WBM wrote:
What do you guys think of Windows?
Never done this before, but I'll just copy and past my previous post here as more likely to be read, although the topic is actually Microsoft:
Not sure if Microsoft can be considered a threat per se more than anyone else in the IT business nowadays, given the business model. Of course I wouldn't include an outfit like FSF.
Microsoft is actually under-appreciated, since the 80s they have always been the geeky kid everybody bullies. To this day, every new Microsoft product attracts a swarm of trolls and haters the moment its release becomes public, in contrast to the way the press drools over anything new out of Apple. I have been using Windows 10 since its release on my Toshiba laptop and am completely satisfied (really!). It's possible if you have problems with Windows 10, it's due to a quirk in your hardware - Windows (like Android) runs on a limitless set of hardware and invariably some are better than others.
In fact, if anybody is a threat it's Apple because they brazenly try to monopolize every market they enter and destroy the competition - it is my impression they would like our lives to depend on them completely.
Some things I admire them for:
Continuity. Before Windows, you just had MS-DOS which was a command-line OS that the average person couldn't even use without some training. From that point in history (early 80s) they have progressed to what you have now, and AFAIK any software written from that time forward will run on any Windows machine built since (except maybe the Windows RT platform). Unlike Apple where at some point you would have to throw out your old software. I may not be 100% right about this, but it's true AFAIK.
For years, they resisted marketing any hardware of their own, so Windows, Microsoft Office, etc. had to run well enough on their customers' hardware to maintain market share going forward.
They have tried to appeal to the everyday working class person as well as business, etc. Given they were never the cool kids in the neighborhood, they have basically ceded the urban sophisticate market to Apple but have been welcoming to working moms, skaters, telemarketers, whoever just needs to get work done and enjoy some gaming and web surfing.
Not sure if this strictly addresses the original question, but was an enjoyable rant.
As for mobile, although I have never used a Windows Phone, I suspect that platform could easily stand against the two leading ones however because never thought cool, there has been very little app development for it, otherwise I might own one by now.
28 May 2016, 10:50 am
