Win 7 shipped on time. What makes you so sure Win 8 won't?
Win 8 has a lot more in common with Win 7 in terms of people driving it, developers involved, etc, than it does with Vista or any earlier release.
Judging by the Build preview, which is similar to the state of the Win7 PDC 2008 preview, I don't see why anyone would doubt Microsoft is on target to hit RTM near middle of next year (the same way Win7 went RTM in July 2009) and then full release in October (the same way Win7 went into general release in October 2009) to coincide with the hardware maker's fall releases.
I do agree the rest of the article is fluff, though. This statement in particular:
"What's more, even if Microsoft does manage to ship by fall 2012, the calendar still gives the Apple and Android development projects a huge lead time to out-innovate Windows 8."
Does the author think the developers at Google and Apple just wave their arms and solid innovative code magically appears in Android and OS X? It was pretty clear what Win8 was going to be even to curious outsiders as long as a full year ago. Just like it is pretty clear to anyone with half a lick of sense where Apple is taking OS X over the next few years (hint: more iOS-y).
Showing this stuff off now about a year ahead of full retail release doesn't change the game in any notable way.
i 've thought the reason Microsoft has to announce earlier than apple is because the hardware partners need the extra lead time. Apple has the luxury of working software and hardware in parallel, Microsoft and to some extent android gets shown to select partners on a very long lead time, and then gets released to everybody about 10 months to a year early.
Another reason is to assure their corporate clients they don't have to move to Apple or Linux just now because their next OS will be well ahead of their competition. And that with everyone betting on the demise of the desktop, storage-heavy PC.
Windows Server 8 will face competition from RHEL 7, Ubuntu Server 11.10 (or 12.04) and FreeBSD and OpenSolaris-based OSs (ZFS is great).
can you explain why the newest breed of linux will be any more threatening to Microsoft than the last?
I don't think corporations have ever thought they 'have to move to apple or linux"
the challenge is will they upgrade from windows 7. The tablet capabilities will help, and for the most part I don't think there is much other tablet capabilities in other devices.
Why would they have to be more threatening than they use to be? Windows is losing share, mostly on servers. I look around me and Macs are more popular desktops and laptops than they were last year. And the year before.
It won't be fast and Windows desktops and servers won't disappear (or even become a small niche) overnight, but I don't see Windows regaining its lost popularity.
> even if Microsoft does manage to ship by fall 2012, the calendar still gives the Apple and Android development projects a huge lead time to out-innovate Windows 8
Odd they left Linux out. By the time Win8 hits the shelves, Ubuntu will have iterated three times - its Unity desktop will be on its fourth release by the time we reach Quaint Quetzal or Quirky Quail, Gnome will be on version 3.6, Fedora 18 will be the favorite of Red Hat lovers and even Debian may be able to iterate over a couple Toy Story characters. At the same time, FreeBSD 10 will be well on its way.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 50.8 ms ] threadWin 8 has a lot more in common with Win 7 in terms of people driving it, developers involved, etc, than it does with Vista or any earlier release.
Judging by the Build preview, which is similar to the state of the Win7 PDC 2008 preview, I don't see why anyone would doubt Microsoft is on target to hit RTM near middle of next year (the same way Win7 went RTM in July 2009) and then full release in October (the same way Win7 went into general release in October 2009) to coincide with the hardware maker's fall releases.
I do agree the rest of the article is fluff, though. This statement in particular:
"What's more, even if Microsoft does manage to ship by fall 2012, the calendar still gives the Apple and Android development projects a huge lead time to out-innovate Windows 8."
Does the author think the developers at Google and Apple just wave their arms and solid innovative code magically appears in Android and OS X? It was pretty clear what Win8 was going to be even to curious outsiders as long as a full year ago. Just like it is pretty clear to anyone with half a lick of sense where Apple is taking OS X over the next few years (hint: more iOS-y).
Showing this stuff off now about a year ahead of full retail release doesn't change the game in any notable way.
I agree 7 data-points is not that much, but, so far, how many Windows versions shipped on time?
Windows Server 8 will face competition from RHEL 7, Ubuntu Server 11.10 (or 12.04) and FreeBSD and OpenSolaris-based OSs (ZFS is great).
It will be ugly.
I don't think corporations have ever thought they 'have to move to apple or linux" the challenge is will they upgrade from windows 7. The tablet capabilities will help, and for the most part I don't think there is much other tablet capabilities in other devices.
It won't be fast and Windows desktops and servers won't disappear (or even become a small niche) overnight, but I don't see Windows regaining its lost popularity.
Odd they left Linux out. By the time Win8 hits the shelves, Ubuntu will have iterated three times - its Unity desktop will be on its fourth release by the time we reach Quaint Quetzal or Quirky Quail, Gnome will be on version 3.6, Fedora 18 will be the favorite of Red Hat lovers and even Debian may be able to iterate over a couple Toy Story characters. At the same time, FreeBSD 10 will be well on its way.
Doesn't matter what number of people use it, or cheer for it, or how many sites it powers, it's, you know, not a real contender. :)
Go figure...