Yesterday I read a really interesting article about the end of Windows as we know it. I can’t say that I disagree with that assessment at all.
As many of you know, Windows Vista was basically my sole reason for moving to a Mac last year. I had installed it on my Toshiba notebook computer and it was the slowest piece of a garbage I had ever used — none of the drivers worked properly, and it crashed for no reason. The worse part was their “upgrade wizard” said my machine would be fine. Here’s a little video I took while installing it (looks like it’s up to 50,000 views on YouTube):
The thing about Mac, at least in terms of an OS, is that’s basically the BSD kernel with a nice UI on top of it. And I say that in a good way. What it means is that Mac OS kernel is essentially tried and true, and Mac engineers can put their time into making the user experience great, which is what Macs have typically been known for.
Contrast that with Microsoft, who at each step see to try to reinvent the wheel again. One of the main selling points about Vista was a new database-like file system called WinFS. Of course, Microsoft pulled it from the product since they couldn’t seem to get it working right.
In terms of my website, here’s the latest data on operating systems:
As you can see, Mac is slowly growing on my list (they were < 5% typically last year). Granted, my readership is heavily biased towards the geek side of the spectrum, but the point is the same. Microsoft is losing some serious share of the market to Apple. I know a lot of enterprise users were waiting for the release of the new Microsoft Office on the Mac, and now that it's out, are actually switching their desktop computers at work to Macs. Look at me - I'm a windows developer at work, and you know how I develop software? In a Windows XP virtual machine on my 8-core MacPro. Maybe Windows really is dying.
Heh, I’m in your 2% demographic.
I’ve noticed the same thing on my other blogs though – less people using windows.
Linux? Hardcore.
I hope your prediction is right! Whilst my experience with Vista is somewhat better (I haven’t had any crashes although I must admit that the UI is somewhat clunky), I’m by no means a Microsoft advocate.
I used to run various versions of Linux on an old desktop box back at home – whilst I do love using Linux, I would argue that its not quite ready for the general public quite yet – with too many tweaks necessary to be able to perform my daily computing tasks. However, I promise that as soon as I can do all the things I can do in Vista on a Linux box, I will make the switch!
You have to wonder if MS keeps doing things like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPv8PPl7ANU
(not a rickroll – promise!)
how long will they last….based on the comments, it seems like this was an attempt at humour but a pretty weak one at that.
HAHA that video! It cracked me up then, it cracked me up now again. Not sure what is funnier..the tapping of encouragement, or the semi-desperate “this was a big mistake”… Unsually funny to me…
I did not switch to Vista (and one of the reasons was your own review you put, i remembered it).. But I SO liked the new visuals on Vista.. And i found a perfect solution – there is this little software that will make your XP look like Vista, it’s just that it’s really XP.. 🙂 Google up ‘Vistamizer’…