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Microsoft's Achilles Heel

By dwdino ·
I have been paying close attention to the news and blogs surrounding the Windows 7 release. Part of my interest is to verify my experience and expectations with others. Another part is to understand the dynamic shifts for OS validity and possible paradigms.

But to the point. I just completed reading an interesting article on CIO.com.

http://www.cio.com/article/505964/_Surprised_Microsoft_Reacts_to_Windows_7_Upgrade_Snag?page=2&taxonomyId=1461

In this article, one phrase really struck me - ""We think hard about how our customers are going to take advantage of our offers, but we never get it exactly right," Bennett admitted."

So, I began to compare my thoughts of the major vendors (Apple, Microsoft, Novell, etc.) and wondered the following:

Is Microsoft's Achilles heel the desire to be all things to all people? Could Microsoft improve by streamlining product and available options?

If you look at Apple you have one platform, one OS, one bit version, etc.

One of the complaints of Linux by none technophiles is the plethora of software and configuration options. Users are stiffled by the panacea before them.

Is the drive to cover all options and have numerous versions and options crippling Microsoft?

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yes, but their marketing will still sell it to you, they did

by Deadly Ernest In reply to Microsoft's Achilles Heel

best with Win 95, only one version. Next best was Win XP two versions Home / Pro - few liked Home as it was too weak for real use, so one of Pro only would have been far better.

But the fewer versions, the less chance they can sell you more than one copy as you find out what you really need is on another version.

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Versions...

by phyrefly.phyre In reply to Microsoft's Achilles Heel

Apple makes an OS for a spec that they also define and create. Microsoft has to make an OS that will run on anything that people have, or may have in the foreseeable future. As such, they have to cater for everything from my netbook to my next-year's-cutting-edge-uber-specced-gaming-machine. So it's impossible to define a feature-set up front. And giving the user a million options on install would be even more complicated.

That's not to say I agree with the number of versions of Vista there are, but I do see the need for more than one.

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Sure

by The 'G-Man.' In reply to Microsoft's Achilles Heel

So they sell ultimate at the ultimate price and people start moaning about not having a version choice anymore and have to buy the ultimate version!

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Well of course

by Tony Hopkinson In reply to Microsoft's Achilles Heel

That's been obvious for decades, look at the mess backwards compatibility got them in.

Or the regular we are MS's beta testers complaint. All things to all men is a business and marketing goal, and a technical own goal, for any company. The more things and men you aim at, more likely you are to miss all them. Chuck in backwards compatibility and a monolithic design, well the result speaks for itself.

For all the whinges about the number of linux distros, at least it's possible to build the OS you need, as opposed to only making the best of what a vendor chooses it's in their interest to offer.

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What backwards compatibility, there is none in Windows

by Deadly Ernest In reply to Well of course

what you really mean is - look at the mess their deliberate ignoring of the industry standard command sets and regular changing of their command sets has caused all the clients.

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No I don't

by Tony Hopkinson In reply to What backwards compatibil ...

There's less backwards compatibility than there was, but tyere's still way more than MS can affored bfrom a design point of view.

Don't forget I've been around a while.

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There should only be two versions:

by JackOfAllTech In reply to Microsoft's Achilles Heel

One for corporate users without all the eye candy.

The other has all the eye candy as OPTIONAL MODULES that can be easly installed and removed.

Some people like the cool Aero stuff. Others, like me, just want to get stuff done.

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Is it an Achilles heel or a boon?

by LarryD4 In reply to Microsoft's Achilles Heel

If you look at it from the view of Microsoft.

They have different flavors of windows to satisfy each type of user.

The home user wanted the usability and kewl stuff.
The small business user wanted the plain no nonsense OS.
The corp/enterprise wanted the network/client/server environment all wrapped in one solution.

and they provided that.

That may be the actual Achilles heel of Linux. Their is no home client version that has the bells and whistles that means anyone can use it.

Mac/Apple have the same problem, they have a good client/home user PC but its not in the schools nor does it hold the major market share in big business, so its not as branded as Microsoft in that respect.

Linux/Unix/Apple need to package and Market to all market areas or they will never grab a larger market share then Microsoft.

Plus your still battling the fact the most people believe Microsoft created the home PC market.

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