the intellectual avocado-colored kitchen appliance<< SCO's CEO Darl McBride and his keynote at cdXpo | Main | Those who don't remember the past... >> Michael Gartenberg | November 09, 2003, 09:22 PM The biggest competition to Microsoft on the desktop is not Linux or any other product. It's past Microsoft products and to some degree future ones that are the real threat. Windows 95 finally added a GUI that was workable. Win2k and XP refined that usability with the stability of the NT kernel. I am still not sure where the overall value of Longhorn will come into play. I was reminded of a comment in Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, where one of the characters says somrthing along the lines of "The current GUI desktop metaphor is the intellectual avocado-colored kitchen appliance of the 21st century." AMEN. Adding alpha transparency and other glitzy effects doesn't change the mix that much. It's not just about simplicity or even reliability. Show me some new things that will empower us in new ways and I'll buy. Otherwise, what we have today might just be good enough. Even more interesting is the window of opportunity for Apple that has a real alternative OS to Windows to gain market share while Longhorn is still in development. Microsoft needs to start telling a more compelling story and do it soon. |
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