The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
 
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I tried to install an older Windows program on a new Windows 8 system today, but got a lot of errors and problems. Actually I tried to install CorelDraw9, which I have used for drawings in the past, on my new Samsung Series 7 "Chronos" laptop, which uses Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.04 in a dual boot installation. The hassle during installation inspired me to write this blog post about the rise and fall of the Microsoft empire. http://4loc.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-microsoft-empire/ Somehow I have a feeling that the time of total market dominance for Microsoft is probably be over. What do you think? Apparently Microsoft has stumbled with Windows 8, and I wonder if they will be able to get up again. I can not get used to the changes of Windows 8, and I am sure a lot of people experience a similar frustration. People learned how to use a desktop with a mouse for about 20 years, and now they are expected to forget all they have learned. -J. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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yes and no,
Apple has had issues with gaining market dominance-and not from lack of effort or deep pockets they've have a dodgy history with gamers for instance who are willing to spend lots of money on software and a bit on hardware. One common argument is something like oh but you can custom build a PC for 900 dollars that has warpspeed Nvidia 9trillion with 4gigs of ram- and it'll run Call of Duty: black ops at 125 FPS- and those are the types of users I don't for see a linux distro being able to woo over. On the linux side of things- yes it's great that many linux distros are solid and have some amount of reliability in terms of active forums when issues come up, it's great the software is politically and technically correct in many aspects. However again there is no native MS. Office for linux, much less many top billed games the kinds of things that Joe Average looks for imidiatly. Joe Average has very little interest in the command line and having to edit lots of files just to get his pet software running. I've personally have tride to do some stunts with whine and it's painful. - those developers and designers haven't quite gotten the sex appeal of when something goes wrong with my apt-get --update and something goes kaboom to call a 1800 number. Untill those things happen windows isn't going anywhere. Though you do bring up a good point about the awkward transition of the mouse and click to a united tablet/desktop UI on the windows side. Ubuntu and Apple might be doing that a little better. On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 6:20 AM, Jochen Fromm <[hidden email]> wrote:
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Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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In reply to this post by Jochen Fromm-5
There has been a lot written about the demise of MS - with many giving
them about five more years of semi-dominance. Steve Ballmer consistently takes the top spot on the list of "CEOs who should be fired," MS stock has been on a long down slide since Ballmer took over, the board has no technologists - just business types who understand little more than business analytics, and MS recently announced that Windows 8 has obtained less than half of its projected sales. In short, it appears the MS has a terminal disease, but "heroic measures" (including a fat bank account) might postpone the final demise. And even then, someone will need to service the installed base for quite a while. davew On Sat, May 18, 2013, at 06:20 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote: > > I tried to install an older Windows program on a new Windows 8 system > today, but got a lot of errors and problems. Actually I tried to install > CorelDraw9, which I have used for drawings in the past, on my new > Samsung Series 7 "Chronos" laptop, which uses Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.04 > in a dual boot installation. The hassle during installation inspired me > to write this blog post about the rise and fall of the Microsoft empire. > http://4loc.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-microsoft-empire/ > > Somehow I have a feeling that the time of total market dominance for > Microsoft is probably be over. What do you think? Apparently Microsoft > has stumbled with Windows 8, and I wonder if they will be able to get up > again. I can not get used to the changes of Windows 8, and I am sure a > lot of people experience a similar frustration. People learned how to > use a desktop with a mouse for about 20 years, and now they are expected > to forget all they have learned. > > -J. > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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On 5/18/13 8:21 AM, Prof David West wrote:
> MS stock has been on a long down slide since Ballmer took over [..] Not so bad lately.. http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/equity-charts?CA=0&CB=0&CC=0&CD=0&D4=1&DD=1&D5=0&DCS=2&MA0=0&MA1=0&C5=3&C5D=1&C6=1999&C7=6&C7D=30&C8=2000&C9=1&CF=0&D8=0&DB=0&DC=0&D9=0&DA=0&D1=0&symbol=us%3amsft&SZ=0&PT=8 ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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Administrator
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Oddly enough, if I had to take a long term bet on dominance, I'd be tempted to chose Amazon!
They're the tortoise in the race, slow and steady. They are considering a phone .. and not the slick Facebook stunt of an "app" that is your Home screen. They already have book readers and tablets, admittedly not sexy but cheap and effective. They have your TV and with roku as well as their own TV device soon, they are doing well in the media world.
They have the best cloud already, at least in terms of open, complete root access to hardware in the sky with astounding file/storage abilities.
They are also pro-internet tax. Why? They want to build warehouses in most states for same-day delivery.
They don't go backwards and don't drop services. And they have no interest in the silly hardware wars, they know that even OS X will be commoditized and that there is really no need for Apple vs MS vs *nix. And browsers are now cross-platform.
Apple is draconian and apparently lost w/o Jobs, Microsoft has false dominance and its slipping fast. Look how fast RIM lost the phone market. Android already admits that phone OSs are commoditized and the cell trinity (Handset, Carrier, OS) are too.
Huge forces are moving to software/cloud as the "it" thing. Facebook, G+, Twitter, Cloud mail (Yahoo, MS, Gmail) are far more important in people's lives than how they access them.
And who do you "favor" more? Apple? Pretty bitchy. Google? Pretty good but not packaged and way to many fails. MS? Child, please! Amazon? Prime all the way, baby. Few folks hate on Amazon.
Slow but steady wins the race.
-- Owen
On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 8:39 AM, Marcus G. Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote: On 5/18/13 8:21 AM, Prof David West wrote: ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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On 5/18/13 10:04 AM, Owen Densmore
wrote:
Although Amazon is on top of the infrastructure as a service market, Microsoft is much better positioned to control the software as a service world. This is because they control the most common platform, and it has expanded scope compared to their competitors (desktop, enterprise, gaming, tablet, phone). I think they'll grow their infrastructure as a service as the software too as a Office 365 becomes more common. Azure is supposedly 20% of that market already. Microsoft understands how CIO type people think (or fail to), and this is reflected in their strong sales of their server products. They know, for example, that almost any organization is at least as concerned about controlling their people as they are facilitating work. Microsoft seems to have the kinks out of app virtualization. If you've done a streaming install of Office 2013 you can see that browser-based apps are not the only way. If people will pay $5 for a Latte, they'll pay for software subscriptions too. Sooner or later. All-in-all, Microsoft's platform and apps are not perfect -- about like Apple. If they can leverage what they have into the tablet and mobile markets, they'll probably stay competitive. Marcus ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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In reply to this post by Marcus G. Daniels
Well, yes the stock price is usually a good indicator
how people judge the chance of future success. Maybe I am wrong? My doubts were based on the following observations: a) Microsoft successfully managed to alienate many of their loyal developers and now even their main customers, i.e. small and large businesses. They main software is called Offices, and it is used in offices: in most offices I know there are PCs running Microsoft Windows. If MSFT continues to alienate these customers, then they should have a problem. These users do not have touch screen devices, and they are used to classic graphical user interface with desktop and mouse input. They want to use the Office software they know (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) in the way they always used it. The new Metro interface is not useful at all for classic computers with keyboard and mouse. b) Apparently they neglected the compatibility of existing Windows software. This was always an advantage of Windows. Now traditional Windows software does not run as good it always did, and the new Microsoft App Store offers only a few apps. If the Microsoft's app store will offer as many good apps as the stores from Apple and Google remains doubtful. Developers tend to develop software for widely distributed systems, but most of the new devices run Android (i.e. a Linux derivative). Users increasingly use and buy computers without Microsoft OS, either smartphones (iPhones and Android phones) or tablets (iPads or Android tablets). Windows phones do not sell well. -J. On 05/18/2013 04:39 PM, Marcus G. Daniels wrote: > On 5/18/13 8:21 AM, Prof David West wrote: >> MS stock has been on a long down slide since Ballmer took over [..] > Not so bad lately.. > > http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/equity-charts?CA=0&CB=0&CC=0&CD=0&D4=1&DD=1&D5=0&DCS=2&MA0=0&MA1=0&C5=3&C5D=1&C6=1999&C7=6&C7D=30&C8=2000&C9=1&CF=0&D8=0&DB=0&DC=0&D9=0&DA=0&D1=0&symbol=us%3amsft&SZ=0&PT=8 > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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Oops, a typo. I meant of course
"There main software is called Office, and it is used in offices". The new Windows 8 does not fit well into traditional offices. On 05/18/2013 08:42 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote: > Well, yes the stock price is usually a good indicator > how people judge the chance of future success. Maybe > I am wrong? My doubts were based on the following > observations: > > a) Microsoft successfully managed to alienate many of their > loyal developers and now even their main customers, > i.e. small and large businesses. They main software is called > Offices, and it is used in offices: in most offices I know there > are PCs running Microsoft Windows. If MSFT continues to > alienate these customers, then they should have a problem. > These users do not have touch screen devices, and they are > used to classic graphical user interface with desktop and > mouse input. They want to use the Office software they know > (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) in the way they always used it. > The new Metro interface is not useful at all for classic computers > with keyboard and mouse. > > b) Apparently they neglected the compatibility of > existing Windows software. This was always an > advantage of Windows. Now traditional Windows > software does not run as good it always did, and > the new Microsoft App Store offers only a few apps. > If the Microsoft's app store will offer as many good > apps as the stores from Apple and Google remains > doubtful. Developers tend to develop software for > widely distributed systems, but most of the new devices > run Android (i.e. a Linux derivative). Users increasingly > use and buy computers without Microsoft OS, either > smartphones (iPhones and Android phones) or tablets > (iPads or Android tablets). Windows phones do not sell > well. > > -J. > > > On 05/18/2013 04:39 PM, Marcus G. Daniels wrote: >> On 5/18/13 8:21 AM, Prof David West wrote: >>> MS stock has been on a long down slide since Ballmer took over [..] >> Not so bad lately.. >> >> http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/equity-charts?CA=0&CB=0&CC=0&CD=0&D4=1&DD=1&D5=0&DCS=2&MA0=0&MA1=0&C5=3&C5D=1&C6=1999&C7=6&C7D=30&C8=2000&C9=1&CF=0&D8=0&DB=0&DC=0&D9=0&DA=0&D1=0&symbol=us%3amsft&SZ=0&PT=8 >> >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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Aargh "Their main software" of course. You see English
is not my first language :-( Sorry. On 05/18/2013 08:45 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote: > Oops, a typo. I meant of course > "There main software is called Office, and it is > used in offices". The new Windows 8 does not fit > well into traditional offices. > > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: [EXTERNAL] The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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In reply to this post by Marcus G. Daniels
Microsoft Office lost loyal users when it went to the ribbon UI. That's the start of the trend away from MS Office. For non-email applications, OpenOffice or LibreOffice provide the traditional UI to which people are accustomed, they're free, and they work
without an Internet connection. As for email - I've successfully lived in an Exchange environment for years using either Mac Mail and iCal or Thunderbird plus plug-ins. The latter solution had problems (I've not checked if those problems have been solved)
but the former is smooth and works relatively correctly. I am supplied Office 2011 for Mac but I rarely use it and I don't miss it.
Ray Parks
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On May 18, 2013, at 10:51 AM, Marcus G. Daniels wrote:
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Re: [EXTERNAL] The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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While MS may have lost loyal users who had used Office 2003 or 199X for years when they introduced the Ribbon, but they gained a bunch of new users. The goal was doubtless to 'freshen' Microsoft's (or more specifically Office's) image, and it worked at least for a while. It is not uncommon to see applications trying to be user-friendly blatantly rip off the Ribbon, for example WinZip (not to be confused with WinRAR or 7zip). There are many reasons why this is a silly, useless thing to do, but the sentiment was definitely out there: people were overreaching when they said that Microsoft had revolutionized the word processor user experience, but that still shows that many people reacted favourably towards the ribbon, and that is real. I don't think it really affected the long-term perception or fate of MS, though.
Two things still keeping the behemoth in place are an odd sort of nostalgia, back to the time when larger parts of the general public still thought of Microsoft as technologically-minded innovators, like recent articles about Bing Translate now featuring Klingon (emphasizing that the Microsoft engineer who worked on the project was fluent) hearken to; and tech deals - it is just one extra step to have to install something else over Windows rather than over a blank disck, which takes no more practical effort but has the added difficulty of convincing yourself that the advantage of having Linux or whatever is greater than the convenience of just using the substandard but already available OS, Windows (and this is for the consumer that even knows of Linux, and how right it's price is, and it's advantages). -Arlo James Barnes ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: [EXTERNAL] The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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In reply to this post by Parks, Raymond
Don't forget Clippy, RIP (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=322885136143&set=a.440610716143.233250.322883156143&type=1&theater)
--Barry On May 20, 2013, at 10:36 AM, "Parks, Raymond" <[hidden email]> wrote: Microsoft Office lost loyal users when it went to the ribbon UI. That's the start of the trend away from MS Office. For non-email applications, OpenOffice or LibreOffice provide the traditional UI to which people are accustomed, they're free, and they work without an Internet connection. As for email - I've successfully lived in an Exchange environment for years using either Mac Mail and iCal or Thunderbird plus plug-ins. The latter solution had problems (I've not checked if those problems have been solved) but the former is smooth and works relatively correctly. I am supplied Office 2011 for Mac but I rarely use it and I don't miss it. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: [EXTERNAL] The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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Barry MacKichan wrote at 05/20/2013 10:32 AM:
> Don't forget Clippy, RIP > (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=322885136143&set=a.440610716143.233250.322883156143&type=1&theater) Speaking of Clippy: https://www.smore.com/clippy-js -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it. -- Malcolm X ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
Re: [EXTERNAL] The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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In reply to this post by Arlo Barnes
I will admit that MS office is the best office software however Google docs is good enough for me. It's not as full featured as Microsoft office but it's free and always in sync across machines. My favorite feature is collaborative editing. A class mate and wrote a paper for school using google docs and were able to write the whole thing simulataniously. I would see him editing the top of a paragraph before I had finished writing the bottom. We got the paper done fairly quickly. That experience lead us to a great idea for a collaborative writing contest. Wouldn't it be fun to give teams of say 6 people ten minutes to write a short story or essay on a given subject. At the end of the ten minutes the stories would be judged.
I realize that most Friamer's could easily write a very long essay by themselves in 10 minutes, so maybe some sort of handicap could be pused, where avid friam writers would only have like 2 minutes.
Just an idea. Cody Cody Smith On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Arlo Barnes <[hidden email]> wrote:
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Re: [EXTERNAL] The rise and fall of the Microsoft empire
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In reply to this post by glen ep ropella
That's great! I've filed it away for 2014/4/1.
--Barry On May 20, 2013, at 11:54 AM, "glen e. p. ropella" <[hidden email]> wrote: Speaking of Clippy: ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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