The Mac Observer

Skip navigational links

DealsOnTheWeb Daily Deal: OneCall's Weekend Sale - 20 Great Items at Great Prices All Weekend Long

Microsoft's Vista Challenged to Keep Pace With Rivals

by , 12:35 PM EST, November 29th, 2006

Microsoft's developers face a "tricky challenge" in following up after Vista, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal [Free Access]. Robert Guth tackled the issue in a piece focusing on the ways in which the Internet has changed since Vista development began at Microsoft more than five years ago.

Mr. Guth noted that during this period of time Apple developed iTunes and the iPod, Google developed a superior search engine followed by Web-based software tools, and the Mozilla foundation developed Firefox.

The article poses some serious questions for Microsoft. Will the PC emerge to play a central role in storing music and watching videos? Will customers migrate to on-line services to store their photos and documents instead of, traditionally, on a local PC? Will users tire of endless software updates on their PCs that are better handled by Web-based software that is automatically updated? Mr. Guth quotes Steve Ballmer extensively in response to these questions.

Finally, a possible source of friction between two senior executives and their future development strategy was presented. The article asked a lot of questions and provided insightful answers regarding what Microsoft's strategy will be for an encore and how they'll shape their OS of the future to meets the demands of users on the new Web.

Digg!

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Rainy Day Posts: 607 Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Subject: Yawn

Who cares?

Close Name:LaurieF -   TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3505 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Subject:

Well, me for a start. I won't be buying it, whatever Vista morphs into. But the market for any Microsoft OS in the forseeable future is still at least one order of magnitude above OS X's. What Microsoft does is always interesting.

We may mock, and probably should mock, at what comes out of their development. But we ignore it at our cliche.

And the likelihood of its being good is low: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1959713,00.html

Ha ha ha ha bump (man laughing his head off)

Close Name:ireid2k Posts: 125 Joined: 07 Apr 2003
Subject: When theres no Captain . . .

Quote
LaurieF wrote:
Well, me for a start. I won't be buying it, whatever Vista morphs into. But the market for any Microsoft OS in the forseeable future is still at least one order of magnitude above OS X's. What Microsoft does is always interesting.

We may mock, and probably should mock, at what comes out of their development. But we ignore it at our cliche.

And the likelihood of its being good is low: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1959713,00.html

Ha ha ha ha bump (man laughing his head off)


According to that article: "Now - 43 people? Isn't that a lot? Yes: three teams (Lettvin's "mobile" team, the "shell" team, and "kernel" team) of eight each, plus 16 managers, plus their manager. But, says Lettvin, the worst thing was that "of those 24 there were exactly zero with final say in how the feature worked. Somewhere in those other 17 was somebody who did have final say but who that was I have no idea since when I left the team - after a year - there was still no decision about exactly how this feature would work.""

When you don't have a strong lead presence (a la SJ) you have a ship that flounders. . .

oh man. . . what am I typing. . . I need coffee, its too early. . .

lol

View Name:Guest
Subject: Vista will be distant second to XP
Comment on this Article


You cannot edit your comments.   You cannot delete your comments.
Log in | Register | Having Problems? Reset TMO Cookies & Try Again
Username:   Password:   Log me on automatically each visit   

You are not logged in, and this post will appear as "Guest." Log in with your username and password from the TMO forums. If you do not have a username, you can register here.
Please note that guests are limited to including a maximum of two URLs per post.


Post A Comment
  Subject


  Your Comments



Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.


Recent Headlines - Updated Friday, July 18th, 2008

Fri., 4:30 PM
iPO Apple Store Spotlight - Bloomberg LP - Financial Information on Your iPhone
2:50 PM
iPO Just a Thought - Seven Days (and Counting) Trying to Get an iPhone
2:15 PM
AAPL Drops 3% in Afternoon Trading, Deferred Revenue Accounting Earning Attention
12:05 PM
iPO Review - Jensen JiMS-525i
11:05 AM
Apple in Art
10:40 AM
iPO Free on iTunes - AtomTV, Black In America, Strange Days on Planet Earth, & More
9:15 AM
TMO's DealsOnTheWeb.com - JBL On Stage II Speaker System w/RF Remote Control: $67.99 Delivered
8:20 AM
StrangeCharm - Particle Debris and a New iPhone (2G)
7:30 AM
TMO Quick Tip - Build Your Own Twitter Client
 

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

  • Special Report: WWDC 2008
  • Special Report: iPhone
  • __________
  • Help TMO Grow
  • Podcast: Mac Geek Gab
  • Podcast: Apple Weekly Report
  • TMO on Twitter!
  • New Media Expo 2008

Apple Stock Quote

  • AAPL: $165.15. Change Today: -6.66.
  • (Prices delayed up to 20 minutes.)
  • Discuss in our Apple Finance Board

Hot Topics

Apple iTunes

Top Deals From DealsOnTheWeb