The Growing Irrelevance of Windows

They know to some extent what they're doing...they just might not care to know how or why. That's why Windows and OS X excels at capturing users...they hide the technical stuff. Linux, for the most part, brazenly displays the technical parts, scaring most users. The lack of driver support, interconnectivity, etc is what holds back the great masses from using Linux as their everyday PC OS. That's why Ubuntu hit the scene and instantly created hordes of fanboys - it made Linux accessible. But it's still not *quite* there for your grandma to use. Don't get me wrong, as an IT professional I love to use Linux and would take it any day over Windows, but there's a reason non-IT professionals rarely use it.

I am totally suspicious of the long-term effects of the cloud. I learned early on how capricious mainframes, midrange computers, servers, and network devices can be in delivering consistent and reliable performance. I always want my critical personal applications on the near side of the network. And will continue to recommend doing so until I am proven wrong.

Whatever Nifi 2200 is must be your problem. I had no problems with my son's new machine. We had the WiFi established and were loading software in 15 minutes.

OK there's a huge legacy of Windows based properties but it's demise is only a matter of when not whether.

It will be killed by Cloud computing, which will become the norm, and which has many advantages.

Of course Microsoft has not helped its cause by adopting a non customer-centric approach in its developments.  It is driven by the allure of its own technology rather than what works best for customers.  It so often requires me to work within their rules even if they're not the most natural way of doing things.

There are so many examples but the one that hits me often is the insistence that passwords should make a distinction between upper and lower case letters.  Inadvertently hit the Caps Lock button just above the Shift key and you'll be getting somewhat unexpected password problems. 

... I could go on and on, but I doubt that Microsoft can make the organizational changes needed to overcome its lack of customer sensitivity.

Ramon,

If this ecosystem collapses-And I dont think it will.There will always be a need for Windows developers to take care of /patch older machines which are still running for whatever reason(Cost/Obsolency/Lack of Technical Skills on alternatives, etc,etc).

It might just happen that the ecosystem may fade away like whats happened with UNIX.But the ecosystem consists of mainly Smaller Developers who are very flexible and versatile and know how to update their skills very quickly with minimum fuss to the next big thing.

Regards

Ashish.

One of the less considered aspects of the Windows irrelevancy is the fact that a lot, and I mean a lot, of industries exist and depend on it. And the aggregate economic value of that lot is HUGE.

Each day we receive lots and lots of offers of products THAT WE NEED in order to make a better use of Windows, to tweak Windows, to repair Windows, to expand Windows, to make Windows more dependble and useful. And we may buy a bundle of them thus creating economic value for the economy.

The problem with Windows irrelevancy is not its own demise which may or not happen, albeit I believe it will. The problem is that most, if not all of this webosystem may collapse toguether with Windows. And that's a real and different problem. We are talking about hundreds or thousands of developers, products, companies, trade values, etc. And we must start to think on that.

The reality check as we read this, is that a lot of what we do with a computer can be done without starting Windows. Just check on this:

• When I use Microsoft Outlook to check emails I have to start up the computer, start up Windows of course, start up MOlk and wait till it checks in real time the servers of my email accounts. That is, MOlk is actually working in the present time to gather the information.
• Instead, if I change to GMail (or else any other web based email service), as I made yesterday after the boos of my nephews on Christmas Day for still using MOlk, I just click on Gmail and voilá, the email information is just there. Its a different way because GMail works even if the computer is off and MOlk is not on. My emails are always there in Gmail instead of looking for them in MOlk.

It may be a matter of seconds or minute from a certain point of view. But this is not the magic. The magic is that if I just turn on my Smartphone I have my full emails without using Windows. And depending on the Smartphone, I can reach the status of a fully functional operation, whether business or personal without using Windows.

Thus, for what I need the webosystem of applicattions I started this post with. For nothing. They have just become less than useful in fact, unnecesary. It's a whole new universe.

The problem is that the substitutes of Windows don't need anything Windows. And there is the tragedy. It is not an emigration, it's in fact, an undiscovered country...

And as the great Howard Cosell said; That's the way it is... or sort off...

Ramon,

I totally agree with everything you have to say here.

ROI Is an over-hyped term as far Windows is concerned.Unfortunately too many Corporate IT types cant see beyond Windows.So we need to do a better job of converting their thinking?

Regards

Ashish.

You are right on the money. The fixation with the Return of Investment (ROI) is what drove some of the brightest minds in the country to overinvest, invent "financial devices and instruments" (so called) in order to cause a money turnaround and get a ROI. And that fixation is called a bubble, a fiction, created just to cause the further creation of money. But the problem is that such newly created money, even though measurable and cashable, was in fact, unreal. And the power of such fixation of money is that we are living among its consequences, that is, the almost evaporation of most of the economy.

The fixation in money only and money fast is the center of the irrelevancy in all areas of business. When we detect that the reason for any economic activity or product is just the ROI we should become suspicious. I'm not saying that we renounce heroically to work honestly (even though we must always have some moral limits), but we should not be part of the self justification used by the money magicians to make such a product or activity sound reasonable and feasible.

What I mean is that the ROI has never been the cause for a product or an economic activity. The ROI was created as, has been used as, and should ever be A MEASURE of the economic soundness of an activity or product that has implicitly or potentially a social benefit. Social benefit should be the primary criteria. Obviously it isn't any more.

My humble proposition is that Windows is becoming irrelevant because its main aim right now is to produce ROI while producing diminishing social benefits when other alternatives are producing real and tangible increments in social benefits and exhibiting sound ROI.

When I pitch a new product to the money men-- I do stuff such as design programs -- they are generally only interested on their Return on Investment. They do not care about the operating system and its relevance. They do not care about my own relevance or my opinion on the color of the sky. They just want to know about how fast they can get their own money back. They are not the religious zealots people who care about the technology might be -- such as you and I.

If they can make a profit dealing out a Linux product as versus a Windows product, they will do so. At the current time software investment takes the Willie Sutton approach: when asked why he robbed banks, he replied "that's where the money is".

Why invest in Windows products? Because that's where the money is...

Your mileage may vary.

Ross

Thanks for your note.

Well, a very good friend of mine is an astrologer in Puerto Rico. I am not. So using WAG Theory I would say 5 years from now Windows, as we know it will be another different thing if anything at all.

For one, some new gitzmos as of now come with their own OS and it's not Windows and can't be it. So for those gitzmos, even as of now, Windows HAS BECOME irrelevant.

On the part of the kids my perspective is different: I look upon them to see me in them. Me as how I was, me as how would I be now. And my purpose is to make feasible for them to reach and get where I would have wanted and better off, where they want to go. As long as it is safe for them. And that, my friend, has become... well... not easy, nowadays. Just think about taking a plane and at your side is someone trying to blow it to pieces as his "life" project or higuer puerpose in life. As I say, not easy...

Finally, a lot of people are following very closely what the kids want and what the kids are doing. To name a few: two folks who created Facebook, an old IT guru who created the Ipod and other things, others created Twitter, and so on. I assure you, those people cared less of what people like you and I want or do. And they became Grinchly rich by following our kids doings and undoings.

A very best New Year for you and... well the kids...