The circle of life continues at Microsoft. The software giant, desperate to freeze a market, has started evangelizing a “new” version of Windows (called MinWin) that will correct Windows Vista’s bloatware problems. But don’t blame Microsoft for the noise about MinWin and Windows 7.0. Blame the trade press.
MinWin is a tightly written Windows core upon which all desktop and server versions of Windows will be designed. It’s a great concept — similar to the microkernel that IBM was writing for OS/2 and other operating systems a decade ago (actually, maybe that’s a bad example considering the fate of IBM’s OS projects).
Yes, Microsoft needs to address its bloatware problems. It’s time to put Windows on a diet. But MinWin and its desktop operating system personality — Windows 7 — won’t arrive till 2010. Yet CRN is predicting that MinWin could “Soothe Vista Headaches.” Wow. That’s quite a leap of faith.
Let’s review Microsoft’s track record, shall we:
- Windows 4.0 was delayed multiple years and finally arrived as Windows 95 in August 1995.
- Windows NT “Cairo” never made it out the door as a single product release, but certain components arrived incrementally and some components never shipped at all.
- Windows Vista’s shipment slipped and slipped. And when it arrived, it was bloated and there were no killer applications for the new operating system.
Now, we’re supposed to believe that MinWin will be the answer to our problems? Even better — the trade press, rather than Microsoft — is making this prediction three years before Microsoft’s intended ship date.
Frankly, the industry isn’t waiting around for Microsoft to fix its problems this time around. Companies like Tech Data have introduced Macintoshes — yes, Macintoshes — with downgrades to Windows XP preinstalled. And Dell downgraded some of its customer offerings to XP before introducing Ubuntu Linux on a handful of systems. And Apple’s market share continues to rise.
Sure, Windows still dominates the market. But customers aren’t exactly demanding Vista by name.Enter MinWin. To Microsoft’s credit, the company realizes that it needs to get away from bloated Windows releases. But this is a long-range strategy, folks. When the trade press starts predicting that a distant Windows release will correct current Windows problems, it’s time for all of us to demand a reality check.
2010? Always add 18 months to 2 years to msft claims.
HAHAHA.
MinWin is pathetic. You can get an entire Linux operating system kernel/system under 10 MB running apache. Try Linux From Scratch.
wow! m$ reinvented the wheel (…again!)
finaly, they realized the need for a modular os (reminds me of linux kernel+gnu utils+x+desktop environment). as always, m$ will reimplement something from scratch and force users to see things they way they do. the unix hunt continues (after all, m$ made their name by crapply copying unix-like ideas (uac anyone?)). let’s wait and see stevie claiming that all modern oses should be modular like their new windows 7.0!
What amazes me is that we are STILL talking about windows. It has proven (over and over) to be a poor system inspired in older Mac os’s.
Every time I show my mac os to a windows user I receive the same rresponse…… WOW!.
The other day on a flight a man sitting next to me opened his brand new dell laptop. I opened my Macbook pro. Once he had finished his work he turned around and began asking me questions about the Mac. Basically the where “how do i do this in a Mac” type of questions.
After only 30 mintes we landed and he said.
” a soon as I arrive home i will RUN and by a mac”
This type of response has happened to me many times. People don’t really know macs and the simplicity and joy to use them.
So i wonder…. who will get it first:
Microsoft or the end consumer.
[...] to accept XP’s security holes in exchange for driver support. (Other Windows users are holding out for MinWin, yet another Microsoft upgrade scheduled for 2010. Imagine if Apple customers were demanding [...]
By 2010, assuming Microsoft get this beast out of the door on time (which is doubtful at best), the Apple and Linux communities will have several more iterations of there preferred offerings, each attracting more mental market share.
Seriously, Microsoft should call it a day on the OS front and get back to making decent application and server software we can all run on the platform of our choice. Start by fixing that abomination of a browser, Internet Explorer, and move onto bigger and better things.
There are things that Microsoft do well, but operating systems aren’t one of them. They’re down, but hopefully not out.
This is a joke.
After ‘Vista’ was supposed to wipe out Apple’s cool slick OSX advantage we now hear of yet another vaporware product from Micros**t.
@Patricio.
I experience the exact same thing over and over.
All I do is show them Spotlight or the Dock. I open 12 apps and whizz through them with expose. Windows sufferers are amazed! I’ve had all this for years while they think transparency in the OS is a new thing.
When given an informed choice, people will choose the better system, they’ll pay more for the better system.
People are waking up finally.
I hope someone at Micros**t is reading this:
I run my business without a single Micros**t product. You had me for a while but I got wise. You got where you are in the slimiest manner possible, giving you a worldwide D- for ethics (thank you EU).
Well I decided that if any of MY business partners behaved half as bad as you I would not be able to look myself in the mirror at night.
Why the heck would I want to finance Micros**t lawyers as they trample over company after company??
So I resolved to rid myself and my company of Micros**t once and for all.
To date: No issues to report. AND I don’t fear spyware, adware, trojans, worms, ‘Service Packs’, and the rest of the Windows baggage. My tech support needs are amazingly minimal and I to top it all off, I don’t have to look at the dog’s dinner that is Windows every day.
Icing on the cake!!
A recent convert from Micro-who. I have ALWAYS wanted a Mac years ago, but could never cough up the dough till now. What got me to finally do it? Sick and f*%ing tired of fixing my PC! Not to mention the fact that I am making more dough, too. That helps! Vista is a joke…glad I never encountered it and only got as far as XP. Looks like the PC is now the kids’ smack-around, “get off Daddy’s Mac and go play on the PC” punch bag!
Barely three months now, and I am already thinking of getting a pretty iMac for my wife, who now loves technology now – after she started playing with my MacBookPro. Santa is coming with an iMac for the family.
As a previous comment stated, “,,,people are starting to wake up…” Not the case here…just had to save the $2700 and get my new toy…BEST F($&ING MONEY I EVER SPENT!!! ;-P
Go figure- all replies are from the camp of anti-MS ignoramous. Windows desktops shape the world, they always have & always will.
FYI – Vista kicks butt!!!
Wow, interesting spin, although I’d have to say it’s a bit of a self serving straw man argument when you claim the press is predicting MinWin ‘will’ cure Vista bloat, as opposed ‘possibly’ mitigating the situation.
Whatever you need to do man!
Trade Press, sounds like you agree with The VAR Guy: It’s foolish to say MinWin will cure us of Vista bloat.
Todd T said:
“Go figure- all replies are from the camp of anti-MS ignoramous. Windows desktop shape the world, they always have & always will.”
To Todd T, I say:
If that’s the case, how come those of us who use Linux with either the KDE or GNOME desktop environments have had the “Start” menu, rounded corners and transparency in our windows and menus since around 1994, but M$ (the money-hungry whores that they are) didn’t introduce them until after 2000? Also, explain why *EVERYTHING* that one sees in current versions of Window$ has come from the Open Source world? The explanation is simple, Bill Gates “stole” DOS from a guy in Seattle back in 1980 or 1981 and built his company on it by selling a license to use that operating system to IBM, while claiming that it was his own. *AND*, has been doing the same thing to the Open Source world (stealing their ideas, violating the GNU General Public License by using their code in his *proprietary* software. Bill Gate$ and Micro$oft have been bullying companies in the software market for over a decade and their time is done.
According to various web sites found simply by Googling, Linux and Mac are on the rise and estimates put them at owning at least 50% of all desktops by the year 2012. Micro$oft has cut its own throat with emerging Third-World economies by pricing their operating systems and software out of reach of these people that are just starting to get into techonology, and, therefore, those emerging markets are going with the “free” choice of Linux (in most cases) and others are going with Mac. I look forward to the day when Micro$oft finally does the smart thing and follows Apple’s lead by dumping their kernel (which has never been anything worth bragging about in the first place) and replacing it with the Linux kernel.
I agree with what was said (either in the article or by another poster) that Micro$oft has never been good at the operating system side of things, but *has* created some pretty darned good software over the years. I mean, M$ Office has always been great and very useful, even though there is a lot of the Office suite that *most* people never even use.
Anyway, that’s just my $0.02…or maybe $0.04…
Cheers,
Sean C.
PekinSOFT Systems