Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough - InformationWeek

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Comments
Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
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DDURBIN1
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DDURBIN1,
 User Rank: Ninja
7/29/2013 | 4:35:30 PM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
Windows 8 problems isn't the size of the screen. The Nokia Windows phones are pretty good, actually they are excellent, running on a 4.5+" screen. They don't sell well because the cow has already left the barn. Not many iTunes or Google Play users are going to switch. The problem is Microsoft threw the baby out with the bath water completely abandoning billions of Windows XP/Vista/7 desktop users that don't need or even want a touch screen UI.
DDURBIN1
50%
50%
DDURBIN1,
 User Rank: Ninja
7/29/2013 | 4:24:32 PM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
I have a Nexus 10 and my daughter has an iPad 2. We've never needed an external keyboard. The touch screen and voice commands are all that's needed. Cheaper prices on the Surface might help some but the products will never be successful as they have two many other problems than just price. They will go the way of the Zune. Samsung and Asus do a much better job of producing devices consumers want to buy than Microsoft ever will.
Palpatine
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50%
Palpatine,
 User Rank: Apprentice
7/29/2013 | 6:28:22 AM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
MS already failed. They stubbornly flooded the market with 100M Vistabob 8 licenses and you can bet NO ONE of the oem will help them out of that disaster, MS will have to pay more to retire those unsold licenses from the market, oem are now first competitors of "device company" Ballmersoft and they will logically leverage this debacle to rip off any cent out of MS dead and cold flesh.
GBARRINGTON196
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50%
GBARRINGTON196,
 User Rank: Strategist
7/28/2013 | 2:06:51 AM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
I don't really care one way or the other. I am unlikely to buy a windows tablet, I just don't see how it will improve my life over that of an Android tablet. And I'm pretty sure that my Win 7 Desktop is likely my last Windows Desktop. Let me make this clear, I will buy another desktop machine eventually, but it is unlikely to have Win 8 or above on it (or at least, not for long) I just don't believe Microsoft understands the world they helped create.

I'm pretty sure Unbutu, is the next desktop OS for me. I've got it loaded on a spare PC, and I'm impressed. When the major photographic software publishers start to support it, or the current LInux Open source Photo software projects start to improve their product (inevitable - Lightzone is just the beginning), I'm out of Windows permanently.
rradina
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rradina,
 User Rank: Ninja
7/28/2013 | 12:32:05 AM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
I don't disagree with some of your causal statements. However, regarding your solutions, how does this make money for stock holders?
1=Free
2=Free
3=Free
4=$ (maybe?)
5=Free
Granted, 1 and 3 could be sold with support for a recurring revenue stream but customers wouldn't have to buy it since Microsoft would have to freely distribute Linux and hope that customers pay for support. It seems that you might be suggesting the same for #3 so I'm having trouble seeing how this would generate revenue unless Microsoft turns into a pure cloud provider and makes money off being a computing utility. That's possible but there's quite a bit of competition in that space and prices seem to be rapidly dropping. Hopefully it won't be like the long distance market which essentially put remaining vestige of Ma Bell (what was left of AT&T) out of business.
Regarding 5, I think Microsoft already lost that race to Java a long, long time ago. Java tooling seems decent. I haven't used Visual Studio since the 2008 release but at that time, it didn't have anything on Eclipse or IntelliJ.
BobA427
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50%
BobA427,
 User Rank: Apprentice
7/27/2013 | 8:09:16 PM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
This would help a lot. It is pretty irritating now on my laptop.
BobA427
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50%
BobA427,
 User Rank: Apprentice
7/27/2013 | 8:04:43 PM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
Firing Ballmer is not enough, but will help. Microsoft needs to make up for it's mistakes:

The Problems
1. Making useful (non-crippled) development tools too expensive for young developers has driven an entire generation away from Microsoft tools, which are the best in the industry, and has pushed them towards web development on Linux. BizSpark is not the answer.
2, Because of (1) Microsoft has lost, and will never regain, the entire server market with Windows. Microsoft still fails to understand that the server market is never going to go with Windows.
3. Now the desktop market is going away too, but in the form of Android (Linux), IOS (Linux), and Mac OS (Linux), and LInux.

The Solution
1. Microsoft Linux Distribution
2. Free Microsoft development tools (Visual Studio & ,NET) for Microsoft Linux
3. SQL Server for Linux, same pricing model as MySQL.
4. Microsoft Office for Linux.
5, Portability for .NET applications to Linux.

The reason this will work is that the Linux development tools still suck, and X Windows is too hard to develop for relative to .NET. If Microsoft can lift Linux out of the stone age it will win back much of the server and portable market.
JohnM587
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50%
JohnM587,
 User Rank: Strategist
7/27/2013 | 7:27:22 PM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
Balmer's defiant arrogance will continue to dominate the direction of Microsoft regardless of what the Stock Holder's teleprompter has been programmed for him to say after the Windows 8 on everything failure aka debacle.

Worse yet is that for decades trillions of dollars and hours plus petabytes of data files have been lost by Consumers & Businesses due to Microsoft's inferior Virus trap Windows operating systems that were automatically taxed on every User's past hardware purchases. That horrific OS lock down nightmare created algorithmic User decay when the World discovered they had new choices due to Balmer sleeping at the wheel. The acrid proof is no one is buying Windows 8 anything whether it is Redmond's mobile devices, PC's or laptops.

Nothing Microsoft does next will bring back what they have permanently lost to Android and iOS Users because of what they were forced to endure from Microsoft for decades.

Microsoft has no control over our memories.

The Redmond accidental empire monopoly is now toast!

Short the stock and maybe you can get back all of the money you lost due to decades of never ending Microsoft Windows security holes and buggy code which caused your losses.
DorisGirlProgrammer
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50%
DorisGirlProgrammer,
 User Rank: Apprentice
7/27/2013 | 6:50:41 PM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
Microsoft could make 5-10 small changes to Windows 8... and make it MUCH improved.

Get rid of 100% of the ads. What USER would want that built into an OS????

Auto-detect if the machine has a touch-screen or non-touch... or just let the USER decide which interface he likes/needs/wants.

Auto-detect if the user has a 3-4" phone... and 7-10" tablet... or a 22-24" screen. Adjust the interface based on that or let the USER decide.

Allow the USER to decide "start button" or "start screen".

Bring back the start *MENU*, not just the start *BUTTON*. (Or does MS even know the differences?)

Allow the USER to decide "desktop" or "tiles".

Allow the USER to size/position/close windows as he sees fit.

Wow. An OS that is what a *USER* wants. What a concept!

Even basic users (like me) can often 10-20 improvements MORE than MS can seem to come up with.
dblevins201
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50%
dblevins201,
 User Rank: Apprentice
7/27/2013 | 5:58:47 PM
re: Microsoft's Dilemma: Windows 8.1 May Not Be Enough
Re-org needed to include Sweat-man's, aka Ballmer, leaving !!
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