duncanriley.com - Latest Comments in Microsoft Fail

Re: Microsoft Fail

Rowans — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:24:23 -0000

Btw, do you think Apple should open-source Mac OSX?

Re: Microsoft Fail

Rowans — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:22:02 -0000

Yeah, it was a fail, but who cares. I've got Windows 7 now and it's pretty good. A lot of the people who bag Vista genuinely want Microsoft to release a solid operating system in 2010. If for no other reason than to shut the mactards up.

As for open-sourcing, now that would be an epic fail (anyone can provide support, updates, patches if it is open source -- what is in it for Microsoft?). Why throw away a business model that is actually making money, when it isn't evident yet that the Facebook/Twitter business model is actually going to bare fruit? I.e. how are they going to make money outside of advertising -- they are not Google. Somewhere, someplace, someone has to actually sell something (for which they get cold hard cash in return) so that they can go and spend some of that money on advertising on social-networking sites that don't yet have a business model that can sustain them without the help of VC's.

Microsoft won't make the same mistakes with Windows 7, it is going to be a solid operating system, and all those epic fails that were associated with Vista are going to be replaced with comeback kid headlines.

It's a cycle. Apple will release a shitty product sometime soon and everyone will be talking about the end of Apple's golden era. Just wait and see...

Re: Microsoft Fail

Nick Hodge — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:17:48 -0000

Actually, pointing out the fail is a fair-cop.

I don't think we are expecting 2.5 million people downloading 3Gb in 24 hours (and I do not know the daily numbers) -- but forgetting to front-end the figures is a lesson someone has learnt in the teams that manage this.

Open sourcing, piracy, post-August "hacks" ... interesting scenarios and worthy speculation of what could occur.

In terms of tapping into the community: that's what the wide distribution of the beta is about. Haven't heard any disaster stories.

Anyways, customers will ultimately decide.

ps: twitter is the worst place to attempt to be articulate and have a rational discussion. I dont think I made myself clear in my 140 character spurts of requests/responses.

pps: my dig at your "doing this just for digg" was uncalled for, and I public ally apologise for tweeting it.