Where is Windows heading?

An interesting comment from Microsoft at the end of an Australian Parliamentary enquiry into software/hardware pricing:

Microsoft: If our prices were unfair, people wouldn’t buy them

The last cab off the rank was Microsoft, fronted by Australian managing director Pip Marlow.

Marlow acknowledged that the company had not polled Australian customers about the fairness of its local pricing, but went on to argue that different markets require different prices and the sales figures speak for themselves:

We don’t set a global price for our products. We don’t believe that every market is the same. Emerging markets where the cost of living and the availability of technology is different has to be priced differently. At the end of the day, if we make a price too high in a particular market, customers will look elsewhere.​

The Committee then confronted Marlow with a pricing sample of 47 Microsoft products, of which nearly 66 per cent are more expensive in Australia than the US.

Again, Marlow cited Microsoft’s sales success in the country, claiming “if they don’t like it, they vote with their wallets”. Under repeated questioning, Marlow all but dismissed the main thrust of the inquiry, claiming: “You’re looking for one simple silver bullet. There isn’t one.”

The Committee then rattled off some Microsoft price comparisons between US and Australia. When lumped together, the evidence is pretty sobering:

Windows 7 Professional (US: $326, AU: $469)
Office 2010 (US: $356, AU: $499)
Word 2010 (US: $142, AU: $189)
Visio Pro (US: $570, AU: $900)
Visual Studio 2012 with MSDN membership (US: $12,000, AU: $21,000)​

As the questions drew to a close, Marlow claimed that the company would “consider” using different pricing strategies as the company moves deeper into the cloud.

IT Pricing Inquiry: A Recap Of Excuses | Lifehacker Australia

How much deeper into the cloud does Microsoft intend to go?

 

[Ray8]

Shaw Industries, a flooring company, recently moved more than 10,000 employees to Google Apps from Lotus but keeps some people on Microsoft Office.

I can't believe that there are still companies in the world that make their employees suffer Lotus!

 

[Coke Robot]

Speaking of gaming: Alienware X51 gaming PC now available with Ubuntu, starts at $600.

"I've always wanted to play Crysis 3 on Ubuntu!" -Said LITERALLY, no one ever.

 

[Coke Robot]

Maybe Google is ahead of the curve afterall with its Chromebook and everything available from the cloud.

Google is also giving M$ some pain on Office also.

Google, Microsoft turn up office heat

google docs is AWFULLY insignificant (at least the amount that was told in the article about 1,200 workers) compared to several governments on Office 365, DuPont, and several other recent corporations stating they're moving to Office 365 within a year or so.

The question hasn't been do you want Microsoft or Microsoft? That's simply not true when there have been alternatives, but those weren't so great obviously. google docs isn't really different. The question should be do you want a Mercedes Benz or do you want a Ford Fiesta?

 

[Ray8]

Speaking of gaming: Alienware X51 gaming PC now available with Ubuntu, starts at $600.

"I've always wanted to play Crysis 3 on Ubuntu!" -Said LITERALLY, no one ever.

That really is quite a stupid statement. Considering that the hardware would be the same, which is usually the driving factor for high performance PC games, if Crysis 3 was designed to work with Ubuntu, Mint or whatever, would the experience be any worse?

And when you shoot yourself in the foot, you don't just use a regular gun, you tend to pick nothing less than a chain gun: CryEngine 3 New Game is Coming to Linux | Linux Game News, CryEngine 3 Coming to Linux? ~ Ubuntu Vibes | Daily Ubuntu Linux Updates.

BillWindows lives on every time you post.

 

[chrisa]

Speaking of gaming: Alienware X51 gaming PC now available with Ubuntu, starts at $600.

"I've always wanted to play Crysis 3 on Ubuntu!" -Said LITERALLY, no one ever.

That really is quite a stupid statement. Considering that the hardware would be the same, which is usually the driving factor for high performance PC games, if Crysis 3 was designed to work with Ubuntu, Mint or whatever, would the experience be any worse?

It quite possibly could be, yes.

Keep in mind the client-side code was built and tuned specifically for DirectX. Porting that over to OpenGL isn't just a hop, skip, and a jump and generally its easier to plan future games to be portable, than to mess with existing clients that weren't written with that portability in mind. In most instances, the latter tends to be an absolute clusterf**k.

Its like trying to swap out the engine of a car for another brand. If the connections were built with both engines in mind, you're good.. if not, you'll have to get everything to match up to the existing connections.

Is it doable? Sure, but plan for pain. I wouldn't want to be That Guy, invariably that type of thing turns into a neverending whack-a-mole of issues to sort through. Whats insidious is on the surface it seems like it should be a breeze.

 

[Coke Robot]

Speaking of gaming: Alienware X51 gaming PC now available with Ubuntu, starts at $600.

"I've always wanted to play Crysis 3 on Ubuntu!" -Said LITERALLY, no one ever.

That really is quite a stupid statement. Considering that the hardware would be the same, which is usually the driving factor for high performance PC games, if Crysis 3 was designed to work with Ubuntu, Mint or whatever, would the experience be any worse?

And when you shoot yourself in the foot, you don't just use a regular gun, you tend to pick nothing less than a chain gun: CryEngine 3 New Game is Coming to Linux | Linux Game News, CryEngine 3 Coming to Linux? ~ Ubuntu Vibes | Daily Ubuntu Linux Updates.

BillWindows lives on every time you post.

You're not even getting the point. Literally, there are very few games on Linux that can be played.
Alienware’s latest gaming PC has Linux on it, plays “over 25 games” | Ars Technica
If read the ACTUAL significant details about the Alienware box with Ubuntu, you see it can play about 25 games. TWENTY FIVE games, NINETY SEVEN if you're on Steam. Compare this to about 1,900 game titles on Windows, using Ubuntu is more cost and reward. You end up having to install Windows 7 or 8 to get that collection. If you ask any PC gamer if they would do Ubuntu over Windows, not many would. The idea would sound great, but in practice, it's not worth the while. It doesn't matter what the hardware is between a Ubuntu machine or a Windows PC, if you can't play more than 100 games, you might as well be content with a Wii U.

I can tell YOU still live on in your posts......

 

[Ray8]

"I've always wanted to play Crysis 3 on Ubuntu!" -Said LITERALLY, no one ever.

That really is quite a stupid statement. Considering that the hardware would be the same, which is usually the driving factor for high performance PC games, if Crysis 3 was designed to work with Ubuntu, Mint or whatever, would the experience be any worse?

And when you shoot yourself in the foot, you don't just use a regular gun, you tend to pick nothing less than a chain gun: CryEngine 3 New Game is Coming to Linux | Linux Game News, CryEngine 3 Coming to Linux? ~ Ubuntu Vibes | Daily Ubuntu Linux Updates.

BillWindows lives on every time you post.

You're not even getting the point. Literally, there are very few games on Linux that can be played.
Alienware’s latest gaming PC has Linux on it, plays “over 25 games” | Ars Technica
If read the ACTUAL significant details about the Alienware box with Ubuntu, you see it can play about 25 games. TWENTY FIVE games, NINETY SEVEN if you're on Steam. Compare this to about 1,900 game titles on Windows, using Ubuntu is more cost and reward. You end up having to install Windows 7 or 8 to get that collection. If you ask any PC gamer if they would do Ubuntu over Windows, not many would. The idea would sound great, but in practice, it's not worth the while. It doesn't matter what the hardware is between a Ubuntu machine or a Windows PC, if you can't play more than 100 games, you might as well be content with a Wii U.

I can tell YOU still live on in your posts......

Sadly, you don't get the point. You give an example, which immediately shoots your foot off and then you rant about the current status quo. We are not talking about what is now, but what potentially is in future. On the one hand, you talk about the future of Windows, but deny the future of anything else. Basically, you're in denial.

 

[chrisa]

"I've always wanted to play Crysis 3 on Ubuntu!" -Said LITERALLY, no one ever.

That really is quite a stupid statement. Considering that the hardware would be the same, which is usually the driving factor for high performance PC games, if Crysis 3 was designed to work with Ubuntu, Mint or whatever, would the experience be any worse?

And when you shoot yourself in the foot, you don't just use a regular gun, you tend to pick nothing less than a chain gun: CryEngine 3 New Game is Coming to Linux | Linux Game News, CryEngine 3 Coming to Linux? ~ Ubuntu Vibes | Daily Ubuntu Linux Updates.

BillWindows lives on every time you post.

You're not even getting the point. Literally, there are very few games on Linux that can be played.
Alienware’s latest gaming PC has Linux on it, plays “over 25 games” | Ars Technica
If read the ACTUAL significant details about the Alienware box with Ubuntu, you see it can play about 25 games. TWENTY FIVE games, NINETY SEVEN if you're on Steam. Compare this to about 1,900 game titles on Windows, using Ubuntu is more cost and reward. You end up having to install Windows 7 or 8 to get that collection. If you ask any PC gamer if they would do Ubuntu over Windows, not many would. The idea would sound great, but in practice, it's not worth the while. It doesn't matter what the hardware is between a Ubuntu machine or a Windows PC, if you can't play more than 100 games, you might as well be content with a Wii U.

I can tell YOU still live on in your posts......

Pretty much.. and most major PC-only games come out with a Linux version sometime between release and never. Even OS X support for the Macintosh PC can often be delayed until the game is successful. I do applaud Steam and Alienware for giving Linux a go, but they have an uphill battle to really make it popular such that developers plan for it along with the PC and/or Mac.

I'm really looking forward to between now and the end of the year and into next and hope that Trion Worlds(Defiance), Blizzard(Titan), and SOE(EQ Next) can really catch some fire with their new games. All sound like they're trying to do something a bit different. How successful they'll be remains to be seen.

The Defiance MMO is basically tying into the TV Series coming to Syfy on the 15th. Actions on the TV show will be reflected in game and they're looking to have cross-media stuff.

EQ Next was originally going to be another iteration of Everquest that did more of the same, but they saw what happened to The Old Republic, scrapped that idea, and are creating some type of new Sandbox MMO that will be released at the end of the year that is less railed content and more dynamic in nature ala Eve, with absolutely no instances.

Blizzard sounds like they're doing a more sci-fi version of WoW, amped to 11 and then amped to 11 again with some huge story involving time travelling or something or other thats supposed to be the greatest thing in the history of man... or something. Not a lot of details.

 

[whs]

The question should be do you want a Mercedes Benz or do you want a Ford Fiesta?

I would have liked my Mercedes at a Ford Fiesta price, but Mercedes did not play. They made me pay their full price.

 

[SIW2]

I am posting this from my self made little mint based distro. Fabulous. ( @whs Ubuntu 13.04 final beta is out - release expected 25th april )

I am not interested in gaming from here.

What is interesting is that attempts are now being made to get Linux into the games.

It has to start somewhere.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Perhaps you shouldn't be allowed to sell your car.

Probably has some software, lots of patented components, designers put work in, etc.

Much better if you have to buy a new one every time and throw the old away.

Second hand book and music stores should be banned , it would be impossible to get hold of this for example:

Search - Peter Harrington Rare Books

and so on ...........

Good points, but obviously I don't have all the answers. I'm not the one that started the trends on how items are bought and sold within capitalistic societies, nor did I make the laws concerning such matters. We're speaking of software. Let's stick solely to that.

One thing I will state and ask, though; There's taxes levied on buyers of items sold whether they be new or used. Why should only a government get a cut on used items? Why doesn't the original creator get compensation?

 

[whs]

I am posting this from my self made little mint based distro. Fabulous. ( @whs Ubuntu 13.04 final beta is out - release expected 25th april )

I am not interested in gaming from here.

What is interesting is that attempts are now being made to get Linux into the games.



It has to start somewhere.

I know. I saw this Ubuntu announcement. But I am not going to change my distros right now. They work well and that is all I need.

 

[Coke Robot]

That really is quite a stupid statement. Considering that the hardware would be the same, which is usually the driving factor for high performance PC games, if Crysis 3 was designed to work with Ubuntu, Mint or whatever, would the experience be any worse?

And when you shoot yourself in the foot, you don't just use a regular gun, you tend to pick nothing less than a chain gun: CryEngine 3 New Game is Coming to Linux | Linux Game News, CryEngine 3 Coming to Linux? ~ Ubuntu Vibes | Daily Ubuntu Linux Updates.

BillWindows lives on every time you post.

You're not even getting the point. Literally, there are very few games on Linux that can be played.
Alienware’s latest gaming PC has Linux on it, plays “over 25 games” | Ars Technica
If read the ACTUAL significant details about the Alienware box with Ubuntu, you see it can play about 25 games. TWENTY FIVE games, NINETY SEVEN if you're on Steam. Compare this to about 1,900 game titles on Windows, using Ubuntu is more cost and reward. You end up having to install Windows 7 or 8 to get that collection. If you ask any PC gamer if they would do Ubuntu over Windows, not many would. The idea would sound great, but in practice, it's not worth the while. It doesn't matter what the hardware is between a Ubuntu machine or a Windows PC, if you can't play more than 100 games, you might as well be content with a Wii U.

I can tell YOU still live on in your posts......

Sadly, you don't get the point. You give an example, which immediately shoots your foot off and then you rant about the current status quo. We are not talking about what is now, but what potentially is in future. On the one hand, you talk about the future of Windows, but deny the future of anything else. Basically, you're in denial.

You're telling ME that I rant about the status quo? Really? What do you think YOU do?

I could care less what is not the future about Windows as this isn't a forum for talking about Linux. If PC gaming were to happen on Linux, it would take at LEAST five years before the proper DirectX and OpenGL engines are on Linux, newer gaming engines, and elder gaming engines on Linux. I'm a PC gamer, I know PC gamers. You're obviously not one. You don't understand at all what you talk about, if you gave a PC gamer an Alienware machine with Ubuntu and said you can only play roughly 100 games, you'd get a lot of, "Thanks, but no thanks" responses. Roughly 100 games is how much the usual PC gamer has saved on their Steam library, let alone a couple dozen games already installed from Steam. Even if you told that PC gamer in about five or so years, MAYBE you will have more games to play on Ubuntu, same bloody response. Why do you think Windows is takes like five spots in Valve's Steam rankings on what platform is being used? That's where the games are at and built for. Even if you used Ubuntu, you'd need to use Wine or a VM or a dual boot for Windows, effectively defeating the point of saving about 200 dollars on said Alienware PC. That PC isn't a something being released in the future, it is being released at now, the present. I'm not ranting about what could be in the future if it's already here.

You should really learn some facts before you post something saying that I, am ranting about the current status quo when the current status quo for PC gaming is Windows. You should realize when you're wrong and be ok with that versus trying to make ME out as wrong.

 

[Ray8]

You're telling ME that I rant about the status quo? Really? What do you think YOU do?

I could care less what is not the future about Windows as this isn't a forum for talking about Linux. If PC gaming were to happen on Linux, it would take at LEAST five years before the proper DirectX and OpenGL engines are on Linux, newer gaming engines, and elder gaming engines on Linux. I'm a PC gamer, I know PC gamers. You're obviously not one. You don't understand at all what you talk about, if you gave a PC gamer an Alienware machine with Ubuntu and said you can only play roughly 100 games, you'd get a lot of, "Thanks, but no thanks" responses. Roughly 100 games is how much the usual PC gamer has saved on their Steam library, let alone a couple dozen games already installed from Steam. Even if you told that PC gamer in about five or so years, MAYBE you will have more games to play on Ubuntu, same bloody response. Why do you think Windows is takes like five spots in Valve's Steam rankings on what platform is being used? That's where the games are at and built for. Even if you used Ubuntu, you'd need to use Wine or a VM or a dual boot for Windows, effectively defeating the point of saving about 200 dollars on said Alienware PC. That PC isn't a something being released in the future, it is being released at now, the present. I'm not ranting about what could be in the future if it's already here.

You should really learn some facts before you post something saying that I, am ranting about the current status quo when the current status quo for PC gaming is Windows. You should realize when you're wrong and be ok with that versus trying to make ME out as wrong.

This a forum about Windows 8 and it's status, future, challenges, shortfalls, risks, potential, competition etc. It is a forum open to discussion, debate, criticism and comparison to anything and everything applicable to Windows 8. It is not a forum dedicated to the adulation of Windows 8 or Microsoft. I am certain that Microsoft considers all of these things on a daily basis, so it's not out of place to do the same in this forum.

Shouting is also an indication of someone losing the plot.

 

[chrisa]

You're not even getting the point. Literally, there are very few games on Linux that can be played.
Alienware’s latest gaming PC has Linux on it, plays “over 25 games” | Ars Technica
If read the ACTUAL significant details about the Alienware box with Ubuntu, you see it can play about 25 games. TWENTY FIVE games, NINETY SEVEN if you're on Steam. Compare this to about 1,900 game titles on Windows, using Ubuntu is more cost and reward. You end up having to install Windows 7 or 8 to get that collection. If you ask any PC gamer if they would do Ubuntu over Windows, not many would. The idea would sound great, but in practice, it's not worth the while. It doesn't matter what the hardware is between a Ubuntu machine or a Windows PC, if you can't play more than 100 games, you might as well be content with a Wii U.

I can tell YOU still live on in your posts......

Sadly, you don't get the point. You give an example, which immediately shoots your foot off and then you rant about the current status quo. We are not talking about what is now, but what potentially is in future. On the one hand, you talk about the future of Windows, but deny the future of anything else. Basically, you're in denial.

You're telling ME that I rant about the status quo? Really? What do you think YOU do?

I could care less what is not the future about Windows as this isn't a forum for talking about Linux. If PC gaming were to happen on Linux, it would take at LEAST five years before the proper DirectX and OpenGL engines are on Linux, newer gaming engines, and elder gaming engines on Linux. I'm a PC gamer, I know PC gamers. You're obviously not one. You don't understand at all what you talk about, if you gave a PC gamer an Alienware machine with Ubuntu and said you can only play roughly 100 games, you'd get a lot of, "Thanks, but no thanks" responses. Roughly 100 games is how much the usual PC gamer has saved on their Steam library, let alone a couple dozen games already installed from Steam. Even if you told that PC gamer in about five or so years, MAYBE you will have more games to play on Ubuntu, same bloody response. Why do you think Windows is takes like five spots in Valve's Steam rankings on what platform is being used? That's where the games are at and built for. Even if you used Ubuntu, you'd need to use Wine or a VM or a dual boot for Windows, effectively defeating the point of saving about 200 dollars on said Alienware PC. That PC isn't a something being released in the future, it is being released at now, the present. I'm not ranting about what could be in the future if it's already here.

You should really learn some facts before you post something saying that I, am ranting about the current status quo when the current status quo for PC gaming is Windows. You should realize when you're wrong and be ok with that versus trying to make ME out as wrong.

And basically, its being built as Alienware's/Steam's way of trying to compete with the PS4 or XBOX720 for controller-based games, and doing away with the mouse/kb in the process. PC Games haven't been joystick/controller based for going on like 20 years now :>. And for good reason. The fidelity of control simply isn't there. Its why cross-platform MMO's(to consoles, the few there are out there) tend to segregate desktop PC players from the controller players. If they didn't, the controller players would simply get eaten alive from the ability of the desktop players to have macros and lots of buttons and macros at their command with a far better pointing device in the mouse.

Likewise, your typical desktop PC player sees using a controller as 'quaint' and something like a Steambox a minor league way of getting into gaming. Real gamers tend to build their own machines with real top-flight overclocked processors(often with deluxe cooling systems), a real videocard the size of a brick, and a power supply mated to the level of video card... all of it being run in something like an Antec Tower case that was built to be expandable as new hardware and software inevitably arrives. And if you aren't pulling 60fps at ultra settings, you're bush league. And that isn't just for bragging rights, it makes an enormous difference in how well or how bad a game plays, depending on how far off you can see an enemy coming.. to your response time in dealing with them.

This is how gamers tend to deal with Moore's Law and there is a cottage industry of components built around it. OEM PC's, even AlienWare, that screw with the standard form factors to make some sort of micro-design are anathema to PC gamers.

 

[Coke Robot]

You're telling ME that I rant about the status quo? Really? What do you think YOU do?

I could care less what is not the future about Windows as this isn't a forum for talking about Linux. If PC gaming were to happen on Linux, it would take at LEAST five years before the proper DirectX and OpenGL engines are on Linux, newer gaming engines, and elder gaming engines on Linux. I'm a PC gamer, I know PC gamers. You're obviously not one. You don't understand at all what you talk about, if you gave a PC gamer an Alienware machine with Ubuntu and said you can only play roughly 100 games, you'd get a lot of, "Thanks, but no thanks" responses. Roughly 100 games is how much the usual PC gamer has saved on their Steam library, let alone a couple dozen games already installed from Steam. Even if you told that PC gamer in about five or so years, MAYBE you will have more games to play on Ubuntu, same bloody response. Why do you think Windows is takes like five spots in Valve's Steam rankings on what platform is being used? That's where the games are at and built for. Even if you used Ubuntu, you'd need to use Wine or a VM or a dual boot for Windows, effectively defeating the point of saving about 200 dollars on said Alienware PC. That PC isn't a something being released in the future, it is being released at now, the present. I'm not ranting about what could be in the future if it's already here.

You should really learn some facts before you post something saying that I, am ranting about the current status quo when the current status quo for PC gaming is Windows. You should realize when you're wrong and be ok with that versus trying to make ME out as wrong.

This a forum about Windows 8 and it's status, future, challenges, shortfalls, risks, potential, competition etc. It is a forum open to discussion, debate, criticism and comparison to anything and everything applicable to Windows 8. It is not a forum dedicated to the adulation of Windows 8 or Microsoft. I am certain that Microsoft considers all of these things on a daily basis, so it's not out of place to do the same in this forum.

Shouting is also an indication of someone losing the plot.

How is that relevant and who is shouting?

 

[Ray8]

How is that relevant and who is shouting?

If you don't understand/comprehend, it's beyond my ken to educate you.