By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Microsoft - Is Microsoft losing their edge to competitors?

Staude on 19 September 2008
dallas said:
Not really, I think that MS will always be dominant and after this latest crapjob of a OS, Windows 7 will be a lot better, and that for future OS's, MS will put more thought into the finished product. As far as MS's games division goes, its a small part of MS so don't put TOO much into its lack of success.

 

do you have the slightest idea how bad windows xp was when it came out ?.. noone wanted to use it.. everyone tried it out, then went back to windows 98 second edition. It was terrible. Like vista. Microsoft releases half finished products with the hope of fixing all that was wrong through public beta the public pays for.



Check out my game about moles ^

Around the Network
xman on 19 September 2008
Staude said:
dallas said:
Not really, I think that MS will always be dominant and after this latest crapjob of a OS, Windows 7 will be a lot better, and that for future OS's, MS will put more thought into the finished product. As far as MS's games division goes, its a small part of MS so don't put TOO much into its lack of success.

 

do you have the slightest idea how bad windows xp was when it came out ?.. noone wanted to use it.. everyone tried it out, then went back to windows 98 second edition. It was terrible. Like vista. Microsoft releases half finished products with the hope of fixing all that was wrong through public beta the public pays for.

I guess cause XP had such a long life I dont rember that, I may have waited a while but when I switched to XP I was pretty happy.  I am getting a mac next I have a vista machine now and not to happy.

 



PS3, WII and 360 all great systems depends on what type of console player you are.

Currently playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Fallout 3, Halo ODST and Dragon Age Origins is next game

Xbox live:mywiferocks

noslodecoy on 19 September 2008
Staude said:
dallas said:
Not really, I think that MS will always be dominant and after this latest crapjob of a OS, Windows 7 will be a lot better, and that for future OS's, MS will put more thought into the finished product. As far as MS's games division goes, its a small part of MS so don't put TOO much into its lack of success.

 

do you have the slightest idea how bad windows xp was when it came out ?.. noone wanted to use it.. everyone tried it out, then went back to windows 98 second edition. It was terrible. Like vista. Microsoft releases half finished products with the hope of fixing all that was wrong through public beta the public pays for.

I personally do not use Vista for the same reason I didn't use XP when it first launched, but wasn't one of the biggest problems at the time of each's launch their driver support?  I'm going to throw Microsoft a bone here.  This isn't entirely their fault.  It's easy to say Microsoft does a poor job with their software, but remember their OS runs on a magnitude of hardware configurations.  If you've used Linux, you'd know how problematic drivers can be.  Sure, you can get just about anything working, but most drivers are not supported by the vendor.  Apple doesn't have this problem because they're their own hardware manufacturer.  I'd like to see the average user install a wireless device on a Mac.  You'll most likely not be able to point and click to install and will need to open up a shell window. The average Mac user is stuck buying a very overpriced proprietary AirPort device.



Golvellius on 19 September 2008

Apart from the RoD issue the Sony section is just plain wrong, since MS are the ones that are eating away Sony's market share piece by piece. Also, PS3 started at $600 and costs $400 after 2 years, Xbox started at $400 and costs $300 after 3 years - how is that a "small pricecut" for the PS3 compared to the Xbox? MS has a bunch of system sellers along with a huge and diversified library of quality games, while Sony has only one must-have title and almost no RPGs. It is doubtful whether Blu-ray will take off at all, and even if it does, this won't happen before the end of 2010. It appears to me that MS is currently trying hard to make up for the RoD and deliver quality to their customers, whereas Sony do not seem to have awoken from their 100-year sleep yet. At the current rate, the PS3 will not catch up with the 360 until the end of 2010, and even if it finally does overtake the 360, this console generation will have been a huge success for MS because they will have almost measured up to their toughest competitor that held a quasi-monopoly in the previous generation.

I mostly agree with the Google section, but I don't think that Apple will do much damage. If you think about it objectively, Apple is far worse than MS ever was, and I hope people will notice this soon enough which would mean that history might repeat itself for Apple.



Shadowblind on 19 September 2008
kowenicki said:

fail, fail, fail

You do realise that microsoft increased profits in 2007?

last reported full profits

Apple 4bn
Google 4bn
Sony 1bn

Microsoft 17bn

So microsft make almost twice the combined profits of the 3 companies you mention.... interesting isnt it.

Hilariously, Bill Gates is worth more than the market value of Sony!

DUDE, SHUSH!!!

Do you have any idea what will happen if the fanboys hear logic?

Their heads will explode. Yes, explode. Is that what you want? Dead fanboys without heads being found all over the world?

If you do thats just sadistic. No stop spreading these truths, before its too late.....

 

 



GOTY Contestants this year: Dead Space 2, Dark Souls, Tales of Graces f. Everything else can suck it.

Around the Network
Domicinator on 19 September 2008
TheBigFatJ said:
Fei-Hung said:

Not long ago (about 13 years), I was a student and we heard of this new product called Windows that was going to revolutionise the way we use PC's. A few years later it became the biggest thing since slice bread. It was almost a blasphemy to own a PC which did not run with Windows. Year after year, every kept looking forward to the next Windows software package whether it was required or not. The world was given a blessing- Microsoft!

Fast forward 13 years into the future as I look back at Microsoft; where they stand now compared to where they stood then, it is not the same picture nor is it the same company. It seems the giant is being attacked by several smaller species and at every turn there is someone taking a chunk off.

 

My Opinion on why Microsoft became successful

To me, it is all very straight forward. Whilst PC's were a great machine to own, until Microsoft came along, they were not user friendly to the majority of the users. Microsoft allowed people to easily access PC's to do regular work as well as more complex. It allowed people who were new to the PC to find a friendly start whilst those who were professionals, it allowed them to build on their skills. Microsoft was fresh, it was creative and innovative! It was so good in fact; that the money which came pouring in, made Bill Gates, founder of MS the richest man on earth at the time and made the company so powerful, the government had to step in and split the company into three.

 

You don't know the first thing about MS history, do you?  First of all, Windows is closer to 30 years old than 13  years old.  Secondly, Microsoft stole all of the ideas from Apple.  Apple stole the ideas from Xerox. Microsoft even swindled their first big product (DoS) from some poor family man who wrote it.  MS sold DoS for millions through a licensing deal with IBM and bought DoS from some poor sap for $50K.

The difference between Apple and Microsoft back then is approximately the same as it is today: Quality.  Microsoft had a shitty product (Windows) and Apple had a high quality product.

Since MS released office and Windows originally, they've tried and failed for almost 30 years straight to come up with a single damn profitable idea or product.  And they haven't found one yet.  The Xbox division has been arguably their biggest failure thus far from a monetary standpoint.

Microsoft just isn't good at competing.  They said they'd crush google.  After giving up on the idea that they were capable of competing with Google, they tried to buy Yahoo.

Microsoft and Apple were looking at the PARC (Xerox) interface at roughly the same time.  Xerox invented the "window" based GUI that we're all used to today.  Apple used the idea, MS used the idea, Apple got pissed and filed lawsuit after lawsuit over an idea that wasn't theirs to begin with and was in fact offered to both companies.

 




obieslut on 19 September 2008

a nice read man, really.



DirtyP2002 on 19 September 2008

Well I got a different oppinion.

MS is doing a great job with their OS (I know you guys don't like Vista, but it sells okay now after SP released, but thats another story) 95% of all PCs run on windows. Their MS Office is doing great,too. Every company is using it and teachers just accept .doc-files as digital homework. Check out numbers published by MS.

Live.com can't mess with google, that is true, but it gain some marketshare so far. But of course, Google > > > Live. Did you know that live.com is ranked fourth of the most popular websites in the world?

That does not mean, MS is out of the online business. They still got the most used browser and they got the greatest instant Messenger with the "Windows Live Messenger". More than 300.000.000 people are using it.

MSN.com is one of the greatest webistes out there, ranked on sixth of the most popular websites of the world.

Besides all that, MS is going in different markets right now. They got the Zune, which can't mess with the ipod, but did okay. They got the Xbox360 which is doing pretty good (compared to the original Xbox it is doing great) and they got live, which might turn into a cashcow with 10 million PAYING customers at the end of the generation. (right now there are 12 million members, but we don't know the correct number of gold-members, but 50/50 seems likely to me.)

 



Imagine not having GamePass on your console...

Domicinator on 19 September 2008
DirtyP2002 said:

Well I got a different oppinion.

MS is doing a great job with their OS (I know you guys don't like Vista, but it sells okay now after SP released, but thats another story) 95% of all PCs run on windows. Their MS Office is doing great,too. Every company is using it and teachers just accept .doc-files as digital homework. Check out numbers published by MS.

Live.com can't mess with google, that is true, but it gain some marketshare so far. But of course, Google > > > Live. Did you know that live.com is ranked fourth of the most popular websites in the world?

That does not mean, MS is out of the online business. They still got the most used browser and they got the greatest instant Messenger with the "Windows Live Messenger". More than 300.000.000 people are using it.

MSN.com is one of the greatest webistes out there, ranked on sixth of the most popular websites of the world.

Besides all that, MS is going in different markets right now. They got the Zune, which can't mess with the ipod, but did okay. They got the Xbox360 which is doing pretty good (compared to the original Xbox it is doing great) and they got live, which might turn into a cashcow with 10 million PAYING customers at the end of the generation. (right now there are 12 million members, but we don't know the correct number of gold-members, but 50/50 seems likely to me.)

 

 

I agree.

I'm actually a big fan of Vista.  I've been running it on my gaming tower since RC1.  After retail release, the GPU drivers were crap for a couple of months, but it got fixed.  That was pretty much the only problem I've ever had with Vista.  Whenever I've had a piece of software crash in Vista, I've always been able to come out of it without a hard reboot.  I've enjoyed incredible stability from the OS itself.  After SP1, the UAC is a lot less naggy, and I actually don't mind it that much anyway.  Once you get your computer all set up and situated, UAC doesn't really prompt you for permission all that much.  Just when you install new stuff.  Plus, you can turn UAC off as long as you don't mind reverting back to XP quality security.

When I got my new laptop last year, I thought it would surely have Vista issues, since I had gotten so lucky on my first Vista machine.  No problems yet.  It only has 1 GB of RAM, so it's not quite as snappy as my gaming tower, but it runs great.  I've had no problems with either machine so far. 

I have to use XP for work, and I'm totally fine with it, but I can't imagine ever going back to XP full time.  In fact, I'm a tech support person for a software company and our quality control people are in the final stages of testing Vista for our software.  We already have some clients running it and have had very few complaints. 

The Vista backlash has been exaggerated, and most of it has been from people who haven't even used it before.




.jayderyu on 19 September 2008

That's the one thing that is a problem with youth. Some have a serious lack of historical knowledge. The OP is so wrong. I was using MS-DOS v3 around 20 years ago. Look BigFatJ got more historical history. Next time some one wants to right a "well thought out article" do some accurate research rather some opinions.

If you want to post opinions that fine, but. yeesh. It was well written, but so wrong.



Squilliam: On Vgcharts its a commonly accepted practice to twist the bounds of plausibility in order to support your argument or agenda so I think its pretty cool that this gives me the precedent to say whatever I damn well please.