Posted on 10/25/2012 8:58:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can’t afford to be wrong about Windows 8.
On Thursday in New York, Microsoft will unveil a dramatic overhaul of its ubiquitous Windows operating system. If it flops, the failure will reinforce perceptions that Microsoft is falling behind competitors such as Apple, Google and Amazon as its stranglehold on personal computers becomes less relevant in an era of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.
If Ballmer is right, Windows 8 will prove that the world’s largest software maker still has the technological chops and marketing muscle to shape the future of computing.
‘‘This is going to be his defining moment,’’ said technology industry analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. Ballmer’s ‘‘legacy will be looked at as what he did or didn’t do with Windows 8. If Windows 8 is not a success, a lot of people will be looking for Microsoft to make a change at the CEO level.’’
Windows 8 is designed to run on PCs and tablet computers, heralding the biggest change to the industry’s dominant operating system in at least 17 years. It also marks the first time that Microsoft has made touch-screen control the top priority, though the system can still be switched into the familiar desktop mode that allows for control by keyboard and mouse.
Ballmer sees Windows 8 as the catalyst for a new era at Microsoft. He wants the operating system to ensure the company plays an integral role on all the important screens in people’s lives — PCs, smartphones, tablets and televisions.
‘‘We are trying to re-imagine the world from the ground up with Windows 8,’’ Ballmer told The Seattle Times. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The business world has not even adopted windows 7 in most places. I do a lot of work for medical insurance companies and hospitals. Almost all of them are still running windows XP.
If anything this might push them to windows 7 but I highly doubt the business world will be in a huge hurry to adopt windows 8.
Every time there’s an operating system change, there’ s a bunch of cranky geeks who swear they’ll never upgrade. And for a lot of folks, there’s no need to. “I can do all I need to do in DOS and Wordstar.” Fine. Shut up and enjoy it.
I’m not sure that quick adoption is the expectation. We’ve been looking at the Beta for a while and it is pretty much aimed at the coming of touch technology both in tablets as well as laptops and desktops. In that respect this might be what encourages users to begin the move toward touch screen technologies. Win 7 will be around for a while. I still use XP pro on at least one desktop.
The release tomorrow of Win 8 unfortunately does not include the Surface tablet with Win 8. That will be coming after the first of the year. The Friday release will be Surface RT for ARM processors and there is not any Win 7 to RT compatibility. It will have some of the same appeal as the iPad has and appears to do some things better. When the Surface with Win 8 Pro comes out there might be a pretty good uptick in sales and interest as buyers see what it will do.
DOS and Wordstar, way to live on technical edge. Real geeks use CP/M or Unix and use ed or VI!!
I liked Wordstar until I used Word. Wordperfect had to be one of the worst word processors around, anyone remember reveal codes and their macros?
I still go to the DOS session in Windows 7 and the various server versions. I was going through some old boxes and found a 1.44 version of DOS6.22 and DOS 5.0! Good times.
Dos 5.0 - I believe that was the last MS operating system that came with a real, comprehensive manual.
I was a beta tester for 5 and we all got great manuals. I think after DOS 5.0, they had a little pamphlet compared to the past as you used to get a DOS manual and a BASIC manual.
From what I read, and see, Win8 is written for tablets and sux big time on a regular PC with a mouse. I am one of those “cranky” old pharts and never had a machine with:
Windows ME
Windows Vista
My current lap top has Windows 7 and I like it. My previous one had to be special ordered with Win XP but at least I got it before they started charging extra for it. I’m going to be in no hurry to try Win 8 and one of the reasons I bought this laptop now was so I could still get it with Windows 7.
You can have both. There are shell applications for Win8 that create a start menu and other features from 7.
All of y'all with your fancy Intel 286 and 386 machines and 9x15" VGA monitors...... PSHAW!
Nothing beats bootstrapping in your own word processor in binary in the morning.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, that's going to become an issue very quickly, because productivity apps are still the mainstay of computing. So I would not be surprised if, in about two months from now, we see a Service Pack that brings the full desktop back for those who still need to work with a keyboard and mouse, and leave the Metro behind.
Everyone agrees that WordPerfect for Windows was the best word processor ever made. It sounds like you only used the pre-mouse dos version.
“Make” for the new crop of automatic transmission, latte when you want it, yelpy-googley-facebookey-livingsocialey, don’t care how it works, just want to hop-skotch through the coffee shop acces points slacker hipsters....
“Break” for anyone who has changed his own oil, owned a british sports car, built his own computer/bicycle wheel/cabinet/tree house, used a command prompt, installed a driver, installed a program, installed a linux distro....
The market will decide.
do not want.
I think that's where we're heading. In fact, I suspect in five years that tablets, desktops and notebooks will be largely obsolete.
Or rather, all three categories of hardware will (sort of) still exist, but will be largely merely entry/display units for your personal computer, which will be your phone.
You always have it with you. It has the potential to be able to do all the data storage and manipulation of any of the other three devices, the only inherent advantage of which is the aforementioned data entry and display.
So in the future the desktop, notebook and tablet will just be "dumb" entry and display units that will connect wirelessly to your phone, which of course will back up seamlessly and continuously to the cloud.
Until, of course, somebody invents the virus that crashes the whole cloud.
An OS that allows one to switch seamlessly and conveniently from one device to another is of course essential. Nobody's going to want to learn three or four different operating systems.
Looks like desktop icons to me... Just a bit bigger and organized.
Wouldn’t you rather have a nice screen picture?
Looks like desktop icons to me... Just a bit bigger and organized.
Wouldn’t you rather have a nice screen picture?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.