I see your point the fact is a small promotion is not the solution. A 199.99 upgrade is well overpriced given that windows is on a lot of computers around the world.

Yeah, I tend to agree more so if MS are going to push out major updates more often, and this is where the whole 'vote with your wallet' thing would hopefully kick in as MS would have sales numbers to work with; if they see all their upgrades happened in that promotion window then I dare say a bean counter somewhere will work out that running it at that point all the time might be a good idea.

Of course if they continued to do a brisk trade (for upgrades) at the full price then, well, the market apparently says 199.99 ISN'T overpriced.

Yes you are absolutely 100% correct the market has repeatedly told Microsoft "shut up and take my money". But Microsoft needs to also understand that the entire market has changed rapidly in just the last few years. Smartphone and tablet sales are currently larger than pc and this trend not going to slow down. People are starting to look at computers as nothing more than typewriters. Unless you actually have business on a computer you have no reason to own one anymore. Poor writing I need coffee

I see your point the fact is a small promotion is not the solution. A 199.99 upgrade is well overpriced given that windows is on a lot of computers around the world.

Yeah, I tend to agree more so if MS are going to push out major updates more often, and this is where the whole 'vote with your wallet' thing would hopefully kick in as MS would have sales numbers to work with; if they see all their upgrades happened in that promotion window then I dare say a bean counter somewhere will work out that running it at that point all the time might be a good idea.

Of course if they continued to do a brisk trade (for upgrades) at the full price then, well, the market apparently says 199.99 ISN'T overpriced.

Yes you are absolutely 100% correct the market has repeatedly told Microsoft "shut up and take my money". But Microsoft needs to also understand that the entire market has changed rapidly in just the last few years. Smartphone and tablet sales are currently larger than pc and this trend not going to slow down. People are starting to look at computers as nothing more than typewriters. Unless you actually have business on a computer you have no reason to own one anymore. Poor writing I need coffee

unless you want to learn and lead a productive life. At some point in your life you need to move towards creating something that people want, these jobs are the most profitable and secure. Can you learn these things with a consumer focused tablet or phone? Its been said before - people don't know what they want or need, and this is why so many tablets are gathering dust. It scares me that kids are not learning anything from using a tablet, even 3 year olds are using tablets before they can write or spell.

I think computers are still relevant in the way a spanner is relevant to fix your taps. Sure, a pc / spanner isn't fun or cool to use but its dammed useful and no amount of consumer electronics is going to change that.

Ubuntu is far easier for someone who has never used a PC before than windows -- my 61 year old mother had no problem with it at least, she has never really used a computer before and figured out on her own how to use the software center by herself.

here we go again.. linux isnt that bad and the "my old nanny uses it just fine argument"... it's the year of the desktop all over again.

I have been reading these for 20 years now.. if I had a dollar for every time nonsense like this was published on the internet I'd be buying Microsoft now.

how do you think the Windows will last (be used) yet?

5? 50? 15?

my own opinion about win was said:

- far from perfect (internally ugly, sluggish shell etc)

- not innovative

- paid

- not transparent to coders

- can be used if get accustomed to it

- many people accustomed to it (including myself)

Imo windows will still be used long years (30 or so )but will

be not monopolist, maybe people will get bored with that

slowly and try the other os news

The real problem is the lack of innovation. Ballmer thought he could just acquire new technologies to move ahead in the marketplace, rather than rally the creative forces at Microsoft and develop a truly new product. Skype, Yammer, Perceptive Pixel, etc. were all acquisitions just to move Microsoft into different markets. I think he figured he could just ride the wave that those companies started and keep growing, much like Microsoft has been doing with Windows and Office for years. Say what you want about Apple and Google, but at least they try somewhat to develop new products, even if they're probably not going to be commercial successes (although Tim Cook seems like he's riding the iPhone/MacBook wave now).

One of the other reasons that Microsoft is not growing is that they don't focus on consumer-based products. Apple is all about consumers, practically to the point where they don't care about developers. They know that for every code monkey out there, there's 10 non-technical consumers who just want to watch funny videos and movies, stream music, check email, post selfies with duck-lips on their FaceBlogs, surf the Web, and buy stuff online. They make their stuff so easy to use my 2-year-old can do it (literally). They have to have high standards for their products because most of their end users will call it crap if it doesn't do everything they want it to do perfectly and quickly (like Apple Maps, IMO). Microsoft marketed themselves as the "enterprise solution" and tailored all their products for corporations. That gave them staying power because companies don't do radical switches to newer, shinier products, but you can't expect huge growth just from that. Products for companies are way different than for consumers, but they took their same marketing mentality to the people and surprise, surprise, they lost.

I'm definitely interested to see how Ballmer's successor will try to win back consumer market share.

That's very much true; the OS often doesn't exclude testing new technology. I find it harder to adopt certain cultures though, for example: the .NET culture wouldn't show its best side if I used something other than Windows and Visual Studio. Ditto with iOS/OS X/Xcode. If I just do some Mono stuff in Linux, I wouldn't get that "cool new" feeling that a new way of doing things would bring.

I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro. I use this laptop (and OS X) almost exclusively these days. Chrome for OS X handles high DPI screens much better than Chrome for Windows and the trackpad is simply sublime. Most of the hacking I do anymore is Node.JS which I can happily do from any OS. When I do need to work within Visual Studio, I fire up Windows 8.1 in Parallels. This has been how I work for the last year or so. There are many things that OS X does better than Windows, and many things that Windows does better than OS X (and iOS on tablets).

It has been a couple years since I've run a Linux desktop but I doubt things have changed significantly since then. Everything starts off well, things looked usable and in the right place, but overtime the number of minor annoyances keep adding up to an overall unpleasant experience. It's not nearly as polished as OS X or Windows, and that's understandable considering that polishing a product is the most difficult (for a programmer) and time consuming part. Right now I see a Linux desktop being usable for two types of people. Those who just need internet machines with a Firefox shortcut on the desktop, and those capable of tweaking and customizing the environment to their liking. The just get shit done factor on Linux is still pretty low.

The real problem is the lack of innovation. Ballmer thought he could just acquire new technologies to move ahead in the marketplace, rather than rally the creative forces at Microsoft and develop a truly new product. Skype, Yammer, Perceptive Pixel, etc. were all acquisitions just to move Microsoft into different markets. I think he figured he could just ride the wave that those companies started and keep growing, much like Microsoft has been doing with Windows and Office for years. Say what you want about Apple and Google, but at least they try somewhat to develop new products, even if they're probably not going to be commercial successes (although Tim Cook seems like he's riding the iPhone/MacBook wave now).

One of the other reasons that Microsoft is not growing is that they don't focus on consumer-based products. Apple is all about consumers, practically to the point where they don't care about developers. They know that for every code monkey out there, there's 10 non-technical consumers who just want to watch funny videos and movies, stream music, check email, post selfies with duck-lips on their FaceBlogs, surf the Web, and buy stuff online. They make their stuff so easy to use my 2-year-old can do it (literally). They have to have high standards for their products because most of their end users will call it crap if it doesn't do everything they want it to do perfectly and quickly (like Apple Maps, IMO). Microsoft marketed themselves as the "enterprise solution" and tailored all their products for corporations. That gave them staying power because companies don't do radical switches to newer, shinier products, but you can't expect huge growth just from that. Products for companies are way different than for consumers, but they took their same marketing mentality to the people and surprise, surprise, they lost.

I'm definitely interested to see how Ballmer's successor will try to win back consumer market share.

Your comments are directly contradicted by Windows Phone and Windows 8. Both are consumer focused and try something different and arguably innovative. I feel better about Microsoft's core products than what they have done with their acquisitions. Skype is not aging well and is downright annoying to use. Yammer is also quite painful and I avoid it at all costs.