"Naked PCs" and Windows piracy are old problems for Microsoft that are now being accentuated by Microsoft also losing ground in mobile and in the whole computing devices market. Can free Windows 9 upgrades reverse this trend?
The problems with Microsoft Windows is actually complex.
1 - Computer OSes in general, are very fast, feature rich, reliable and stable compared to the days of MS-DOS(always pure crap), MacOS 1~9. Amiga OS 1~3. Linux is still excellent as well, but didn't have the 80s to deal with. Even with Windows95, it was COMMON to RE-INSTALL Win95 every 2~4 months. People like me used GHOST to image the C: Drive to save tons of time. My XP-SP2 install lasted 4 years. My Win7... never!
2 - Computer Hardware is VERY reliable and fast since the Core2 days. AMD threw in the hat since the Core i5-2000 series. Even Intel's tic-tock plan worked TOO well, it destroyed their only competition. Performance delta hasn't improved in 3 years much - other than power usage and die-shrink. The i5 2500 / 3570 / 4670 ($200 class CPU) are within 10% from oldest to newest. Remember the says when people upgraded yearly from a 300mhz CPU to a 400Mhz?!
3 - Mobile drove MS to make the Win8 Metro UI. The IDEA makes sense, but the execution failed. By making PC-OS look like Metro, the IDEA was that PEOPLE would be used to METRO who would then go out and BUY Metro Devices (Phones and tablets). But Win8 OS sucked, which means those Win8 phones and tablets were in LOW demand. If Windows 8 *LOOKED* like Windows 9.. and the option to have the 3D (Windows 7) and Classic (Win2000) look - then I and everyone else WOULD have jumped on it. As we witnessed MS, noticed that Me and others saw their failure and made Win8Pro a $40 deal.
4 - Steve Ballmer and rest of the board : They have their heads up their own and each others butts. MS divisions are at war with each other. Typical corporate self-destruction and laziness. Ballmer is a salesman, not a leader and is too old-school... HE wanted to run MS today as if it was 1995.
5 - Linux: Sure, it still has about 5% of the desktop market, but unlike Windows - its in a position to GROW market share. Steam is on Linux now. Linux has a great price of $0. It doesn't have NSA all over it. Its global. Its standard. If people think "Windows is easier" - okay, then explain how a novice is supposed to know to open a DOS-SHELL and type in IPCONFIG to do basic NETWORK functions which SHOULD be a GUI window?! My wife is a computer novice, even thou she is younger (30 vs my 45year old self). She pretty much only uses a desktop for *WORK*. When I was done with Windows8 testing on one of my ThinkPads, I installed LinuxMint (10mins) and it was faster and far easier to use than WINDOWS 8! That is her work computer. I figured out how to use Linux since things are OBVIOUS vs. Win8 GUI toilet interface. Only thing Linux needs is full software support from INTUIT and Adobe and better driver support from AMD and Nvidia.
6 - Games: Microsoft has pushed to KILL PC gaming because they want people to BUY XBOX and XBOX games. Proof: Check out the number of MS-Studio games in the past 10 years that came out for their console vs. PC. Halo3? Nope. Gears of War 2, 3, etc? NO! (I bought gears of war 1 for my PC... I would have bought others) A top selling PC game would be a million sales... which is crap sales for consoles (PS3 or 360 or both combined) Only a few PC games have 5+ million buyers and those are WOW players pretty much. My anger at MS for screwing PC players is that I refuse to buy ANY MS hardware. We recently got a PS3 (more cheap games and deals) with a PS4 purchase planned for Christmas or next spring. PS: I know of nobody who has an XBONE. They either bought a PS4 or going to buy a PS4. PC gaming is generally dead... its a limited market.
7 - Android and iOS:
This is the big one. This is where Windows fanbois fail and while MS failed. Based on the last time I looked, for the ENTIRE world market of OS usage. Microsoft is about 22% market share. Android is about 50% and about 30% is Apple. You may say "well, you can't compare Mobile OS to desktop". Yes you can... and
Microsoft KNOWS THIS!
You see, MOST people are not computer geeks or whatever. Its a means to an end. How it works and who makes it doesn't matter. If they can get their email, facebook and porn - then fine... which is what you can do on ANY phone and tablet. So a typical home PC was a $500 bottom-end unit which techs would upgrade/maintain. People are NOT buying those for home use anymore! They buy phones and tablets for $1~400. Todays $1~150 Samsung Galaxy 4 (or iPhone4 ) is easily up there is a 2005 era desktop PC... even with higher resolution... and check this out... it fits in your pocket and works anywhere as long as its charged! I've seen 3D games for phones that look better than 2004 desktop games.
Back to my wife: 95%+ of her "computer" time is on her phone (Galaxy S3), shes uses our WiFi only tablet a little bit. And a desktop or notebook for the work that requires it... Yep, a phone more so than a desktop with a 22" monitor five feet away is used more! Even I use my phone for the internet about 30% of the time, even at home - but I'd rather use the iPad with its 9" screen when on the sofa. About all of my home-based clients have dried up, they are ALL using IPads, iPhones and Android devices. My business is now corp... and I build and service Windows 7 systems... I DON'T sell or service Windows 8 desktops or notebooks, not today and not ever.
With home users going with Andoid and iOS... MS is severely weakened. Sure they are a multi-billion dollar company. But BiNG = loses money. XBOX = loses money (and that was before the XBONE). Their MS-Office makes the most stable money and they took Office2010 and turned it into a turd with office 2013 to match up with pure-crap Win8. And on top of that, they screwed their customers without transfer rights to their $150~500 purchases?!
Imagine this: you have a $1000 notebook with a $400 version of MSO2014 installed. It gets stolen or destroyed a few weeks later. Too bad, you'll spend another $400 for a product you already PAID for. Hence: Rarely is it a good deal to EVER EVER buy an OEM Office! Buy the PC, then buy the Retail office (You only save like $50 getting the OEM version) and at least you have transfer rights! Also, how MS is making a profit is that MSO2013 is a single licence office suite now. Example: Office 2010 home & student Lic. only card = $100. Disc version = $130 and allowed to install on 3 PCs. MSO2013 Home and Student = $140 1 PC only!? Nowadays, the Disc version of MSO2010 H&S is $270 (long discontinued). WTF!? This is how and why MS is making a profit with such reduced PC sales. Check out the reviews, MSOffice 2013 is hated, its GUI is horrible, blinding white and hard to read. The high install failure rates don't help. Not expecting Office 2015 to be any better.
8 - Office Wars
I recommend Kingsoft 2013 (its free - Windows / Android / iOS / Linux) which has recently been renamed in the west to "WPS Office 2013" - which is the name in Asian markets. Its been around for a long time, its very stable. I just DL the latest version (45mb) - eats 180mb of HD space. It will open and save in MSO 2003~2013 formats. It installs on Windows XP~Windows 8. It has SKINS for Office 2003/2013 styles(white or blue) - but sadly they removed the 2010 skin - which might have been a legal issue... as it looked quite good. WPS/King Office is VERY easy to use, more so than Open Office 4.x for those who are used to MSO, has includes lots of chart options and templates. The PRO version is $70 for 3 users... great deal compared to MSO2013!
Open Office 4.x is more powerful than WPS/King, but still a bit crumble-some to work with - but it includes a database and drawing tools. For most people, including business users - WPS and OpenOffice will work fine for their needs. The lack of PIM/Email client (MS Outlook) is what sinks ALL office suites. I DON'T understand what is so difficult about a PIM/EMAIL add-on, hell - sell for for $25 a pop, it would greatly help kick MS-Office in the balls! I get it, people use Outlook less and less - but in the business market, the PIM<>Email combo has its uses. Thunderbird is pretty good (Windows / MacOS / Linux). Another is EssentialPIM (Free and PRO version - free is 9mb). EPIM is anti PRISM. Its a PIM that is colorful and well thought out (better than Outlook IMHO) and includes an email client. Supports Windows / Android and iOS.
In the end, what hurts Microsoft the most is Android and iOS... and Microsoft's current plan of attack is to make Windows9 a single OS that runs on Desktop/Phone/Tablet... and its the same thing! That seems like a lot of bloat... but that could give MS the chance it needs.
But at the same time, I'm tired of MS treating us - their customers as their cash-cow criminals. The Activation keys DO NOT stop piracy. But they sure make it a bitch for legit users to repair their computers. Have you SEEN the Win7 sticker Keys lately?! The sticker is smaller and the TEXT is MUCH smaller and grey!! I have better than avg. vision and I can barely read the damn thing! Easy way to read, I use my Android phone's camera to take a picture then view it... all nice and big on a 5" screen. No reason to make it that hard to read MS! Installing Linux is no fuss. Installing Other brands of office, PIM, etc - no fuss. MS only makes money from Office and OS - that is it. If that collapses, microsoft has nothing left to make money on other than its Android -scam licences... but since MS sells Android phones now (really, they do) - Samsung and others are not paying royalties.... hmmmm.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram