http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_Microsoft_Windows.html

Hmmm..is this another opportunity for Apple Computer and the Macintosh?

[I remember laughing to myself when people stood in line at midnight to buy Windows 95.]

Still, I imagine Microsoft has a herculean task, overhauling their operating system completely. [Probably as about as "painful" as when Apple switched over to Mac OS X...]

And it's gonna be interesting when Vista finally launches.

I'm sure PC Makers are licking their chops waiting for those users that realize they need to upgrade or buy a new PC to run Vista.

Still, I imagine Microsoft has a herculean task, overhauling their operating system completely. [Probably as about as "painful" as when Apple switched over to Mac OS X...]

Not really, and that's the point. Apple went with a proven operating system... unix. Microsoft hasn't been able to get away from the "not invented here" mindset, and thus its current predicament....

I don't think it matters a whit to the end users. The number of people who are going to decide to completely switch platforms because of a half-year's advance notice that an OS release is going to slip a few weeks or months is undoubtedly miniscule. After Vista is actually available, whenever that is, people who have eagerly awaited it will buy it. Mac'ers will keep doing their Macs.

But, if we wanted to brush up against the forbidden realm of platform, umm, "comparisons"...even Unix workstations in NASA's Mission Control can occasionally lock up. At this point, all the platforms are pretty darn good and not worth end users getting emotional about. Even though they do.

Hopefully there'll be a Mac OS XI before Vista releases. I'm pretty tired of using PCs running Windows.

Hopefully there'll be a Mac OS XI before Vista releases. I'm pretty tired of using PCs running Windows.


Well OSX is well good enough, you could switch now :)

I agree, noone, except for those on the edge of switching anyway will switch because of a small delay like this. One thing I think is a little surprising though, is the end user changes in Vista. I have yet to see anything remarkable (We have been looking at Betas for a long time where I work), after all this time.

From BusinessWeek:

http://yahoo.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2006/tc20060323_582214.htm

"They have totally lost their way," exclaims Michael Cusumano, a professor at Massachussetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. Some employees have lost patience, too. Mini-Microsoft, an anonymous insider, posted a blog item calling for heads to roll: "People need to be fired and moved out of Microsoft today. Where's the freakin' accountability?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/technology/27soft.html?8hpib


The NYTimes has a good overview of Microsoft's challenges in bringing their next generation of Windows to market[and the delays] in today's paper.

Quote:

"And a crucial reason Microsoft holds more than 90 percent of the PC operating system market is that the company strains to make sure software and hardware that ran on previous versions of Windows will also work on the new one — compatibility, in computing terms.

As a result, each new version of Windows carries the baggage of its past. As Windows has grown, the technical challenge has become increasingly daunting. Several thousand engineers have labored to build and test Windows Vista, a sprawling, complex software construction project with 50 million lines of code, or more than 40 percent larger than Windows XP."

Good read.