Xserves and XRaids were garbage to begin with. Oracle tried to push Sun workstations for the enterprise and they failed. As much as Larry Ellison hates Microsoft Oracle still uses Microsoft products even though they have Sun.

 

[Imageman]

The Microsoft glory days are gone, and though Microsoft's decline into unimportance may take years, it will happen!

It began long ago when they stopped answering their phone to help users. HUGE bureaucracy that has lost touch and their self-importance has blinded them to it. Windows 8 will prove this . . . IM

 

[BunnyJ]

The Microsoft glory days are gone, and though Microsoft's decline into unimportance may take years, it will happen!

It began long ago when they stopped answering their phone to help users. HUGE bureaucracy that has lost touch and their self-importance has blinded them to it. Windows 8 will prove this . . . IM

Who or what will replace MS/Windows?? Let's be honest. People will just learn to use Win8 and adapt to it like everything else in life. The other choices are either.. well Linux or Apple OS X. With Linux the learning curve is rather steep and the cost of Apple hardware is rather high. Oh you do have the Google Chromebook but that's mainly for browsing the web.

Will MS fail?? Time will tell but don't bet against them.

 

[Max Peck]

The Microsoft glory days are gone, and though Microsoft's decline into unimportance may take years, it will happen!

It began long ago when they stopped answering their phone to help users. HUGE bureaucracy that has lost touch and their self-importance has blinded them to it. Windows 8 will prove this . . . IM

I'm not particularly supportive of Microsoft's current O/S and software offerings (Win8 / Office 2013 / VS2012) but from experience I can tell you they are terrific when it comes to support. I had an issue with Win7 a year or two ago (some driver installation issue) and their tech support was all over me like the flu. I got several callbacks after it was resolved - they really wanted to make sure everything was OK. YMMV.

-Max

 

[Max Peck]

Will MS fail?? Time will tell but don't bet against them.

No, they won't fail. They may fail at certain things but anyone who has worked with their enterprise stuff realizes how big MS is. I think they're having a bit of an identity crisis with Win8 but who knows? They do tend to come through after awhile.

-Max