Bonum Certa Men Certa

Not So Keen on KIN2K (Vista Phone 7) and Why Windows Will No Longer Matter in a Mobile Future

Online everywhere
Smaller, better, faster, stronger



Summary: Amid progression and transition into a future of mobile devices Windows is unable to keep up and GNU/Linux increasingly matters on the client side; the future of Windows on "the desktop" is doubted as well

WINDOWS Phone 7, aka Vista Phone 7 (it will perform poorly like Vista and the "7" in it is just Seven-washing), is going to fail just like many Windows Mobile predecessors. We have already summarised many indications that, in spite of half a billion dollars to be spent on marketing, Vista Phone 7 will be hardly more successful than KIN [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. It just doesn't have what it takes to compete against Linux and hypePhone, for reasons that are easy to see (number of applications, cost, brand awareness, and functionality). The Linux-based Android, for example, is quickly moving up the hierarchy of scale, from phones to tablets and sometimes to full sub-notebooks and notebooks (Chrome OS).



“Sadly for Microsoft, the world is going light and mobile right now, sometimes Web-based too (sending workloads to the server side).”Vista Phone 7 is being mocked around the Web for being buggy and disappointing (see these two new screenshots [1, 2]). Notice the target market of Vista Phone 7 advertisements, as well. They target kids. That's exactly what they did with KIN and we already know how that strategy went.

Sadly for Microsoft, the world is going light and mobile right now, sometimes Web-based too (sending workloads to the server side). Microsoft's only truly profitable business is stuck on the desktop with a "fat" operating system and "fat" office suite for income. These monopolies cannot be easily transformed and ported to the mobile world. Microsoft spends so much money on Vista Phone 7 advertisements because it cannot afford to give up on this market. If everything carries on the way it already does, then Microsoft may have to split the company and spin off the mobile/Web efforts as separate because they lose too much money and might be worth selling away like Razorfish, if a buyer is found at all (more details in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]).

Wayne wonders about "Windows As An Orphan Product" -- basically a situation where access to Windows support is no longer available because of growing debt in the parent company (Microsoft has just approved debt of up to $16 billion).

So in effect, no one really cares if Microsoft goes bankrupt. Oh, Group 5 will hold onto Windows for as long as they can. Group 5 users can be generalized as the lowest common denominator in Information Technology. They know nothing, and they don’t want to know anything. Many of them seem to think that Microsoft invented the GUI (it was invented by Xerox), and for that matter that Microsoft invented the operating system. The Rednecks of the computer world, they’ll happily put up with virii, bad drivers, spam, just as long as they can hold onto their wonderful Windows for as long as possible. They are also the least honest. Everyone else was either willing to pay for their OS, or willing to search for a free one. Windows Desktop users would rather hunt for a crack, so that they can keep using their drug.


A migration from Windows to desktop GNU/Linux is very trivial these days. This good new post mirrors my personal experience, having recently migrated some people from Windows XP to GNU/Linux (PCLinuxOS).

Today at the dinner table my oldest, Paige, blurts out that she cannot use Windows. Not sure I was hearing her correctly I asked her what she said/meant. She indicated that her friend down the street had a computer with Windows 7 and that she, nor her friend, could figure out how to get songs off the web (legally) or off my daughter’s media player (sansa fuze) and onto her friend’s system and media player (not sure what she has).

[...]

What does this say to me? Windows 7 obviously was not made for her. Even more, I throw this in the face to all those who say Linux is not for the masses. Bull crap. It’s not that Linux is difficult, it is that it is more often than not different.


One possible corollary is that children should be introduced to GNU/Linux at a young age. This is something which Microsoft and Bill Gates will not permit as they turn schools into their private indoctrination facilities, which just happen to be funded by taxpayers for Microsoft's own benefit. Later this week we will publish a long post on the subject.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Low of ~60% in Switzerland, GNU/Linux Among Top Gainers
What will it take for mainstream media (not just geeks' site) to cover it?
 
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XI - EPO Strike Enters Its Second Week, EPO Sheds Off Qualified Staff to Make Way for Nepotists
More than six months ago the "Cocaine Communication Manager" got arrested for cocaine use
Another Microsoft Outlook Downtime
Microsoft has sloppy code, it's not something suitable for mission-critical things
Week 2 of April IBM Layoffs Accelerate Based on Rumours
"Heard about Layoff at IBM"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 05, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, April 05, 2026
Culture of Harassment Inside Microsoft, Says Former Director at Microsoft
listen to Microsoft insiders
Drone Strikes on Amazon (GAFAM) Datacentres Highlight Azure's Miniscule Share
Azure is failing
SLAPP Censorship - Part 35 Out of 200: How to Make ~10,000 Pound Sterling (13,220.50 United States Dollars) by Copy-Pasting and Editing 10 Pages
Today it's Easter Sunday, so we'll keep this part relatively short
Gemini Links 05/04/2026: Artemis II Mission Tracker, Meditation on Copyright, Alhena 5.5.5, "Gemini as the Final Frontier of Human Cognition"
Links for the day
Mainstream Media on "Practical Survivalism"
Suffice to say, panic buying begets more panic and price surges
Cloud Computing as a Cloud of Smoke (Your Hosting Provider is a "Legitimate" Military Target)
When a French datacentre went up in flames people joked that the "cloud" meant a cloud of smoke
Andreas Tille Congratulates Sruthi Chandran Before the Election for Debian Project Leader (DPL) is Even Over
Andreas Tille, the current Debian Project Leader (DPL) who has been in this role for nearly 24 months
When You Try to Change the World for the Better and Somehow They Find a Way to Say You Are the Villain
Don't be a fool. Don't fall for inversions of narratives.
Slop Was a Flop and Energy Crisis Will be Slop's Final Blow
Today we see no slopfarms in Google News
Links 05/04/2026: "Taiwanese Airlines to Hike Fuel Surcharges 157%" and Openly Racist Voter Suppression Starts in the US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2026: Playing with Hyprland and Migrating Antenna Filters
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2026: "Confidential Computing" as Proprietary Bundle of False Promises and "The Web Is an Antitrust Wedge"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 04, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, April 04, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 34 Out of 200: The Necessity of Transparency, Illuminating Garrett's and Graveley's 'Tag-Team' Act, Misusing the British Docket (From Far Away in America) in Efforts to Hide Bad Behaviour
Transparency is paramount
Red Tape at Red Hat (IBM)
Now the guiding principles are the whims and moods of people who peddle buzzwords to manipulate IBM's share prices
The So-called 'AI' (Slop) Companies Will Have the Plug Pulled
It can vastly accelerate this bubble's implosion
Dr. Andy Farnell on a "Technology Plan B"
based around Free software
Windows Lows Across the Mediterranean
Judging by this month's data from statCounter
The Future of the Net is 'in Space'
Gemini Protocol is growing and GemText remains the same, so it's made to endure
Linux Foundation Profits From Scams, Fraud, and Grifting
Don't be misled by the name "Linux Foundation"
Too Hard for IBM to Keep Everybody Silent About How the Company Has Gone South
IBM is busy trying to keep disgruntled or ex workers silent using NDAs
Microsoft Transmits Malware and Back Doors to GNU/Linux Servers, Media Points the Finger at Everyone But Microsoft's Servers
Is Microsoft too poor to vet and check what it hosts and transmits?
Gemini Links 04/04/2026: "Fuzz Guy", "Reusing Old Computers with Arch Linux and DWM", and Bubble v10.0 Released
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2026: eBay Scam, "Music Publishers’ X Copyright Lawsuit Officially on Pause"
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2026: Social Control Media Verdict and Bans, Whistleblower (Axel Rietschin) Explains How "Microsoft Vaporized a Trillion Dollars"
Links for the day
Reaching the End/Event Horizon of LLM Slop
Are we moving towards a post-LLMs world?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 03, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, April 03, 2026
Gemini Links 04/04/2026: STXGE and Computer Relationships
Links for the day