New survey: Vista cleans Mac OSX's clock

Whatever

If the masses want to continue using an underpowered, backwater OS, then, by all means, be my guest. As a film and graphics professional, I require an OS that gets the hell out of way and let's me work. I'm comfortable in all three of the main brands (including Linux), and frankly, OS X is the only one that works. There is absolutely nothing in my profession or home use that can be done on a PC half as efficiently, elegantly, or effectively as on a Mac. So, enjoy your marketshare, Windows. There are enough of us Mac users that Apple will never be hurting for cash, and we'll continue working in the kind of high-quality environment that you people will never know. (For the record, I don't count video games. Windows is great if you want to bleed your brain dry playing WoW or solitaire.)

Cleaning clocks is an obsolete profession

but clock cleaners never had a monopoly.

So Vista "skyrockets" as the XP machines burn up and fry leaving some with with little choice if they want a cheap off-the-shelf computer (many Best Buys don't carry Macs and the ones that do are paid to hide them after the Mac rep leaves for the day.) And still MS loses almost 3% of the market in a year (more than 5% in the year and a half since Macs went Intel and came down in price.)

Perhaps MS sees the writing on the wall. MS Office sales have plummeted. Their losses in market share are increasing exponentially (something a dill-weed like Preston apparently doesn't understand.) Why else is MS interested in Yahoo? Falling market trends in the core businesses with no plans to make customers happy. Probably explains why the share price of MS has done nothing in 8 years and Apple's has increased 2000%

But back to cleaning clocks, when it comes to boot time or the hardware quality the OEMs supply or the amount of time before a Windows machine on the net is trashed by malware, Apple cleans their clock. Linux does too.

So how much is M$ paying Gralla for good M$ PR?
Computerworld should get rid of this jerk. But they need the money.

Well, duh, 80 percent of Windows licenses are bought by OEMs

Everyone seems to forget that Windows doesn't have market share because people chose it. 80 percent of Windows licenses are bought by OEMs. It's the PC manufacturers who chose Windows, not regular consumers.


In the early days, there was no such thing as software companies. Microsoft created the concept of a software company and they became popular because PC manufacturers were too lazy to design their own operating systems.

 Operating systems before Windows were pretty much open source. They were usually developed by nerds on college campuses, often in collaboration with companies like IBM.

But no one bought a computer in the early days for its software, because first of all, software was really underpowered and secondly, before personal computers started to appear, most computers still had operating systems with command line interfaces.

Therefore, they were very hard to use.

 So Apple and Microsoft transitioned computers from the command line interface, but most companies still very much used the hardware model to sell computers, which is why Microsoft was able to gain so much power.



The best example I can compare this to is a Gold Rush. Back in the days when there were Gold Rushes in places like San Francisco, very few people made it rich digging for gold. The people that became rich were usually people selling shovels and tents and equipment miners needed to do their job.



So that's Microsoft. While everyone was mining for gold, Microsoft was off on the side selling shovels. And then the shovels became more important than the gold, metaphorically of course.



So don't make the mistake of thinking that Windows was chosen because an overwhelming number of people walked into a store and bought Windows off a shelf. It didn't happen that way.

Vista killed Windows,

Vista killed Windows, Microsoft just doesn't know it yet...but big business does and for the first time they are looking at Apple and saying "Ok, if you can do better then you've got two years to prove it"

In response Apple said "Ok, Here's Snow Leopard"

...and Big Business is thinking "Wow, that really is an OS for us!"

Actually I am from India,

Actually I am from India, and out here there are very few people who support/service Apple Products, its really scary if the Mac or any other Apple product you own has even a minor problem, you simply don't know who to go to. Even if you do, the repairs cost you a bomb. Also Apple products are really expensive the price for a Mac starts from $1200, so its the really rich people who own Macs, though graphics designers and other creative people do buy Macs and MacBooks but they buy it outside India (Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia or Dubai). Until now buying the product itself was an issue, you did not know where to go to buy authentic Appleware, now ofcourse Apple will be launching its retail stores out here so that should solve that problem.

About me I have been crazy about Mac products from the start, but I am using Windows XP I until recently owned an Apple iPod Nano, which I lost am trying to get my hands on the iPhone soon to be launched here. But I have used a MacBook, my friend owns one and he is very happy suits his needs, there are a range of apps in Mac that make you feel at home even if you are a first time user. And like someone said if I had the money I'd get myself a Mac.

Just like history

Back in 1928, US Electric created a washing machine. And until after WWII, US Electric was thee source of washing machines. They had a monopoly for at least 20 years. Then when their market share went from 100% to 99% they laughed about it. And over the years when their market share dwindled a few more points here and there, they claimed they would always be too big to be conquered. They poo-poo'ed every staistical gain reported by any group. They denied they were losing ground.

US Electric. The company that gave folks an OS that would clean their clothes. They were the first. They dominated for a quarter century. So by Preston's reasoning, we all should have a US Electric washing machine. They were one of the first, they had a monopoly on the market, their arrogance resulted in
no innovation. They became obsolete.

Tsken into context, Preston Gralla is just a preacher of historical failure who wants us to keep betting on failure. I will forgive him though if he admits he is still running his US Electric washing machine.

Error in numbers analysis

You missed one notable fact: although Vista numbers are growing quickly, overall Windows numbers are shrinking faster than ever - Windows utilization is dropping faster now than in any time in history, according to the numbers you referenced.

Yes, Windows is vastly popular and controls a huge percentage of the market, which I think was your point. But clearly if Windows abandonment continues to accelerate at the current rate, it will be a niche player within 5 years.

Microsoft clearly has to turn things around and start shipping product that customers want to buy. If it is unable to do so, it won't have a viable OS before long.

As a significant and notable XP and Vista IT customer within a very large organization, I certainly see the same disturbing failings that the press and public see. Seeing Window's market share drop so precipitously after years of stability is quite disturbing. Experiencing an increasing amount of significant issues with the product line over time is unacceptable.

Man, you have lost all

Man, you have lost all credibility there may have been with me... Sorry. I have written state-of-the-art drivers (at the time) for DOS and gone through Windows to Vista. I also have written low level tools for Unix and have directed software development for various fortune 100 software companies and ones that were platinum Microsoft developers. Currently I won't touch Microsoft; although I may come back to them eventually... I am responding to this on my OpenSuse 11.0 driven laptop which connects to wireless networks without any issues whatsoever. 10.3 had no wireless issues either for my two laptops. My home desktop system is running Leopard because it really 'does just work' although Leopard definitely was not as stable as Tiger (Leopard is just fine now however). Also check your facts on Parallels and include VMWare when you write about games and DirectX support!

Are you kidding me? Vista is

Are you kidding me? Vista is a joke. I personally use Ubuntu which blows away Vista. As for OS X its the most stable and beautiful OS there is if not for the expensive hardware i would own Macs. 32% of customers had Vista forced on them. Even the military is not adopting it. Come on do you really think all of the 32% forked out that much cash for an OS that required hardware upgrades. Ill stick with Ubuntu or Plain Linux until OS X is ready for my PC. R.I.P. XP you are not forgotten while Vista is rotten.