ExamForce

I’ve heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. The statement assumes that getting the same result is a bad thing.

Microsoft, it seems, would beg to differ.

Fresh off the success of Windows 7, which was fresh off the failure of Vista, Microsoft is launching Windows 8. Which many are saying is destined for failure. Many liken it to Vista in fact.

The question is – why, Microsoft? The answer may be a simple as pie, or as convoluted as the Vulcan Pon Farr

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There are certainly a lot of people out there who are looking at me askance, as if to say “WTF mate?”

That’s actually a pretty common reaction to my blog posts and articles. No worries…I’m good with it. Let’s just roll on along. My usual response is to draw my fingernails down the proverbial chalk board and irritate a few people enough that they’ll listen…or at least tell me to crawl back in my hole.

But back to Windows 8.

Really? Didn’t we just launch 7? Windows 7 feels like XP to me…the venerable OS that could, and did, make people happy for a very long time.  Let us roll around in the leaves a bit before piling on again would you? People should be allowed some happiness before you slap them upside the noggin with another operating system.  I don’t care if it is for pads. It could be for tampons for all I care. Just get it away from me.

Microsoft is a veteran at this game. Yes, they’ve done this same thing for so long, and I suppose I should be immune to it. But it rankles me nonetheless.  What is it about this company that makes them crap all over their customers?  Is it apathy? Is it that they know no matter what slop they serve up people hate change so much they’ll just deal with the devil they know?

Luckily the press doesn’t kowtow to the Redmond gang like they did in the old days…you know, the days before the internet.  Heck even plenty of the days after.  While the technical fringe will continue to yammer about the advantages of Linux, a cluster**** in its own right that tracks its lineage through Unix…another great OS gone awry because they could never decide on a champion…while Windows 7 now has over 600 million users. That’s a nice bundle of change and it’s still selling briskly.

Andrew Orlosky at The Channel said “Windows 8: Not even Microsoft Thinks Businesses will use it.”

John Dvorak from Marketwatch and a long time favorite of mine opines “Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future…. No business will tolerate this software, let me assure you. As a productivity tool, it is unusable.”

Zach Whittaker at ZDNet says  “Oh dear. Some people really have it in for Windows 8. Wait, so do I. And there are good reasons.”

Paul Thurrott of Supersite for Windows (a site that is definitely a Microsoft shill)bubbles and gurgles about Windows 8, even so far as to say “Maybe there will be a Windows 9 that will clean up the mess, like Windows 7 cleaned up Vista’s mess. But as I’ve written in the past, if Windows 8 is a mess, and it is, then it’s a wonderful mess.” No such thing. A mess is a mess, and Microsoft is well known as “King of the Pile.”

What stupefies me is that apparently Microsoft is bypassing the business market in general. I suppose, in a weird sort of way, it makes sense. There are still a huge number of businesses operating on the XP platform.  Some of that I’m sure is due to the ignorant upgrade policy Microsoft announced.  Furthermore it looks like Windows 8 brings the Metro GUI to life and is meant for tablets and other mobile devices.

If this is the case, Microsoft rightly figures the consumer market is the route to take in this regard. It’s a huge gamble…the business market is much more profitable. However, if rumor of a Microsoft tablet prove true, it could be Microsoft placing a massive gamble on their own tablet using their own special operating system. (Editor’s note – Microsoft did indeed announce their entry into the pad market with Surface®)  Metro is still confusing for me…essentially it’s an app/widget kind of thing that relies heavily on the cloud. That’s a rant for another day though.

One interesting note that I‘ll add now that the Surface is out of the bag – Chris Murphy of Information Week thinks CIO’s are interested in a Windows-based pad, but says that consumers will have to embrace it before CIO’s get serious. Maybe Microsoft = Fox?  We’ll know more as we get more information and sales data. For now, it’s business as usual.

-Ben Ice