Windows 8 in action: Microsoft gives the mothership a shake-up

A refresh of “Start Menu” dynamics: Microsoft’s upcoming refresh of Windows is a bold reboot of an OS way-better known for its incremental updates. WIth an interface that’s closer to Windows Phone 7 than anything that the desktop OS has done, the GUI appears to be touch-first, mouse-second, but done in such a way that doesn’t necessarily turn off the mouse crowd. Honestly, this is the most-impressive GUI we’ve ever seen from Microsoft, if for no other reason than that most of their operating systems have been terrible, in our humble opinion. The ball’s in your court, Steve Jobs — whaddya got for us at WWDC? source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

93.9% Windows’ share of the desktop operating system market in 2002, after an antitrust settlement with the Justice Department
91.1% Windows’ share of the desktop market today … as the Justice Department’s oversight ends; it’s like nothing actually changed source

» Then again, a lot has: The computer industry has evolved away from Microsoft’s model while still remaining tightly attached to it. With the growth of tablets and mobile phones (two markets where Microsoft simply struggles to stay afloat), and the evolution of open-source and Web apps into methods that get around Microsoft’s dominance, in many ways the company is weaker, even if we mostly still use Windows, even though OSX is probably better. Also, we think Google’s Chromebooks could chip into Microsoft’s market share in short order. None of these things are the Justice Department’s doing, though. The tech industry, instead, worked around Microsoft.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Complexity kills. Complexity sucks the life out of users, developers and IT. Complexity makes products difficult to plan, build, test and use. Complexity introduces security challenges. Complexity causes administrator frustration.
Departing Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie • In a “post-apocalyptic” memo he released recently to Microsoft employees. What’s interesting about the memo is that it barely even mentions Windows, but instead emphasizes that Microsoft needs to change its overall approach to cheap, easy-to-use devices if it wants to stay in the game. In fact, in a tag cloud someone did of the memo, the top two words were “devices” and “services,” two things that other companies do much better than Microsoft right now. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jun 2011 11:03