But don't expect chair-throwing at Microsoft's offices

Summary: Even the loudest advocates of Microsoft are coming to grips with Microsoft's slipping grip on computing, especially in the areas where the market rapidly expands

ANYONE who still believes the brainwash (or marketing) may be under the impression that Vista 10 is succeeding. But despite a zero-cost 'upgrade' (unprecedented in Microsoft's entire history), people are apathetic if not hostile. They are not interested. In the past week (since Sunday), the back end of Techrights has seen only 15248 hits from Vista 10 and Tux Machines a mere 2858. Each site handles about 2 million hits at the back end (per week), so judging by what we see here, Vista 10 is still at sub-1% levels. We estimate that on the Web as a whole the number would be around 3%, based on other numbers we have come across. That's truly pathetic and the number is hardly improving over time. Corporations and governments won't ever find any appeal, let alone advantages, in spyware. They assess their technology in practical terms and they have data protection regulations they must adhere to. Microsoft knows this and it shows. The company is now trying to aggressively push people to 'upgrade', downloading the 3-gigabyte spyware into computers even without the user's consent. It's forcefeeding. The Vista 10 secret downloading botnet has expanded well beyond Vista 10 and made it into predecessors of Vista 10. This continued abuse of people's PCs without their authorisation demonstrates that Microsoft is not only arrogant but also (still) criminally-minded.

"This continued abuse of people's PCs without their authorisation demonstrates that Microsoft is not only arrogant but also (still) criminally-minded."As a higher proportion of the public (personal users, businesses, and of course public sector) moves on to mobile devices Microsoft is just falling further and further behind. The desktop is, in relative terms, becoming less important.

Windows Mobile and Windows Phone (or whatever branding Microsoft chooses next, now it has a "10" in it, e.g. "Windows 10 Mobile") have failed miserably, even after killing Nokia for whatever can be squeezed out of it. The biggest fans and advocates of Windows Phone are now openly complaining and The Register has covered it as follows:

Windows Phone fanbois are turning on each other in an online orgy of recrimination. So says Daniel Rubino of unabashed fan site Windows Central – formerly Windows Phone Central.

Rubino made the observation in a candid post entitled: “The Windows Phone community is imploding”.

“The tone today from many is dire,” he laments. “No one is happy with the Cityman and Talkman leaks, Windows 10 Mobile still feels rough and incomplete, and Microsoft looks to be miles from the competition. Throw in things like certain Lumia apps being retired and the relative success yesterday of Apple's big press event and it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, at times, there is barely a glimmer of light.”

Microsoft's advocates are throwing in the towel, but we don't expect Microsoft to give up, only to become more aggressive (software patents, forced 'upgrades', and so on). Never underestimate the sheer disregard Microsoft has for ethics and for the law itself. By breaking laws it can come from behind and by the time justice gets served (see WordPerfect or Netscape) it's already too late to salvage companies Microsoft committed crimes against. ⬆

“Microsoft is, I think, fundamentally an evil company.”

--Former Netscape Chairman James H. Clark