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Comment If there's one standout feature about Microsoft's launch of Windows 7 this week, it's the abundance of other compelling tech news.
It used to be that the PC world stood still when a new Microsoft operating system was launched, literally and figuratively.
People really did queue around the block for Windows 95 - or at least were prepared to believe that other people did - and the software giant's financial might meant it could sponsor the print run of The Times for a day. And remember, this was before the shift to online advertising left national newspaper publishers dancing for pennies just to keep the presses running.
Yet this week, as Microsoft has geared up for the launch of what everyone thinks is a make or break release in Windows 7, the event itself has been in danger of being swept away by a tide of spoilers.
IBM chose to announce a tie-up with Canonical to punt an Ubuntu and Lotus cloud offering that might appear, maybe sometime next year. Who knows. They were quite explicit that they were aiming to steal Microsoft's thunder.
Red Hat chose yesterday to meet journalists and declared "Microsoft was untouchable - until recently". Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff is making appearances all over London, including one at a Google conference on cloud computing.
Meanwhile the tide of Fedora, Mozilla and Open Office betas continues unabated.
However, it was Apple's product splurge last night that must have really hurt. When Microsoft was putting the final touches to Windows 98, Apple was recovering from a series of disastrous CEOs, and many saw its continued existence as nothing else than a piece of Microsoft corporate welfare, designed to deflect any interest from the DoJ.
Twelve years on, and how does it repay its onetime saviour? By directing a stream of piss all over Microsoft's big day.
You can look at it all as evidence that Microsoft has lost its edge and set itself on "a long and winding course toward irrelevance" as one New York Times hack has. Or you can go all out and view Apple's actions as a declaration of war on the very PC industry itself.
What it certainly shows is that no one is scared of Microsoft anymore, and Steve Ballmer and the rest of Remond can't dictate the agenda the way he used to.
The irony is that Microsoft has given users months to get used to the product, and while its marketing strategy is questionable - renting Family Guy, staging Tupperware parties and the like - the responses we've seen so far have been, in the main, favourable.
It's been a truism to say Windows 7 is the last big operating system launch before all our software ends up on a server parked somewhere in Iceland.
Looking at the way Microsoft's rivals have been mooning its parade, it's safe to say the last big traditional operating system launch was actually for... Vista. And that is why Microsoft is paying the price now. ®
COMMENTS
re-install
"oh wait, no - that doesn't work. i've just got another window. Maybe if I click this....no that didn't work either...maybe this file? that looks like an exec file....hmmmm no. Oh wait - this one's opened up an application...which I can barely read or use because I'm stuck at 640x480.
<repeat until frustration invokes a XP disc insertion and full re-install>"
Been here many a time, first time was with Debian68k on an A4000, Very painfull (wvdial, heh, no resolv.config??). Each time it does get easier tho`. Last time for me was Knoppix (HD installed), surprisingly good, however you can imagine how much fun I had discovering the latest ATI 3D drivers(of the day) dont work with the default journalling file system. Q3A ran fine as did ET, so there was a little reward for my efforts :)
I conclude Linux users enjoy all those shell enviro`s, thats the bottom line. Makes em feel somehow better than everyone esle, Social elite if you will. Hat off to all who see this and try to make changes within the platform.
Tried ubuntu (k?KDE). didnt survive a power cut so it was quickly binned. (Love KDE :o) )
Not in anyway sticking up for Mac`s BTW :o/
not sure which icon to pick, hmm, that game where you race down the icy slopes with the penguin was pretty darn good. Good to see it on those little asus netbook thingys..
Move to LINUX...if you enjoy pain-Mk2
I am using Ubuntu 9.04 and I feel no pain.
Will upgrade to 9.10 very soon, I expect to feel no pain there , according to the reports by users of the Beta version.
I have been content with Ubuntu for 2 years , after getting pissed off with the trials of re-activation via the so called help desk in India.
I wonder why any business who want to keep their customers , use India .
Nice people , but it would be good if those who are there to help actually speak understandable English.
Bad trolling - Try harder
@ Anon 22nd October 2009 15:15
its called a .deb , you download it , you double click on it
you enter your password
you click ok
Is that too hard?
@ Anonymous Coward 2009 14:42 GMT
lets assume your using ubuntu
so click on
system ->admin -> synaptic package manager
that would be your graphical installer
you have ati drivers
if your using ubuntu you will want to
click on
system -> admin -> restricted drivers manager
that will sort you out.
"Yeah, I might get more problems/less reliability with XP, but at least they'll be problems I can solve in minutes with a mouse, without resorting to trawling the internet for hours for answers and a CLI session. For every single problem."
Unless you need to flush your dns cache, dump winsock , reset tcp/ip , ping anything (off the top of my head)
Any genuine ubuntu newbs - come over to ubuntuforums.com - I will happily help you
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