Bluescreen isn't a Windows problem

Microsoft admits Vista failure
Actions speak louder than PR

By Charlie Demerjian in Beijing: Saturday, 21 April 2007, 12:20 PM

WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows Me Two (Me II), is a joke that no one wants.

It did two unprecedented things this week that frankly stunned us.

Dell announced that it would be offering XP again on home PCs. The second that Vista came out, Microsoft makes it very hard for you to sell anything other than Me II. It can't do this on the business side because it would be laughed out the door, but for the walking sheep class, well, you take what you are shovelled.

This is classic abusive monopoly behaviour, Microsoft wrote the modern book on it. It pulled all the major OEMs in by twisting their arms with the usual methods, and they again all fell into line. Never before has anyone backpedalled on this, to do so would earn you the wrath of Microsoft.

But Dell just did. This means that Me II sales are at least as bad as we think, the software and driver situation is just as miserable, and Dell had no choice but to buck the trend. If anyone thinks this is an act of atonement for foisting such a steaming pile on us, think again, it doesn't care about the consumer.

What happened is, the OEMs revolted in the background and forced Microsoft's hand. This is a big neon sign above Me II saying 'FAILURE'. Blink blink blink. OK, Me II won't fail, Microsoft has OEMs whipped and threatened into a corner, it will sell, but you can almost hear the defectors marching toward Linux. This is a watershed.

The other equally monumental Me II failure? Gates in China launching a $3 version of bundled XP. Why is this not altruism? Well, it goes back to piracy and how it helped enforce the MS monopoly. If you can easily pirate Windows, Linux has no price advantage, they both cost zero.

With Me II, Microsoft made it very hard to pirate. It is do-able, you can use the BIOS hack and probably a host of others, but the point is, it raised the bar enough so lots of people have to buy it. Want to bet that in a country with $100 average monthly salary, people aren't going to shell out $299 for Me II Broken Edition?

What did MS do? It dropped the price about 100x or so. I can't say this is unprecedented, when it made Office 2003 hard to pirate it had to backpedal with the student edition for about $150. This time though, things are much more desperate.

If you fit Microsoft's somewhat convoluted definition of poor, it still wants to lock you in, you might get rich enough to afford the full-priced stuff someday. It is at a dangerous crossroads, if its software bumps up the price of a computer by 100 per cent, people might look to alternatives.

That means no Me II DRM infection lock in, no mass migration to the newer Office obfuscated and patented file formats, and worse yet, people might utter the W word. Yes, you guessed it, 'why'. People might ask why it is sticking with the MS lock in, and at that point, it is in deep trouble.

So, it did the unthinkable, and dropped the price. I won't bother to hunt down all the exec quotes saying how people can't afford clean water would be overjoyed to sell kidneys to upgrade to the new version of Office, but they are out there. This was a sacred cow, and it is now hamburger backed up against the wall.

These two actions by Microsoft are proof of what I suggested three years ago. Microsoft has lost its ability to twist arms, and now it is going to die. It can't compete on level ground, so is left with backpedalling and discounts of almost 100 times.

What we are seeing is an unprecedented shift of power. It is also an unprecedented admission of failure. And the funniest part about the moves made? They are the wrong things to do. Microsoft is in deep trouble. ?

noodle wrote:
Whoever said you got better performance on Vista over XP? I certainly didn't. Second, where the hell are you that you're paying 400 bucks for Vista? I got my copy from Newegg for 130 or so, so how bout you learn to do a little research before you start spouting off, eh?

Oh, FYI, "Microsoft Admits Vista Failure"? Wrong, they admitted they failed to get people to buy Vista, nothing about Vista being a failure as an OS.

I'll say this yet again, you're only going to have problems with Vista and performance if you have piss poor hardware. Get a job and go to Newegg, for a few hundred, like less that 300, you can get a decent 64-bit setup put together. Don't sit there typing away on your Athlon XP or Pentium 4 system and bitch at me that you can't run Vista good. Hell, for that matter don't sit there with a single core or really low end dual core 64-bit setup either, cause that won't cut it.

Oh you have friends at Microsoft? Suuuuure, ok Mr. Super Connected, whatever you say. GG getting critical updates before they are finished and put out on the official update servers, smart move that.

Furthermore, I have seen the long list of people bitching about games not working on Vista. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to playing *game name here*. Everything I had on XP runs on Vista, EVERYTHING, and that's a fact, not an opinion, not a wish, not a groundless assumption, that is a FACT. I have a hard drive full of games, many of them old, some pre-XP even, and they all run just fine. You know why? Because I'm not a fucking fool, and I know how to use Windows. Never had a BSoD, never had a problem with any game.

Many of the people who bitch about *game X* not working are also people who complain about UAC and are too damn stupid to know or learn how to turn it off, which literally takes 10 seconds. Now, unless you want to claim that I'm just a lucky exception, and apparently my computer has just the right mix of hardware that by random chance everything runs smoothly, I suggest you shut the hell up and stop complaining about things you obviously know nothing about.

Thats odd becasue my little research told me that a retail licence for vista is $299. If I stole a copy it would be free too. And didnt invalidate my point.

I'll say this again. OR you can go to New egg get a nice syastem and tell vista to fuck off and have a far faster system with a lot less problems and spend less money. That makes far more sense. And as for your saying that you will only have problems with vista if you have an inferiour system.. well look at whos disregarding everyone that has a shit hot system and is still having problems. And less of the "haa haa my machine is bigger than yours" I've god my dose of penis enlargement spam for today.

And guess what you can take your "I got cheap shit in an obscure website that you dont know about becasue your stooooopid" crap and shove it where eggs come from.

Oh yeah I was running Windows 2000 with no problems till 4 months ago with no problems and could still play every game I had and bought on that too, even when they said XP only. I just suck, I know.

Sad that your Microsoft shares are losing value btw. Such a pity. But then they left all those programs and settings that fuck things for everyone on by default becasue thats the way the thing was designed to run out of the box. Ergo they are fucking morons and their outlandish claims for the OS have been shattered on the wheel of actual experiance. Enjoy your copy of Windows ME part II, cause mysterious people denied they were having problems with ME for years too.