[PCWorld]

Post your comments for No Plan B? The fallacies and risks of Microsoft's all-in Windows gambit here

[GHinkson]

I've been a windows user since version 2.8. I now have windows 7 since 2009. I don't have a smart phone, tablet, laptop, i-pad or anything else other than a basic cellphone for calling people. I have four icons on my pc desktop and I don't use them very often as I use short cuts for programs and internet. I don;t like any company or person telling that I have to change and accept what they give me or else. I will not use windows 8 because I don't want the cloud as it is to insecure and theft prone. If windows 8 is the only windows option I will change to something else other than using microsoft windows operating system.

[ChatTn23]

All business should have a Plan B and all businesses the size of Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. have a Plan B, C, D and probably beyond, even if most are floaters. The problem here is that it appears Plan A is some type of floater so it will take some time to see how Plan A works out. Microsoft has a lot of time and money invested in the Windows 8 project and I don’t believe they have to rush into any other directions right now since Windows 7 is a platform that many who use Windows are comfortable with. A big part of their Plan A should have been doing a better marketing job of the Windows 8 project then they did. I don’t believe it’s really clear to everyone yet how it all is supposed to come together or who all the audiences are for the products. I have my opinions, but that’s the problem. We can all make educated guesses, but some people get real testy when things don’t work out they way they had hoped. They could have taken a few lessons from Google, Amazon, Apple, and others in this regard. It might have cut down on some of the negative press they’ve had to deal with from almost every tech site and magazine that’s been published, and that especially goes for PC World.

[boisegeek]

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I've been a windows user since version 2.8. I now have windows 7 since 2009. I don't have a smart phone, tablet, laptop, i-pad or anything else other than a basic cellphone for calling people. I have four icons on my pc desktop and I don't use them very often as I use short cuts for programs and internet. I don;t like any company or person telling that I have to change and accept what they give me or else. I will not use windows 8 because I don't want the cloud as it is to insecure and theft prone. If windows 8 is the only windows option I will change to something else other than using microsoft windows operating system.

MS doesn't care about your personal choice. It really doesn't matter to them whether you stay using Windows or not. In fact, they really don't care about even if all the Windows users hate Windows 8 right now. The truth is, majority of the Windows PC in the world right now are irreplaceable by any other system, not Apple, not Linux, not tablet. There maybe a few percentage change now and then. But to MS, they can care less. Once they stop support Windows 7, all the users will be forced to the next version, maybe 9?

[MKZ1945]

I had to ask myself a few days ago “why would Microsoft loan Dell two billion dollars?” It came very clear now. They have a lot of hardware venders wondering if it’s worth it to invest in Windows 8 products. Since Dell is one of the better known hardware venders in the world, why not invest a little in them so that they will invest a little in us. Whether you like Dell or not, they have a marketable brand. Dell wants to get into the tablet market and so does Microsoft. They already have a good grip on the desktop and laptop market, so getting into tablets and phones is not a stretch at all. Microsoft may be using this only as a prop to get other venders to get out of stall mode. Of course, there still has to be a proven customer base for these products, and it’s sort of a mystery at this point. If Dell proves it can make a healthy profit from these gadgets, others will follow.

[TsarNikky]

"Gambit" is an excellent choice of words. Like all gambling...one could win big as well as losing big. As a long-term shareholder, I would be quite worried. I didn't think of Microsoft as being in the "highly speculative" category; however, a re-evaluation is needed. As for being "the only game in town," that situation will be changing very quickly--business can take only so much abuse before they go elsewhere.

[pcworld4567]

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I've been a windows user since version 2.8. I now have windows 7 since 2009. I don't have a smart phone, tablet, laptop, i-pad or anything else other than a basic cellphone for calling people. I have four icons on my pc desktop and I don't use them very often as I use short cuts for programs and internet. I don;t like any company or person telling that I have to change and accept what they give me or else. I will not use windows 8 because I don't want the cloud as it is to insecure and theft prone. If windows 8 is the only windows option I will change to something else other than using microsoft windows operating system.

[Fatesrider]

I LOVE this line:

"We aim to evolve this generation of Windows to make sure we have the right set of experiences at the right price points for all customers."

This is an operating system that provides the exact same set of experiences for everything everywhere! The UI is identical. But Smartphones, laptops, desktops and tablets are all used differently and mostly require different UI's that optimize their use. Forcing all of them to be approached the same way is hardly the "right set of experiences" unless, of course, they think end users love pain and inconvenience.

That statement from Microsoft has to rank among the top two most ludicrous ones ever to come out of Redmond. I don't know what they're putting in their Kool-aid, but I do know that if I were a Microsoft stock holder, I'd be dropping it like a C-130 unloads paratroopers.

[pcworld4567]

Yip, something mighty annoying about MS laying Windows 8 on us this way while Windows 7 was and is settling in.

[MrHistamine]

I agree with Andrea Matwyshyn; there's nothing wrong with the current model. I also agree that the psychology of adoption is Microsoft's biggest threat; honestly, they should have invested in proper education for customers (whether that be at little pop-up kiosks, or a real store). With that said, I'm one of the W8 desktop users who actually enjoys it...it took a bit of time to get used to it, but, once I got used to using the mouse wheel / arrow keys to manipulate the interface (in conjunction with pointing and clicking), I was good. It'll be interesting to see how their vision plays out; they have the resources to do it right...if they don't completely lose faith in it.

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I've been a windows user since version 2.8. I now have windows 7 since 2009. I don't have a smart phone, tablet, laptop, i-pad or anything else other than a basic cellphone for calling people. I have four icons on my pc desktop and I don't use them very often as I use short cuts for programs and internet. I don;t like any company or person telling that I have to change and accept what they give me or else. I will not use windows 8 because I don't want the cloud as it is to insecure and theft prone. If windows 8 is the only windows option I will change to something else other than using microsoft windows operating system.

So, why not just keep using what works for you? As far as I can tell, Microsoft isn't telling you you have to change to W8. Even if you did update to W8, you're not forced to use the cloud. Let's not be so dramatic, shall we?

This post has been edited by MrHistamine: 15 February 2013 - 01:29 PM

[John2jio]

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"Gambit" is an excellent choice of words. Like all gambling...one could win big as well as losing big. As a long-term shareholder, I would be quite worried. I didn't think of Microsoft as being in the "highly speculative" category; however, a re-evaluation is needed. As for being "the only game in town," that situation will be changing very quickly--business can take only so much abuse before they go elsewhere.

Exactly! Win 8 is a Time Consuming Mess.For the Engineering.Scientific, Financial and Manufacturing user's, Win 8 is a disaster .We spent 6 months of Testing at my company . The Win 8 on a PC experience did not get better with time. This is definitely Microsoft's worst mistake ever. Business user's will only take so much crap. When the use of a Microsoft product severely affect's your bottom line,you will change. This is 2013 not 2000 there are choice's.Microsoft is going to learn that.

[John2jio]

Microsoft's problem is they have people (Ballmer) making decision's who have not used a Computer in Decade's to Create anything. The upper management have others who do it for them.

[doanhp]

Once there's an alternative to Windows, people will abandon ship faster than the Titanic. That day will come if MS doesn't produce a good OS. MS needs to start listen to their customers, you can't just do whatever you like. There's no one size fit all OS. Different devices have different needs.

[Charlie0]

I am also a longtime Microsoft user and advocate. They have lost my support. I had a windows 6 phone and I will never have another Windows phone. Android does everything I need it to. I have no desire or need to learn and use Windows 8.

[PimpleFace]

Windows RT is plan B. All companies have a plan B, C, D, E,... The author is a moron.

[rak117]

Is Microsoft ever going to fix the Update Installation problem in Windows8 running on my HP 23 all-in-one? I only use the desktop configuration. That other stuff is for Phones and Pads, not for PC users. I certainly will not use IE10 or their new Office and have switched to MSN-Classic for the occasions I do go there.

[karthiq]

I thought giving the option to default into desktop, was plan B.

And for wp8 i dont see what plan B could be??.....icons like ios and android instead of tiles??

As for surfaces, we are more likely than not, to see more variety of sizes and bettery battery life in the second generation of them. The existing surfaces were only the first generation of a new kind of product.

[karthiq]

MS isnt going anywhere folks! MS purposefully made win8 the way it is, to prevent it from affecting sales of win7 which give/gave it more revenue than win8. And when almost everybody who might adopt win7 are done adopting it, it will unleash a better version of 8.

[newyorkcitymale]

Windows 8 is transitional. And, yes, it's a bit awkward. But the direction Microsoft is headed is the future. If they can succeed in unifying desktop, tablet & phone (and maybe even TV), then they will be in a very strong position.

In spite of all the hype about tablets, most people can not do their jobs on an iPad... nor would they want to. Microsoft understands this and is trying to change it (since they are so strong in the enterprise sector).

There are already signs that the Apple model is starting to falter. They're now losing market share to Android--lots of market share. Furthermore, while Windows Phone only grew its worldwide market share to 3% last year, it did still double it. Meanwhile, the iPhone lost 3 points of market share.

Finally, as the author points out, Microsoft is a rather diversified company. Google, on the other hand, still makes most of its money from searches & ads. But what if fickle consumers suddenly just decided that Google wasn't cool anymore and switched to another search engine? It wouldn't be difficult to do. There's nothing really tying anyone to Google search.

The reality is that times change... and technology changes incredibly fast (as do consumers' tastes), therefore, Microsoft may not be the only company in need of a Plan B.

[brainout]

I had no Plan B either, until I learned of the 'features' of Windows 8. Then I developed one: Linux on a stick. For back in May, I learned that Linux could rescue my crashed Windows machine. Then I learned there are some things Linux can do, which Windows can't do, in terms of file manipulation. GParted alone, properly identifies drives for easier file management than I can get from Windows. Linux can format and write to DVDs as if they were floppies, which XP cannot. (Win7 sorta can do this, but its claim that what it writes can be read anywhere after a mastered burn, isn't quite accurate). Linux can partition a flash drive, and in more formats. Windows can't read all those formats. There are also a handful of other utilities which Linux offers which Windows still doesn't have.

That being said, getting Linux on a stick with 'persistence' (retention of changes from session to session) is something of a pistol. The info on how to do this varies and contradicts and is often wrong. Turns out that each distro has a specific method of enabling persistence, and you have to dig to find what works for that distro.

But think now of the Plan B advantage: although many Linux programs are 'buggy' (not suited to a given computer's hardware, or just not well designed internally), the critical ones in the event of a Windows crash, are pretty decent. You can get email, surf the web, watch movies, download -- all using the same web software, or software remarkably like Windows. Some of that software is better, like OpenShot, a Video Editor program much like Windows Movie Maker, but with more options. (By contrast, Kdenlive is tempermental, arcane.)

Oh: and it can read your Windows files. Most of them, it can convert.

So if your machine has to go into the shop, you can plug a Linux stick into some older machine you weren't using, and bingo -- back in business. That is, once you get the stick to work properly.

So the big problem with this Plan B, is that the amount of 'persistence' and addressable space on the stick, is limited to about 4GB beyond the amount taken up by the Linux OS flavor you installed. It makes mirrors of itself automatically, taking up space on the drive, so the net amount of space it tells you that you have, is the difference between the persistence (up to 4GB) you could specify when making the stick, and the mirror. So that's usually about 1GB, too little. Once the Linux distributors figure a way to increase that, everyone will want his favorite flavor of Linux on a stick, and will be happy to pay for the privilege. I know I would: it cost me a week of no showers and scrounging in my fridge so I wouldn't have to leave the house, to figure out how to put it on a stick. Winners? Mint 13, Fedora 17, and Ubuntu 13.04. Use Unetbootin program from sourceforge to make Ubuntu, Live USB Install at the Fedora 17 USB page to make Fedora, and pendrivelinux.com 1-2-3's page to make Mint 13.

I couldn't get any other distro on a stick WITH persistence, thus far. Maybe you can instead do a full install, but instead specify the stick? I've not tried that.

This post has been edited by brainout: 16 February 2013 - 04:40 AM