Microsoft, Like Elvis, is Everywhere.

Guest Editorial Team

2011-08-16 17:20:38 UTC
Modified: 2011-08-16 17:20:38 UTC

The King is dead. The popular singer passed away on this day in 1977 after a horrendous decline. Yet decades later, thanks to the magic of a commercially inspired cult, Elvis is still everywhere 2. The Elvis estate has often been abusive of fans, to the point of harassing anyone who'd sell a black velvet portrait. Sill, Elvis lingers.

The Microsoft monopoly will follow the same trajectory as well as software can. It is inflicted on people who buy new computers. Small time IT people who don't know anything else push it onto small businesses because that's what comes out of the box. People hate it. Despite nearly universal dread of Microsoft's intentional waste of user's time and money, Windows lingers by ignorance and inertia. Poor sales of Vista/Windows 7 and great sales of Apple and Android conclusively prove people are tired of Windows and looking for alternatives. A sure sign of rigor mortis is that Microsoft boosters brag that they are not really dead, "So much for all those predictions that Linux would kill Windows." As long as there's some money in it, we can expect there to be sales and persistence in out of the way places but Windows is well on the way to vanishing. Big business, government and other "decision makers" did not take Vista and they have ignored Windows 7. Various flavors of Windows will provide a form of kitsch entertainment as it lurks in dark corners of the world, mostly controlled by botnets, blue screening and otherwise frustrating users by lack of freedom. People will be more perplexed by the success rather than the failure of Microsoft and the toy OS that never really could.

Comments

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-08-16 18:59:49

It will be interesting to see what happens when upgrade time is nigh. Microsoft's upgrade treadmill is already rustier than ever

twitter

2011-08-16 20:04:05

The next big upgrade time is sort of like the second coming of Christ. It's been almost five years since they pushed Vista out the door and XP was six years old at the time. That's more than a decade of slowing sales. Every time the Microsoft people put a new name on Windows, retailers pray that this will be the version that brings Microsoft back to their glory days of 1995 when people were willing to pay more than a thousand dollars for a big ugly box and a CRT. I remember people saying this when I worked in retail back in 2003. It did not happen with Vista or the Mojave Project, Windows 7, and it's not going to happen for Windows 8. People now expect their computer to fit in their pocket and be no fatter than a slim notebook. Microsoft can't go there for technical and economic reasons. Google has already unseated them where it counts. Small businesses will fumble around with Windows for a little longer but bigger customers are going to demand something better. A decade of disappointment should be enough to convince even the biggest and dumbest business that their faith was misplaced. The stampeed to make Androids by all of Microsoft's former partners tells me that OEMs learned the EEE PC lesson.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-08-16 20:14:27

In a lot of businesses, desktops/laptops are no longer necessary because the same functionality fits more nicely (and is mobile) on Android devices. One example of this is systems/datacentre administration, routers, etc.

Cisco is bringing out some nice Linux tablets soon.

Needs Sunlight

2011-08-16 18:50:14

A lot of discussion these days of linux on the desktop conveniently ignores the situation with the OEMs. Currently M$ has a monopoly over OEMs and is abusing it to keep out linux systems. Think back to the Asus for one example. M$ leaned on Asus to stop producing the linux version of its netbooks.

twitter

2011-08-16 19:16:27

Yes, Microsoft pretends that they are winning in a free market, but where people and companies actually have a choice Microsoft loses in a big way. Nothing can hide the decline of desktop computing and Windows in general. People overwhelmingly are choosing laptops and mobile platforms that are too skinny for Windows. Microsoft's declining revenues and profit reflect this shift.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-08-16 19:18:14

Now their patent plot too is crumbling somewhat (Motorola news).

Microsoft, Like Elvis, is Everywhere.

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