Microsoft gets paid twice as Vista users downgrade to XP
In a clear indictment of Microsoft's Windows strategy, new research suggests that up to a third of all new Windows Vista machines get downgraded to XP, either by the hardware vendors like Dell, or by customers.
That is a massive number. Ironically, it's a number that works to the short-term advantage of Microsoft's top and bottom lines, but it still represents a vote of "no confidence" in Microsoft's Windows strategy.
Microsoft's only hope at this point is that customers will forget Vista as rapidly as they did Millennium and ramp up anticipation for Windows 7. Actually, it's real hope is that Windows 7 will be worth waiting for.
No one is buying Apple's machines because of an upgrade from OS X 10.3 to 10.5. They're upgrading from Windows XP or from the iPod or iPhone. They want, in other words, a different computing experience, not merely an improved operating system. No one thinks about operating systems anymore. Or not much.
Until Microsoft finds some compelling reason for people to care about its operating system, or provides differentiated value beyond the operating system, it's going to find that Windows 7 won't solve its ills. Midori, which blends the cloud with the desktop, is a much smarter bet. Windows 7? It feels like more of the same Vista problem.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
Headline: Microsoft gets paid twice as Vista users downgrade to XP
Story content: Nothing about Microsoft getting paid twice at all. No evidence, facts, or any shred of proof.
Results: This isn't jounalism. It's just a lame attempt by the author to generate page views without giving any content. And unfortunately it will work. This sort of content really damages the credibility of real reporters and journalists who work to find stories instead of tossing out random comments with nothing to back them up.
1. This is an opinion piece not a news article.
2. Outside of businesses that have certain licenses, if you buy a machine with Vista and are smart enough not to want it, have to buy a copy of XP, since OEM copies don't transfer.
Learn to use some reasoning skills. Why is it that MS shills are getting so defensive about the mountains and mountains of evidence that Vista is a mistake of ME proportions?
MS failed, accept it and move on.
The obvious connection of the problems facing MS with open source is that this continues to be quite an opportunity for Linux and other open source OS's. And yes, Linux is a very different computing experience: one of freedom and openness and choice and flexibity. But our blogger instead gets in a plug for: Apple, which is the opposite of open source. Come on Matt: try and focus here.
The same machine running Vista "beautifully" will run XP even better. So what do you get for the loss of resources?
Vista is flawed in its architecture. One example is the heap manager. It is not an implementation problem that can be fixed with a patch, it is a "structural" problem that will forever be with Vista. What that means is that taking over a Vista machine is simple, no matter how patched it is.
There are only two annoyances I have with Vista, but at least one can be viewed as "a good thing". The first is the silly prompts that I get every time I want to install something or go to the control panel, etc. I guess it might have been for security, I don't know. But after a while, you just get used to it and click the button to go on... it is (almost) useless in terms of security. So, I'd vote to get rid of it.
The second is that Vista uses a LOT of memory. But, I actually think that's a good thing. We are now seeing machines on store shelves with 5GB of RAM. And the cost? Same as before. Nobody is losing money on memory, of course. Prices naturally fall and capacity increases. Plus, folks are taking a serious look at 64-bit Vista, which is great. It's about time we move forward.
So, for all of those who complain about Vista, what problems have you actually encountered? If they were driver problems, then hasn't the hardware manufacturer addressed that already?
I wonder how many copies of Windows 2000 Professional were sold after Windows XP was available? Businesses put processes in place and try not to vary for a while.
I worked at a Java development shop until 2004. We didn't go to Windows XP until late 2003 - 2 years after it was released. I'd like to see market penetration numbers after Vista has been out 2 years.
Market Share:
Linux - 0.5%
OS X - 8.0%
Windows - 91%
Open Source Rules !!!!!
- by rlwings December 9, 2008 3:09 PM PST
- Well, here we go again. Complaining once again about the best thing ever to hit the computer world....Windows Vista.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(14 Comments)True, that the only people who complain about Vista fall into two categories....(1) Those who are running equipment from the 'out of date' era....(Basically cheep people), And (2) ,People who don't have a clue on how to run a successful computing experience and have a chip on their shoulder rooted in childhood.
Win Vista marks a new era in computer excellence....in terms of its interface, usability, functionality, and diverse intelligent intuitive design. Not to mention great pains employed to make it secure. (By the way, anything can be restructured if need be.)
Where else will you go......Microsoft has the best researchers, designers, and programmers in the world! There is no way that anything can really keep up...Microsoft is the only company in the world with the resources to produce the very best..... Everything else falls short as a dim copy. A want to be.
There is a reason that the PC platform has won out!....It works better, and the general population has recognized this fact, and has voted for the best (By their purchases.) Do you really think that an inferior product would have survived this long if it were truly inferior!!!?? It couldn't. The truth always comes out eventually....and Microsoft has 'nailed' the way to support computing for the most amount of people.
The underdogs, such as Mac, and Linux usually get support from the underdogs of society....yes, the abused, neglected, therefore mentally disturbed folks who cant stand to line themselves up with successful people and organizations because it reminds them of their own miserable, failed existence!
Don't be fooled by such ignorant, defensive uttering......Microsoft is, and will continue to produce the world's best, and finest products.