The Design and Implementation of laffer1

Caryn sent me this link:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9041959&intsrc=hm_list

It discusses a conversation between Ballmer and a woman who had to go back to XP after facing many problems in Vista. Her daughter wanted it because of a friend.

What I find interesting is the parallels between Vista deployment and Windows 95. Microsoft had trouble getting people to transition to WIndows 95 and later 98. (before SE) The difference is that Microsoft used their monopoly to push Windows 95 only feautres. With Vista, we don't see that. There are two Vista titles that I know about and one is Halo 2 which has been out for the xbox forever. Microsoft is backing off on IE7, Windows Media and many of the other enhancements. Then they go so far as to backport things to XP from Vista in SP3. I think Micorosft is hurting customers who have adopted Vista at this point. What is the value for us? I feel a little more secure in vista, but it's not the cancel/allow dialog boxes that do it.

Every new innovative release of Windows (not every release) breaks hardware compatibilitiy with some devices. It's just a fact. The same is true of Mac OS X. My sound card barely works in 10.4 and apple bought that compnay. There are many constants. Internet Explorer was back ported to Windows 3.11 eventually. Microsoft had develpers release direct x games with dos modes too. It rewarded waiting. On the other hand, Microsoft released office, works and many other apps only for windows 95. This time office is backards compatibile, visual studio will be backwards compatibile, etc. There is no forced upgrade happening. With Apple's latest release looking ugly, I think microsoft won't be out to many customers if they push things. Here's what I suggest.

1. Only ship Windows x64 vista on new pcs. Standardize on one hardware platform and go for the future. THen you're not asking for 2 drivers for the OS or games for both like they do now. Push 64 bit memory addressing. We'll need it eventually and WIndows 95 started the transition to 32bit really.

2. Lower the price on vista so that it is competative. Drop the lowend home basic version. Consumers need features and xp has more features than home basic. Consumers mostly get that option and that's why they think vista sucks.

3. Advertise software and features actively in the media, on tv and radio and print. Tell people why they want windows vista. Going on the daily show did not do it.

4. Don't try to compete with apple. Apple doesn't care about computers as much and Microsoft has a chance to get back into the game. People who use alternatives are not going to like them anyway. Many switchers at school are coming from linux to mac os. Microsoft never had them anyway. There are switchers but they are following trends. A positve msft trend will fix their issue.

I've been using Vista since january. I like it better than XP and I've suggested it to my mother. She couldn't use it as it didn't support her ancient modem (56k should die). Someday I hope my mother can use MidnightBSD.

Obviously as a BSD developer, I have motivations for vista to fail. However, I have a vista/bsd desktop and a Mac running tigert. I can tell you that vista isn't that bad and i prefer the use of transparency and menus in vista better than the leopard changes i've seen at work. Neither are good, but overally i think vista is an improvement. The new start menu layout annoys me but i'm getting used to it.

Finally, if someone is happy with windows, then they need to realize they asked microsoft to do this to windows and deal with it. People whined about security and now they get vista.

I should point out that i'm a bit hostile at apple right now since I didn't get a job in one of their retail stores. :)