[ILUG] is windows dying?

[Enda]

kevin lyda wrote:
> what would happen if i posted a message with that subject on a windows
> users group?
>
> i'd be flamed to a crisp, that's what.  and deservedly so.

Not necessarily so..... I think the more "in tune" windows users would agree
that windows development has reached the development peak, and that future
releases will focus on bundling virus scanners / media players in order to
have a saleable product. (At least for desktop use).

This is windows going down the linux roadmap, more than just a core OS, a
suite of applications, a road that MS will no doubt be relucant to thread.
They'll mess around with the GUI a few more times no doubt before committing
to that path, derive something new to sell before people get too tired.

A very interesting (if not alarming) article in the Sunday Business Post
this week was the one on hardware upgrades. Apparently machines bought for
y2k upgrades are now past their sell by date, things are measured in
gigaherz not megaherz and you MUST upgrade your hardware. What are the gains
involved there? zero productivity gains, near zero functionality gains,
maximum revenue gains for the likes of MS and their oem licence fees,
minimal hardware maintainance gains for companies with new warranty covered
hardware.

The marketplace isn't reacting to this type of crap, and I'm seeing a lot of
my marketplace considering something along the lines of graphical dumb
terminals. Linux wins that market hands down if you consider that all those
hopelessly old P3 y2k compliant machines make excellent terminals.

Personally I would conclude that linux is not dying, but the market for
traditional pc based computing is starting to fade off, and that MS are not
as well placed as linux for supporting the trend. Of course, MS are fighting
the trend hard with their generous technology donations to the developer
world and making .net application development very attractive in a bid to
make business applications depend on the traditional pc based computing
world that yields them so much windows licencing revenue.

The funny thing is, if the whole world turns aroung tomorrow and goes thin
client hanging off a central server, then linux inherently supports that
model in its architecture and windows doesnt, leaving linux in a far more
dynamic position than windows to adapt to changing trends in this regard.

My 2c,

 -Enda.