Micro$haft $hafted?

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January 27th, 2009, 02:19 PM
nihil

Micro$haft $hafted?

Well the Vista class action is starting to get interesting?

Quote:

A Microsoft marketing scheme persuading consumers to buy PCs "capable" of running Windows Vista could cost more money than Microsoft made from the program.
An expert witness giving evidence in the class-action suit against Microsoft's Windows Vista Capable program has estimated the cost of upgrading so-called "capable" PCs to machines able to run premium editions at between $3.08bn and $8.52bn.

More details here:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/200...vista_capable/

That should make them take more care with Win7?
January 27th, 2009, 02:35 PM
MrLinus

Hardly. I'm sure they'll continue down the same road as they have thus far.
January 27th, 2009, 02:57 PM
nihil

I seem to recall reading somewhere that there was only going to be one certification/label for Win 7?

They certainly misread the market and certified stuff that would have worked just fine with XP. My 20/20 superior hindsight tells me that there was sufficient residual demand for XP to mop up existing OEM supplies of hardware without any significant markdown.
January 27th, 2009, 03:27 PM
t34b4g5

WIndows 7 might be split into different versions. These pictures supposedly come from a new build of the Windows 7 beta, 7025. It goes without saying that while we knew this was a possibility, we've been seriously wishing against it. We hope these are fake (and they very well could be), but seriously Microsoft... don't even think about this.
January 27th, 2009, 10:49 PM
nihil

Quote:

It goes without saying that while we knew this was a possibility, we've been seriously wishing against it.

It is an inevitability and why not? Microsoft are not noted for deliberate commercial suicide although they have been trying much harder lately.

1. Starter

Forget it, it is a deliberate marketing ploy for developing nations..........you will never see it. It will run on very low spec machines and "look a bit like" Windows 7. This is the "drug dealer marketing model". You get them hooked and then you will own them for life ;)

2. Home Basic

This is your entry level, mom & pop or child's OS. Nothing fancy but it will handle the basic e-mail, web browsing, shopping, and office functions. This is also for the OEM's bottom level budget systems. This is the OS for people who buy their computer from a supermarket or department store. They expect it to work like their TV or microwave.

3. Home Premium

Based on my experience with Vista I would expect this to be the "normal" offering for home and SOHO users. Medium to higher end computers with better sound and graphics. Basic home entertainment and networking functionality.

4. Business

No brainer here it is the network client offering. Probably will be split on licensing but not on functionality.

5. Ultimate

All the bells and whistles. This is the OS for high end systems. It is aimed at three markets.

1. Serious gamers & home entertainment users.
2. Professional users such as developers, designers, DTP, music publishing, photo manipulation and the like.
3. The "Rolls Royce" bragging rights market. These are the people who will buy something to show that they can afford it.They probably buy those pills and devices that get advertised via spam as well :lildevil:

Why wish against that? it makes pretty good business sense to me.
January 29th, 2009, 01:10 AM
gore

Nihil; Do people actually brag about having a Rolls? I mean to me that seems a little odd considering how bad those cars are designed from the start. There are MUCH better cars out there that cost near the same and give WAY better performance. Like BMW.

If I had a Rolls Royce, I'd try to sell as fast as I could to buy a REAL car. Like a VW, Audi, BMW, or something similar.

With the money I saved I could afford a new computer too... Like, maybe, a Flacon, or Alienware, or a Macbook Pro, or an SGI.

And yea that list is basically what I'd like ;)

To stay a little on topic, this whole "Million versions of Windows" is kind of weird.

Remember back when Microsoft OSs meant something to people? They had maybe 3 versions at most.

Windows 95 Didn't exactly have a lot of features, but you knew what you were getting.

By the time XP came out it was apparent that maybe another version designed for other things would be of use to consumers.

This is going to possibly shock people who know me:

I actually agree that more than one base version is required today.

Years ago, no, that would have been stupid. But today's market needs things designed a little closer to what someone wants to do.

Now, I don't think THAT many versions is a good idea. It's WAY to many, confuses people who don't know, and pisses off people who do.

I'd say strip out every version except Ultimate, Business, and maybe rename one as "home" for those who don't need the other two.

I think they are making all these versions because they basically have to only really make Ultimate, and from there strip it down, change the price, and put it in a different box.

This whole 7 versions of version 7 is stupid. How many configurations can they really come up with?

When are they going to make something new? Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 2003.... All these are still based on NT.

If I worked there and was put in charge of deciding what to ship, I first off would be firing whoever said to ship Vista. That was so un-ready they should offer 7 as an upgrade free for anyone who bought Vista and just admit they were wrong.

Then I'd take the business one, rename it "Professional" and take the two home versions, combine them, and rename that "Home Edition" and then rename the other to "Platinum" and dump the rest.

If you have a low end machine the installer can tell anyway. Vista could tell when Aero wasn't going to work, so why not have it check to see what features the machine CAN handle, and go from there?
January 29th, 2009, 02:55 AM
The-Spec

Quote:

Windows 95 Didn't exactly have a lot of features, but you knew what you were getting.

Windows 95 had a program that let you network with antennas and listen to the radio. It also had a program to let you make phone calls with the modem. As far as I know... libraries where developed to support everything that came around when NT was developed.
January 29th, 2009, 05:40 AM
Linen0ise

NT 4.0 and NT 5.0 (2000) kept Microshaft from failing. Microsoft needs to stop supporting programs that run whenever they want and bug you to upgrade something. While monitoring stocks in Level 2 detail, I don't need my harddrive grinding while my computers wants to reboot to complete install of Java this or java that. Crazy.