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November 2006 • Vol.6 Issue 11
Vista Will Double Apple’s Market Share
Dialogue Box by Chris Pirillo
Chris Pirillo has been a Windows fanatic for over a decade. Lockergnome.com sprang to life in 1996 with the intent of connecting other passionate PC users with helpful information. His personal blog, at Chris.Pirillo.com, has been a bit more platform agnostic. He composed this article in an Outlook 2000 plain text message window, and scribbled this byline in a Microsoft Word 2003 document. The content could easily have been written in any application with a text field. So, why then is he still using Windows? Legacy, we think—he’s not quite ready to switch over to a different evil.
For one reason or another, Microsoft abandoned development of Internet Explorer a few years back, falling victim to the assumption that the world didn’t need anything more from a Web browser. This turned out to not be the case. The Firefox Project provided enough of an alternative to convince users and influencers to switch—with a true cross-platform allure too enticing to ignore. Microsoft executives ultimately decided to begin development on IE7, but its release will likely drive even more people to Firefox. Why? Because it’s too little, too late.
I loved Internet Explorer—loved it. Microsoft even sent me a T-shirt for participating in Midnight Madness with the final release of an earlier IE build some years ago when the world was largely stuck on dial-up. I loved using MSN Search. There were few decent alternatives even when Microsoft started serving pop-up advertisements with my search results. Eventually, I grew tired of these annoyances and turned my attention to Google, which, at the time, looked like an inferior product. But, Google made “search” work better than ever before. Windows Live attempts to reinvigorate Microsoft’s online brand, but few people have bothered to pay attention. Why? Because it’s too little, too late.
The industry hasn’t seen a new desktop OS come from Redmond since Windows XP. We’ve all been waiting with bated breath for Vista to revolutionize the way we . . . what the hell is this?! RC1 feels and looks more like an early beta than it does a final product, and they want me to fork over how much for it?
Off the shelf, Windows Vista Ultimate will cost the user $399 per copy, with subsequent licenses weighing in at $359 each. Upgrade prices for Ultimate are slightly less exorbitant ($259 for the initial upgrade and $233 for additional copies). If you’re planning on upgrading your home network of five machines, you’re going to spend $1,191 for five Ultimate upgrades. Conservatively, if you’re upgrading the same network to Home Basic, you’re going to spend $460. This time? It’s too much, too late.
My mom loads her start page and types “Google” into the search box. My fiancée pulls up iTunes to download the latest Bob Dylan album. My dad asks how he can download Firefox because friends told him it was safer to use, but only after asking how to install the latest spyware definitions, copy photos from his camera, back up all his important files, delete the programs he doesn’t want on his desktop, etc.
I’m a nanometer away from switching my family over to OS X when Apple releases Leopard in Q1 of 2007. It looks clean and elegant. It comes with all the software and services the average user could ever want. It runs on the same hardware. A system will be able to dual-boot between OS X and Windows, and pricing is no longer astronomical. But most importantly? With its UI inconsistencies, Vista feels completely schizophrenic, and that’s enough of a reason for anybody to leave Windows in the dust—just like they left MSN Search and IE.
Yesterday’s arguments don’t really hold water in today’s marketplace, and as a serious technologist, you need to recognize that. Forget the whole “Windows has more software” debate because that’s absolute bunk. More and more, we’re moving our lives online, spending our day in an email client and/or a Web browser (if, indeed, they’re not one in the same). We demand easier, better solutions than those that we currently have.
Remember how you felt when you saw “The Phantom Menace” for the first time? I was overwhelmingly disappointed. That’s exactly how Windows Vista RC1 makes me feel, and that’s not very likely to change between now and when the OS goes gold. Before now, there wasn’t a viable “Google” or “Firefox” for the Windows platform. Between Apple’s Boot Camp and Parallels (www.parallels.com), you’re going to have to make a strong argument to keep people from finally making the switch. And you wanna know the worst part of this entire situation?
Microsoft, in each and every instance, has been its own worst enemy.
by Chris Pirillo
You can dialogue with Chris at chris@cpumag.com
http://www.computerpoweruser.com/edi...7F6F42970E2A2C