Microsoft, PC makers pin hopes on Windows 7 to lift flagging market

Monday 19th October, 05:07 AM JST

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InTheKnow at 05:33 PM JST - 19th October

To my knowledge, MS is still supporting 98 and ME. People are up in arms that MS will not release the source for 95, because they will not support it and will not let anyone else do it either.

Windows 95, 98? Seriously, third world countries have moved on from those OS. It would be retarded for MS to continue support for anything pre-XP.
Disillusioned at 08:30 PM JST - 19th October

hoping the latest operating system will be the long-awaited silver bullet

Which foot is it going to be fired into? As far as I am concerned, Windows peaked with XP and they shot themselves in the foot with that Vista rubbish by attempting to copy the animated features Macintosh OSX, which didn't even come close to imitating the features and is still full of bugs. Now, from the reviews I've read about W7 it too will be a long way from a stable OS. If they had any sense they would have just vamped up XP a notch and saved themselves a couple of million dollars in lost sales. XP does it all with stability, but it is nothing compared to Snow Leopard on my Mac.
Cliffy at 09:07 PM JST - 19th October

Wasn't Vista the same "silver" bullet that PC manufacturers hope to boost up PC sale? I still do not see any major technology advancement on W7 that makes me want to buy a new PC.
Youdontknow at 01:34 AM JST - 20th October

hakujinsensei -

I am sure that 7 will be bringing all those that bailed n adopted mac over the last few years back into the fold ; )

No, you're completely wrong. I've just bought an iMac 24" for the first time ever. I have four Windows based computers, three of them XP one of them Vista Ultimate. (Which is about as useful as my fishtank!)

Over the past year, I lost two very valuable, high-end laptops to Micro$oft updates. Another laptop had the video card screw up when an update for the drivers completely messed it up. Messed it up so bad, not even the local repair shop can do anything with it. I'm tired of Micro$oft giving us crap products, crap software and broken promises. I tried Windows 7 for over an hour in my local DeoDeo store on one of their display machines (incidently, it was displayed on a Japan Mouse Computer - a computer made from recycled materials!). I was not impressed with Windows 7 and apart from a few speed improvements, feel it is no different than Vista. And we all know how Vista was supposed to revolutionize the PC market!

I'm converting to Mac and will NEVER EVER EVER go back to using Windows. I have better things to spend my money on than forking out for a Windows based computer every five years!!
888naff at 03:11 AM JST - 20th October

Most of the recent comments above don't seem to know what they are talking about.

I cant be bothered to explain, except say find some more quality resources to read about the subject and then you will see how silly some of the opinions (ie not based on enough fact or real detail as opposed hearsay) are.

ie wait for sp2, need to upgrade hardware, upgrading hearsay applied to a corporate environment, etc,.. I got bored reading after those comments as they are so far off the mark.

any apple botched their latest release so MS have an easier ride now, but I don't think they are too bothered about that now. They have other worries for long term business and shift in how people use pcs and os's.
nightvision at 07:47 AM JST - 20th October

Yup, most of the comments do seem a bit like they know everything about computers.
Klein2 at 08:15 AM JST - 20th October

Griff and Intheknow

I stand corrected. I still find updates for products running on those OS, but MS officially ended support for the 98 and ME in 2006. I am glad that you made me confirm this.

Griff, it underscores what I was saying about planned obsolescence. MSoft is ending support for versions that are only a few years old. It is also starting to chip away at upward compatability, which is disturbing. This used to be a MAC trick. It gave them high margins until Wintel cut their legs off.

Intheknow, Seriously. I can't speak for the third world, but I assume that they will run with the herd. We do agree that MS would be retarded to support old OS when they can make more money from people like you than people like me. Computers have become a consumer product, not a capital good, and consumers like fashion and new features. Producers want low costs and high reliability. Given that assessment, you can characterize every OS as a toy or tool. I have watched Win interfaces become more toyish over the years. I understand that children like toys, so it makes sense.

Finally, I must say that a person can earn money today hand over fist using an early Pentium machine running Win 98. It is a fallacy to believe that Win7 is some magic pathway to productivity.
Yelnats at 03:10 PM JST - 20th October

I will stick with my Macs. Got nine of them. One glitched once and I had to reinstall, but other than that, thumbs up for Apple. And did you see those sales figures today? Glad I own stock with them.
lostrune2 at 03:58 PM JST - 20th October

Ha! Vista is like New Coke! Think about it.

I just received my free not-pirated disc of Win7 to check out its growing pains along with consumers. We'll see if it lives up at least to XP. Of course, XP has been fine-tuned for nearly a decade worth of updates, though Microsoft already used the public as guinea pigs with Vista.

Win7 doesn't require hardware upgrades from Vista because it actually uses less resources than Vista! WinXP OEM and its main support was supposed to end early this year but was extended simply because WinXP (but not resource-heavy Vista) can be installed on the popular resource-light netbooks. So Microsoft needed XP netbooks to compete with Linux netbooks till Win7 which is resource-light enough to be put on netbooks.

Win7 at its core is Vista kernel (as people say, Vista done right), so there shouldn't be a rush for new drivers as there was between XP and Vista. But as others mentioned, upgrading from XP will erase the root drive, so that screws the people who waited on Vista hoping for something better.

But if you already have Vista, there's really not much need for software or hardware upgrades. Heck, maybe even if you still have XP. Computer specs nowadays have so surpassed any OS requirements (even Vista Basic only required 1ghz-P4 1gb-RAM 40gb-HD - nobody even sells those anymore!). And Win7 requires less than Vista - so if it can run Vista, it can run Win7.

Besides, people upgrade after several years anyways, what with driver and software compatibility. Even Mac users had to do it when they switched to OSX (stuff from old MacOS wouldn't work). Heck, that was even more drastic because Apple rewrote the MacOS pretty much from scratch - so everything has to be changed anew. Actually, I like it that way - when an OS gets too old, it needs a complete revamp (and Windows is almost a couple decades old, can you believe that?!). And I'd expect Apple to do it again since Apple is reknowned as early adopters of new technology among computer makers, so OSX users will have to upgrade their equipments sooner than later. (Heck, Macbooks already use micro-DVI when most monitors aren't even using it - and may never, in favor of HDMI.)
forinagai at 10:15 PM JST - 20th October

Klien2: Griff, it underscores what I was saying about planned obsolescence. MSoft is ending support for versions that are only a few years old.

A few years old?? Windows98 - launch 1998, Windows ME - launch 1999

I think 7 or 8 years worth of support is pretty good when it comes to computer technology. After all, computers are considered 'dated' 1 year after manufacture.

As for Mac users, why don't you guys shut up about how wonderful your beloved Mac is? One thing Apple is the master at is...marketing. If the system was so good, then why hasn't the market spoken and voted for the best system (in your mind)? You really can't judge something when you don't use it extensively. I don't use Macs, therefore I cannot judge how wonderful your Mac is.

As for people judging Windows 7 before using it...wtf?! I've been using Windows 7 for about 2 months now (full legal version). I have to say that it IS the best Microsoft OS I've used. It hasn't crashed, slowed down, or done anything strange. Heck, it's boring! Nothing I do to it seems to hurt it! I want something to go wrong so I can complain, bitch and moan. But, so far...nothin'! And it IS faster in operation than Vista...without any hardware upgrades.

I wouldn't even presume to try to compare it to Mac or even try to convert a Mac user into using a Microsoft product.

Each to their own! Mac lovers, Windows users.
griff at 03:48 AM JST - 21st October

the linux labs at my uni all have windows stickers on the cases even though the machines have all been installed with centos 5 (which is a pretty great os, to be honest). microsoft gets away with being a pretty poor performing company due to the fact that these sorts of practices guarantee it income regardless of what it does
griff at 03:50 AM JST - 21st October

If the system was so good, then why hasn't the market spoken and voted for the best system (in your mind)?

i think the recent history of the financial sector ought to demonstrate that, in spite what we are taught about capitalism, the cream does not always rise to the top
ca1ic0cat at 05:47 AM JST - 21st October

I'm not upgrading the OS until late 2010 after the first SP is out. Between Vista and Office 2007 I've got enough trouble.

Frankly unless you are running game apps you may as well run Linux. Or get a Mac. Never thought I'd say that!
JeffLee at 02:56 PM JST - 21st October

Apple is reknowned as early adopters of new technology

Like Intel CPUs. Oops!
sf2k at 12:26 PM JST - 24th October

The road for Linux mass-adoption is possible, but the first wave would be a bit rocky. Linux is ready for the interest because it will force companies to dump the Microsoft-way. There is no reason otherwise that Linux should be left wanting. While most hardware manuf release Linux drivers, because of Microsoft shenanigans some do not (ie: Canon), so you might have to check your hardware at the install.

That being said, I'm three years now totally Linux for home-use and only use Windows for the rare program. It's funny, when you use Linux, you already have all the software you need. If not you can download more but it's all free, not shareware, real quality code for the most part. No hacking required. Nothing to get around. It's a bit of an epiphany change compared to the regular daily pirating Windows user.