In . 97.131,
DanS wrote:
"BillW50" wrote in
:

(Note: Any deleted material does not mean I agree with it.

And again, going from 32 bit to 64 bit. CPUs with new
added instruction sets and other advances in hardware
architecture can require changes to take advantages of it.

OMG! Windows supported 16 bit for almost two decades. Now
the move from 32 to 64 bit, it can't be done anymore? With
the older Microsoft programmers it would happen. But with
the new lazy new programmers, it is not possible.

It wasn't 'lazy programmers', no matter what you say.

It was a business decision.

You can't support 100% of everything forever.

At some point, you have to decide that instead of supporting
100% you can only support 99.9999998% of users(, in relation
to this 16-bit issue.)

Users are crying about Windows 'bloat', and how do you cut
bloat.....by removing things that *virtually noone* uses
anymore.

You claim this, but DOS support is still there and Gates said about 15
years ago it would end. So why is it still there? And back in the DOS
only days, every application needed its own printer driver. Have 10 DOS
applications, you needed 10 printer drivers all for one printer.

Windows changed all of that. Now you only need one printer driver for
one printer and it doesn't matter how many applications you have. And
Windows supporting printer drivers from different versions of Windows is
a cakewalk. Far easier than supporting DOS. And I see no reason
(hardware or software wise) why Windows can't support printer drivers
from any version of Windows. Printer drivers are not all that complex.

And now with the whole HP printer exploit that's in the
news, who knows what's going to go on with printing
technologies...maybe there wil be a push just back to dumb
peripherals for most.

News to me. I plead ignorance here and I must check this
out.

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9076395-
exclusive-millions-of-printers-open-to-devastating-hack-
attack-researchers-say

Interesting. But that problem has always been there. As any device that
is firmware upgradeable is at risk. Cell phones, MP3 players, external
drives, etc., even my old Palm IIIc.

Since most of the old people at Microsoft has retired.
The new replacements just don't know any better. And I
see Microsoft getting into trouble because of this.
Even Microsoft had to layoff people in recent times
because of this (the first time in history).

I'm sure the layoffs were just like every other company
on Earth, the economy.....

In today's world, people can't live without computers.
Far different than just a few decades earlier. And
computers are not going away soon. And if Microsoft can't
convince the masses that newer is better, then they have
to have layoffs. Just the same as it was decades ago.
Remember WordStar and Lotus? The economy was great back
then but they couldn't convince the masses either.

Sure I remember Wordstar and Lotus, and bunches of other
s/w companies, but Wordstar was one of how many word
processor packages available ? Yes, they are gone because
MS created an Office Suite that was lower cost, that was a
viable package for most, so people stopped buying the
really expensive 3rd party Word Processors.

No! At the peak, upper management fired all of the
programmers because they thought they were big enough they
didn't need them anymore. As now they thought they could
hire people far cheaper than they had. Like always it
didn't work and they went under.

That may be so, but, this article:

(About spreadsheets, but the same applies)

http://www.utd.edu/~liebowit/book/sheets/sheet.html

...ends with the conclusion of......"The long-term winner in
this battle is Microsoft, which can unload Windows plus Excel
for such a low site-license price that few companies can
resist."

It doesn't matter *why* the other the others failed, they
failed.

Looks like the Lotus failure was just anojther bad business
decision....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Software

...."Although SmartSuite was bundled cheaply with many PCs and
may initially have been more popular than Microsoft Office,
Lotus quickly lost its dominance in the desktop applications
market with the transition to 32 bit applications running on
Windows 95. In large part due to its focusing much of its
development resources on a suite of applications for IBM's
then new (and eventually a market failure) OS/2 operating
system, Lotus was late in delivering its suite of 32 bit
products and failed to capitalize on the transition to the new
version of Windows. It now has very little market share."....

Exactly! That is what I am talking about. Watching all of this unfolding
over the decades I can see clearly the writing on the wall for some
companies based on the decisions a given company makes. Thus why my
concern about Microsoft. As they generally made the right decisions in
the past. But the old people were employed back then too. Nowadays the
old gang has retired. And the new people doesn't know how to make the
right decisions.

There are only 3 OSs now that are viable for everyday
use.......Windows, Linux and OSX (MAC).

There are many that tried to get into the game. Although I
see a big turning point and nobody is giving what people
want. So the door is wide open for even a startup to step
in.

The last two releases of Windows...Vista, and 7, sold more
copies faster than each preceeding release.

Really? MS Bob and ME were Microsoft's big flops.

And this means what, that people dumped MS like hot potato ?

Obviously not.

Since Windows is included with about 90% of PCs. And since computer
sales are increasing every year. It is a given that the newest version
of Windows is going have the highest sales figures compared to earlier
releases. This is a given and should come as no surprise to anybody.
Some call this as the Microsoft tax.

And I never saw Vista as being very exciting. Filled with bugs and
all. And Windows 7 is doing far better being as the Vista bug fixed
version.

And that's all I see it as.

Buy anyway, you have your opinion, I have mine. We can
leave it at that.

Lots of company are starving for cash. Microsoft is
different since they have billions in the bank. They don't
need to sell any stock whatsoever.

And so are others.....

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...rantz/2011-07-
20-companies-with-the-most-cash_n.htm

...and all still laying off people.

If Vista and Windows 7 sold so well, why the layoffs?

You can say what you want, but you can't change the truth. And the
only danger Microsoft has is they lost all of the programmers who has
learned the hard lessons from the past. As the new programmers don't
have a clue.

Well, I'm assuming by 'programmers' you are talking about the
heads of individual programs...the one's that *actually make
the decisions* of what is or isn't included in whatever. The
people that actually do the programming, do what they are
told.....unless you think the 24-year old first year out of
college CS graduate is making the decisions of what goes or
doesn't go into Windows.

No, I see programming much like an art form. Sure anybody can take a
paint brush and paint a painting. Although few can do very well at it
while most can't. The same is true of programming to a certain extent.
The original group of OS programmers had experience programming DOS,
UNIX, Windows, OS/2, etc. And having all of this experience just made
Windows much better. They also had their share of failures and survived.
The new programmers doesn't have any of this experience. So they are
going to make mistakes that the older retired group wouldn't make. And
this time around, Microsoft might not survive such mistakes.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2
Centrino Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz - 2GB - Windows XP SP3