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They'll come out with a range of great sounding new features then as the roll out date comes closer, they'll remove those features until they finally go to market with an OS that is a little different from the previous one.
Am I getting jaded?
Personally, when an article suggests that the way forward for an OS is better intergration with the internet, alarm bells ring in my head. As far as I am concerned this is the equivalent of saying "to improve your home you should open it up and allow a freeway to be put down through your front living room". Most of the problems I see with modern Microsoft solutions is that they have too closely integrated systems with the internet, so that users are no longer sure when they are safe within their local computer and when they are out in the big bad world of the internet.
I want an OS that provides me with access to the hardware devices in my computer, allows secure network connection, and then facilitates the installation and running of the applications I want to run, to do the things I want to do. That's it. If I want to browse the internet, I'll choose an application to do it - I don't want my OS to make that choice for me. If I program a little application that reminds me I'm an idiot every hour or so, I'll choose the framework I want to build it in, install and program away.
I vote for less integration, and a more solid platform to run the applications of my choice. If that's Microsoft's goal with their next OS - sign me up now please.
It seems the future of Windows has been:
1. integration of productivity apps
2. internet integration
3. multimedia
No matter what or how ms does w/ Windows versions in the future, it will undowbtedly focus upon multimedia & bells & whistles (newer features that work with newer hardware).
Remember, it's not about what a user wants anymore, for the average user does not really know what he wants! It's all about marketing & economics today. If a user has a product and he can efficiently accomplish his tasks with it, then he will have no need or want of a new operating system. Thus he must be "sold" on the idea of the new. This is where marketing & PR comes in.
The ONE true selling point re computers & software that has held up almost like an axiom is "faster is better". This is based in a physics law: "the rapidity of particle flow alone determines power". (example: it's not the size of the bullet but rather how fast it is traveling that determins how much damage will be done)
In computers, faster is better, and operating systems will continue to evolve slightly behind the evolution of hardware. MS will continue all of the successful actions (economically) that have caused them to rise to their current market position, and their future operating systems will align with "what do we think we can sell the public today?"
Unfortunately, we the public are often not consulted with as to what we think we want or need!
Some excellent points that I enjoyed reading. A couple of things I would add:
First - Yes, Operating systems do need updating as speed increases.
Second - I think Microsoft is under more pressure in the OS market than they have been for a long time. Linux is now a usable alternative. It's not as sleak as Windows, doesn't have the software available, and still has some annoyances (for me an example being the struggle in installing some new software). However, it does some things very well too. Then there is Apple's OS X which is gaining a lot of advoctes.
Microsoft is still top dog and market leader, but I don't think doing what it has always done will be the right option for them. In fact doing what it always does is a recipe for disaster.
MS will continue to do what they have previously done re marketing, sales & product development; while also adjusting strategies & development per current competition developments. The main point being this: a successful business becomes successful by doing certain acitions. These actions differ amongst businesses. To remain successful it is entirely necessary to repeat the successful actions as they are known & proven to get results, while at the same time quickly dropping out new actions that do not prove out to be succesful. In many instances "success" equates to "economically viable".
I'm not just referring to business tactics used by MS, I am also referring to the products themselves (software).
I personally believe that MS, even if they were to completely miss the boat & fail in their op sys strategies, would never lose the position they currently have, even in the face of macs & linux. It would take a very long time for MS to decline to a market loser even if they did no future development.
But mac & linux are moving ahead faster than ever before. Etch is about to become Stable this December and package development for linux is growing exponentially. I believe the one main thing that hinders linux is the lack of a hierarchy in package maintenence, i.e. someone writes a program that works well on red hat but requires an engineer to get installed on debian, and vice versa. ( I recently ran into this while testing out various EMR products on debian for my brother's podiatry practice; openvista, openemr & others)
