Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy - Benjamin Franklin
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So Windows is now 25 years old
THE PC OPERATING SYSTEM MAFIA at Microsoft is celebrating 25 years of Windows' dominance of the market this month.
Let's be clear about how it got there and has maintained its hold on the market for consumer PC software. It's not a pretty story, if you can look at it objectively.
Many information technology professionals may pause a moment to rue the day that Gary Kildall failed to reach an agreement with IBM to provide his CP/M operating system for its then new Personal Computer.
That deal, if done, would have stopped Bill Gates from buying the CP/M clone 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products to launch both Microsoft and what would eventually become Windows.
Others might reflect on the lost years of their youths that were largely misspent shuffling DOS floppy diskettes and trying to get a few utility TSR routines to load successfully into 'high memory' above 640KB. Many of us have lots of bad memories about Microsoft DOS and the insecure and bug-ridden hair-ball that became and still is Windows.
The secret abandonment of OS/2 in favour of Windows NT, some settlements of lawsuits to avoid trials, some expensive losses in court trials and "cutting off Netscape's air supply," for which Microsoft lost an antitrust case in US federal court, means the company does not have the best of reputations.
The many, arguably, dodgy dealings over these long years that are too numerous to note here and now represent a sordid history that has rightly tarnished Microsoft and Windows with an air of 'something of the night' about them.
This is not a company that those of good will would want to be dealing with, ever. It is just that simple. Like most corporations Microsoft is always out for itself, period. That is just how the Vole works and it will make sure that it comes out on top in every one of its transactions.
If you deal with Microsoft in any way, you'll forget this at your peril. It will screw you blind and sideways, if it can, not only routinely, as an individual or even a large corporate customer, but also and especially as a so-called 'partner'. There is an extensive history of court cases to support this observation, if you care to investigate it. As with many things, Google might be your friend, sometimes.
The list of Microsoft's sometime former 'partners' that ended up suing it is long. So, as a mere user of its software, you can just imagine how few rights it thinks you have, in Microsoft's Eye of Sauron view of its unlimited domain.
But Microsoft is rapidly becoming an old and obsolescent brand, overtaken by the Open Handset Alliance and Google, which have taken the high ground for mobile and PC tablet operating systems, and which Microsoft can't counter with its PC centric obsession. That's not even to mention Linux on servers, which has always overshadowed Windows, or on the desktop, which is gaining, albeit stealthily because people just pay the 'Microsoft tax' on a PC and then install and use Linux instead.
Yet Microsoft offers us only the tired old client-server world, whereas the Internet offers us all a world of wonder that Microsoft cannot even begin to encompass, despite all its ravings about its recently discovered 'cloud'. Don't make us laugh.
This is the company that almost missed the Internet entirely, that has pretty much blown its chance to play in the mobile game, and it wants us to now believe that it is on top of 'cloud computing'? Give us freakin' break here.
And, by the way, nor can Steve Jobs with his Apple walled garden do so, much as he might wish to lure in people willing to pay over the odds for his always low-specifications, basically crap technology that 'just works", as he always says.
So Microsoft is just a dead, old and broken software company, yet it just hasn't found this out yet. It will though, as its software sales slowly fall. It has no future in PC software. It will fail, so I have to advise that one should not invest even a PC purchase or software download in betting that it will succeed, long term.
Microsoft has worn out its welcome by abusing its partners, and especially its loyal customers. I can't think of any part of the IT industry that's not dependant on it that likes Microsoft.
Excepting, of course, those among the always cheerleading PC industry press and Wall Street banksters and investors who could see a good long term pyramid scheme coming when they saw one and piled on early. But even they might back off from buying more of Microsoft's smoke and mirrors as it's massive capitalisation overhang becomes more visible.
There is much more, of course, but this should give you some idea about why I believe that the Vole's leadership will need several more lifetimes to work off the bad karma that they have incurred while running Microsoft. They know who they are, and what they have done.
It also suggests why I would not ever trade places with them and their obscene Faustian bargain for any multiple of the billions that they and their many minions have made.
Made, by giving people all over the world their extremely bug-laden, insecure and simply lame-ass, sloppily cobbled up willy-nilly software designed only to churn money with worthless software 'updates' that only obsolete older formats.
China, Russia and other countries have already figured this out years ago, and they have been working on their own operating systems based upon the open source Linux. The US, UK and EU should finally wise up and reject Microsoft's lame proprietary software that only sucks money out of their economies without providing any lasting benefits to either the governments or the peoples of their countries. µ
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Lots of good (and accurate) information here. Surprised at the Vole fanbois who seem to be happy with the Microsoft tax that is imposed on all Windows users.
Interesting reader commentary on Microsoft being responsible for the (supposedly great) state of computing today; somewhat of a laughable opinion, IMHO. I think we'd be much more advanced than we are today, if we didn't have Microsoft holding us back all these years.
Is the man talking about Apple or IBM or Compaq?...Listen carefully. He is talking about Microsoft. They are guilty of what they did. Apple is guilty of what they did or IBM for that matter. No other company in history had try so hard to be so hated and not apologize for it. For us old enough to had LIVE through PC history (and not just read about it) know what the man is talking about. The Law always had to catch up with Bill Gates since he was always ahead of the game and the competition had no idea how to counteract using legal ways. There was no legal ways because Gates' predatory ways was so new to the industry. That's until Netscape was able to prove MS was a monopoly and won.. or did it? Netscape was already badly hurt by Gates and Co. and disappeared shorly after the trial ended. Kudos for MS.. they lost in court but end up having with no competition again... That is until Steve Jobs decided to come back to Apple and show Gates how real innovation works.. Did you read the article?.. MS almost missed the internet. I remember that and how stupid move it was. MS actually came back and embraced it but never had a clear vision of it... Look at Google, Facebook.. As for Windows 7 I agree is a nice piece of technology but is it relevant anymore?... If you are like me you use your computer to run internet applications... To do that you just need the browser. Not a full blown OS.
MS better get used to competition now.. or fade away..
I found this article hilarious. Mostly for the bias opinions. I use Linux, Mac and Windows. Mac mostly at work. It's a fun little computer that looks cute, but I don't find it all that practical. I have a laptop I travel with that. This one uses Linux. It's a good Internet machine/word processor. I use a Windows PC at home because despite it's "flaws", it's still the most flexible option. As for updates, all three have them. My Mac downloaded a few just the other day. After not turning on my Linux laptop for a month, it needed to download 22 updates. I find people who bitch about any software/software company ignorant. Everything out there needs an occasional update or patch. No software will ever be perfect. If any software ever is, we would be done and no new versions would ever be needed.
Gosh. Judging by the reaction to this over opinionated bilgewater, the entire Linux using population of the UK must be here. So about 15 people then.
"However, I want to thank those who took the time to comment in support of my view that Microsoft has much to answer for and has not delivered to us a well designed, secure PC operating system." (@Egan)
What, Linux is "well designed" and "more secure" than Windows 7? In which case please excuse me while I read ten pages of poorly written man text explaining how to install GRUB on a second drive and edit the startup script to install a software RAID array and... you catch my drift.
The fact Linux has failed to even remotely capture any public interest whatsoever is no reason to have a hissy fit at Microsoft. Nobody who wants to use their computer for a bit of email and eBay and games (i.e. almost everyone, in case you didn't notice) cares about your vanity *nix platform of choice. They don't care about Windows either, for that matter, when all they want is SOFTWARE.
Which is why these operating system arguments are always pointless. It's like listening to people compare who has the nicest oven rather than compare what the food tastes like.
Impose your own ever changing 'industry standard'. Bully partners, opponents and customers. Squeeze them out, and so on..
Not nice to see. And under this high pressure customers are eager to leave asap, whenever alternatives appear: cloud solutions, open standards, public formats,..
Direct X/Framework = Counter to entire article.
As long as they rule the gaming and hardware/driver development world, Windows will stand supreme over Linux or any other OS. Give Linux partners similar development models to lower cost and production time and then I will listen to this perspective.
its more like over 25 years since the windows code was stolen, its very hashed hashed and not widely know.
It is seldom that I respond to comments on my articles (although I do reply to emails that engage with the substance of articles rather than merely flaming me).
However, I want to thank those who took the time to comment in support of my view that Microsoft has much to answer for and has not delivered to us a well designed, secure PC operating system.
And it probably never will. It also is incapable, in my view, of cobbling up a good mobile OS, and likely never will.
That will ultimately mean the death of Microsoft, I think.
But Microsoft did deserve the corporate death penalty 10 years ago or more, for many sins, not just strangling Netscape.
In my opinion, of course.
Anyway, thank you Linux users for your comments in support of this little rant.
As they used to say in Rome...
illegitimi non carborundum.
Regards,
Egan
What this guy is saying is solid and true, and well documented. Microsoft did all that he said, and more. They attempted to destroy technologies that were superior to theirs using their position as a monopoly power in PCs.
You can read about them if you do a few simple searches in Google. Many sites have detailed write-ups about what and how Microsoft abused their position and power.
I'm not an Apple fan. I am not a Windows fan. I use Apple, Windows and Linux daily. But I can tell you that Microsoft targeted Apple's QuickTime and that very act and all the actions following that demonstrates with clarity what Microsoft did to the whole of industry, and how it did it.
You can read about some of it here: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/5F0C866C-6DDF-4A9A-9515-531B0CA0C29C.html
Though it is an older write up from 2007 it talks about the history prior to that, which is all relevant considering that is the discourse of this article.
1985 till 1995 Eagan view is nice, from there, Steve went moore Big Buck Home from 4004 beginnings both steves' took from.
'd emballmer continues recognizing 50% of Market as covered by free,NP or Gov't, So Strong point. In 1995, too much computers & BAD Software. Now Software O/S & Hardware are coming together. Digital is Death, Perhaps, Not neccessarily mfgs, which more cooperate, more quality of performance.
1985 Was Commodore & RadioShek. Best Where Arcade Game Machines, Playing Save City & Escape & Attack games. Always Worked, good.
Now Desktop works pretty good, Yet money shifted to Mobile. More PVR With Bull of Brigette I,II,III. III Being Way Out,Man.3.
Why tell gruesome tale of tears & overspecualted hopes. lot bigger than Government, Just Stay Low.
vondrashek md
@Mike_Pikey
Do you know vlc or smplayer?(excellent multimedia players...)
Do you know banshee or amarox?
(excellent music players that organize your collection...)
Do you know ardour, rosegarden or audacity?
(excellent music workstation programs...)
Do you know openoffice or Koffice or libre office?
(excellent office suites...)
Do you know gcompris or tuxmaths or ktouch?
(excellent educational programs...)
Do you know blender or inkskape or gimp?
(excellent graphic and animation programs...)
Do you know winff or arista?
(excellent multimedia trans-coding programs...)
Do you know K3B or brasero?
(excellent programs to burn dvd or blue rays...)
Do you know ktorrent or transmission?
(excellent torrent programs...)
Do you know firefox or chromium?
(excelenet internet browsing programs...)
Do you know calibre or tellico?
(excellent book collection programs...)
Do you know konqueror or dolphin?
(excellent file manager programs...)
Do you know KDE or Gnome?
(excellent graphical user interfaces...)
Do you know kdenlive or openshot?
(excellent video processing programs...)
Do you know ailurus or ubuntu tweak?
(excellent tweaking programs...)
Do you know wine and winetricks?
(excellent programs to run some of your crappy windows programs in Linux taking advance the far most advance GUI where you can put the apps in different workspaces...)
Do you know other excellent Linux apps
that are evolving rapidly?(from Okular to pidgin and from ekiga to Qcad?)
If you did, then you would not write this nonsense about geeks!
Linux and its apps are created for users and by users.
Just try it and you see.
Linux has dramatically changed the last years for the benefit of the average user and it is no more a toy of the geeks...
And if you prefer closed source programs then you can have in Linux up and running
Mathematica, SPSS, Nero or Maya.
I do not!
Open source apps are advancing so rapidly in Linux that they can satisfy all of my needs and more.
Please educate your self and see the changing reality of Linux.
Linux is not only for geeks.
It is for everyone...
It was a time when Linux was very young, immature and exclusively command line.
A time when hardware support was buggy and minimal and open source apps were scarcely existed...
This time has passed.
Now Linux has a variety of excellent graphical user interfaces, an excellent hardware support and a wealth of qualitative open source programs.
It also has the support of giant corporations like IBM, Google and Nokia.
The Microsoft OS is not funny anymore.
It exists because of the continuing blackmailing of hardware vendors and because of the most monstrous marketing machine humanity has ever known.
Fact is that I pity the windows users.
They pay for something they are not allowed to own, to share or modify and that is actually worse (much worse...) than the free alternative...
They don't know what they are losing and some of them are so ignorant so to think that Linux is on par with windows 95!
(Seriously, discover the awesomeness of KDE and then we can talk about GUIs...)
Oh!Your virus database has been updated!
... usual M$ bashing tripe.
Complaining a company is out there to make money for itself. Welcome to the real world, that's what business does. We all know it sucks but only if you're on the wrong end of it, if you can do better, all power to you but whinging like a schoolgirl isn't going to help.
Microsoft is only that big because so many people buy and use its products. We can't complain about M$ being the overlord of the computer world when the worldwide public have bought a PC and run Windows when there are countless free versions of Linux out there. Time for Linux to man-up and produce something the public want instead of being built by geeks for geeks? They've only got themselves to blame.
When you sell something for 100 dollars something that it costs zero dollars to reproduce , you earn lots of money.
When more over you prohibit the sharing and you lock the source code then you guarantee the success.
When you have (paid?) fools and morons to defend this outrageous commercial tactic whereas they spread FUD about the free and better alternative --that has been given to humanity as a gift free to own and share-- then the profits will become bigger and bigger.
Microsoft tax is indeed very lucrative!
@winter and @ ignorant moron persons like you...
Please google techrights
and find out what microsoft is really about!
Stop spreading naive ignorant information about microsoft like you are a paid troll!
And please do discover Linux and find out how much more advanced are its GUI in comparison with that of windows.
Microsoft earns money because of such fool persons like you.
In reality, microsoft promoted the worst and more irrational form of patents (software patents) and enforce the third world to pay for its crappy software when the alternative is open, free and better!
Are you a bribed politician or something?
Because of them, microsoft has been imposed on the education and the states...
Even if bill gates didnt get dos, who says another company wouldnt have done it any differently? Bill gates isnt just about the money....have you read about his "bill and malinda fund"?...once you have, he is doing something good with lots of his money.
Windows was made in a western society and Bill Gates is giving money to the third world.
Windows 7 was great, vista had its flaws, all you needed was a powerful pc and it was fine.
Linux will never dominate the general market because you dont have anybody able to do a GUI thats usable by everybody. Ubuntu has only just taken over windows 95....
Free stuff does mean great value but doesnt make it good.
I have to agree with a previous poster, you're definitely brain damaged... Not a moron though, that would be an insult to morons. This company has earned more money than probably any other company on the planet the last 25 years, they currently still lay claim to 90% of the world's computing market share. I'd love just half of that performance...
I'm not sure you should really include the phrase "If you can look at it objectively" at the start of an article that seems to be one part one-sided analysis and 7 parts hyperbolic, biased nonsense.
As evidenced by Microsoft's soaring profits and the enormous popularity of its Windows 7 offering, I think you may need to wake up and smell the coffee here. Microsoft make some pretty good software these days.
"But Microsoft is rapidly becoming an old and obsolescent brand, overtaken by the Open Handset Alliance and Google"
What I understand from the above line is: MS is the old evil and the future one is OHA and Google. Well there's no guarantee that they won't become evils too. Even google that says be no evil is an evil itself. It's the rule of becoming a monstrous international corporation.
Talking about choice, there's no choice really. It's always between bad and worse, and that's the way it becomes worse and worse. The eviler remains.
It also empowers you with activities that also have a different set of virtual desktops and so you have another dimension in your GUI and KDE also gives you the ability to group different applications or windows to the same window.(it transforms applications to tabs!)
And so many other things that unless you give up your overpriced, commercial locked software thing (
called ms windowsz )
knowing that you are end up in jail if you try to copy or modify or share or disclosure the code!
Linux on the other hand,
is absolutely and totally free to own to share to modify to inspect code to give to recreate.
LINUX IS THE REVOLUTION!
TAKE BACK YOU PC GET RID FROM VIRUS SPYWARE MALWARE TROJANS WORMS ONLY ONE VIRTUAL DESKTOP, ONLY ONE WORKSPACE, ONLY ONE ACTIVITY NO WOBBLY WINDOWS NO CUBE
DISCOVER A NEW BRAVE WORLD OF OPENNESS, BEAUTY, INFINITE CUSTOMIZATION RICHNESS NETWORKING LEARNING KNOWING INTERACTING .
Linux and KDE is the way if desktop computing remains alive...
PS
Microsoft constitutes alongside with apple and oracle the complex M.A.O as ruthless and dictatorial as MAO used to be in China
The article is excellent!
WELL DONE!
It captures bravely the reality of mocrosoft and its purposes.
Fact is that Linux is so much better than the ugly, restrictive, closed, virus-ridden windows
and that Linux has been matured so nicely accelerating the rate of its improvement month by month, day by day.
Every 3 months it comes up a new Linux kernel with thousands of changes in plenty of areas including of course the hardware support.
(Linux-- contrary to the crappy windows-- is an out of the box operating system.
Your hardware will function without the need to install additional drivers!)
Its graphical user interface
(one of the many that the Linux World provides actually!)
KDE gives you (in a convenient, fully functional and beautiful graphical form) different virtual desktops each with its different set of wallpapers and widgets.
(for the ignorant users of windows chech this out:windows gives you just one virtual desktop and one activity.For you the concept of many virtual desktops and activities is unimaginable.So check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcEmdSFLZjs )
It also empowers you with activities that also have a different set of virtual desktops and so you have another dimension in your GUI and KDE also gives you the ability to group different applications or windows to the same window.(it transforms applications to tabs!)
And so many other things that unless you give up your overpriced, commercial locked software thing (
called ms windowsz )
knowing that you are end up in jail if you try to copy or modify or share or disclosure the code!
Linux on the other hand,
is absolutely and totally free to own to share to modify to inspect code to give to recreate.
LINUX IS THE REVOLUTION!
TAKE BACK YOU PC GET RID FROM VIRUS SPYWARE MALWARE TROJANS WORMS ONLY ONE VIRTUAL DESKTOP, ONLY ONE WORKSPACE, ONLY ONE ACTIVITY NO WOBBLY WINDOWS NO CUBE
DISCOVER A NEW BRAVE WORLD OF OPENNESS, BEAUTY, INFINITE CUSTOMIZATION RICHNESS NETWORKING LEARNING KNOWING INTERACTING .
Linux and KDE is the way if desktop computing remains alive...
People were saying this, what? 5 years ago? 10? Weren't people saying that by now Linux would be dominant? Or virtual machines running Java? Or OSX? Or other alternatives?
Didn't happen, never will.
Save a copy of this article, because when the 35th anniversary of Windows comes about you'll be able to use it again.
It amazes me how easily the media in their sensationalism jump on their high horses to condemn companies like Microsoft. Don't get me wrong Microsoft ain't St. Nick but name me one fortune 500 company who doesn't have their hands dirty and if you all mention Google ....wake up and smell the coffee.
You are sitting at your desktop/laptop/tab computer typing your article condemning the very people that made it possible. That same non-deal you speak of which resulted in MSDOS largely didn't happen because Big Blue could not visualize the "personal" computer. If it weren't for companies like Microsoft, Compaq etc. only large co operations would be able to afford computers.
They gave us buggy software but they gave us a user friendly alternative to the then cryptic Unix environment. If it weren't for Microsoft buggy software the ubiquitous PC and Internet would not exist or at the very least would not enjoy the phenomenal growth that has taken place over the last 25 yrs.
So.... bash them when they get out of line. Constructively critique their product so they'll make them better. Buy their competitor's product if it is a better product but stop with the useless wholesale bashing of a company that the world owes so much to.
and the wall is pretty high, but I like that. It keeps out the unclean and the great unwashed.
Microsoft is basically a company that commit legalised robbery with support and licensing fees. It costs my establishment thousand of pounds to use MS software. Thousands! And when I mention the 'L' word there are howls of derision. I do get some support from the governors though.
Like all empires MS will fall. It is inept, incompetent and has inflicted crap software on the world for way too long. I mean, any company that produces utter shite like 'Publisher' should be closed down immediately. For a company as large as MS to produce such an utterly shite programme as 'Publisher', I think summary execution is in order.
One day, the MS blinkers will come off the great unwashed and they will realise that they have been taken for a ride. When they wake from their stupor, the revolution will occur.
It will not be a Microsoft revolution.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
Thanks for the heads up about The Register. I found their article much more amusing.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/20/25_years_of_windows/
I never did like the inquirer. There is an evil presence about it.
A quarter century of pain, suffering, and blue screens of death.
But the era is over, as the world migrates to ARM-based devices: Smartphones, Smartbooks, Pads, Slates, and other thin mobile devices.
Microsoft's products are based on the last century. A bad experience that your grandparents will be able to tell you about.
...when you bring up their sordid past.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050419194550/http://reactor-core.org/in-microsoft-we-trust.html
ARM processors outnumber x86 by about 4:1. And none of them run Windows.
Come on, is that really an article ?
This random anti-microsoft pro-linux rant is so old school that it seems copy-pasted back from a 1999 newsgroup.
I will vote with my mice and find another information website to read from now on. You are old dear, and rotted as a dinosaur.
While the author and many other Microsoft bashers keep ranting, the giant is busy working on its next strategies to survive and dominate.
If you want kill Micrsoft go to the alternative, period.
A good article, even if one sided.
My question (and point)... expand on this article.
What can be learned from this? How can it be prevented? Who's to say some other giant doesn't fill in those shoes and do the same thing, or worse?
If Apple had it's way, things could (would, in my opinion) be much worse.
So again, what's the lesson to be learned here?
Windows 7 is great, everything runs smooth and without hassle. So long as MS can keep things to that standard I'll be happy.
And yes, as a company they are always out to get whatever they can for themselves and screw people over, what about this surprises you? That's no different to any other big company.
This is funny too:
"or on the desktop, which is gaining, albeit stealthily because people just pay the 'Microsoft tax' on a PC and then install and use Linux instead."
Please show your calculations to demonstrate how many people actually use Linux on a day to day basis. I guarantee it is still a niche product. Linux is very nice in a lot of ways but doesn't have the ease of use or range of software available to a Windows system.
I don't often comment on stories but after reading this, I guess that the only thing I can say, is that in the future, I am only going to be reading The Register.
*My* feeling about Microsoft can be summed up as follows: the only reason that I have a computer today, is the Bill Gates decided that he wanted to put a computer in every household. And he did. IBM didn't do it, Apple and Jobs didn't do it, Linux and Stalledman didn't do it, Intel didn't do it. Bill Gates and Microsoft did it.
As for the article, there is really nothing to say about it.
I like Microsoft having a domination of the PC market in my area. I've only had to learn how to fix their software. I make money by fixing broken things. I seem to be the only person who is saying "Things aren't that bad, life is full of trials anyway".
Unfortunately, it's prolly just that: theory.
Many phropetized the same for Big Glue, but you know what? IBM is still (very much) alive and kicking (and btw, so are its mainframes).
Wanna play the Cassandra game? My guess is you should try with some other company.
"So Microsoft is just a dead, old and broken software coompay..."
I wish I was dead old and broken with a few dozen billion to play with.
In the immortal words of a great wiseman "WHAT HAVE THE ROMANS EVER DONE FOR US?"
If statistics are correct, 90% of computer operating systems in the world remain some form of Windows; the more widespread use of mobile devices, and the transfer of data to the cloud and denser storage capacities will shift the focus to laptops, tablets and smartphones and perhaps change that ratio, or Steve Ballmer may wake up, smell the coffee, and figure out a new business plan in that direction (and then throw a chair).
Everything I don't like.
You seem to take pleasure in the downfall of Microsoft - just like me and million of others.
You are a very funny guy Mr. Egan Orion... oh and brain damaged moron too.