Microsoft going Apple way - Cheap Windows update every year?

[Tackhisis]

MS was 'slapped' not for bundling stuff with the OS, but integrating their software as part of the OS system itself. A prime example of this is Internet Explorer, which couldn't even been uninstalled from the system and on which several key components of the OS (like the help system) was hooked onto. Compare this with OS X Safari which is based on an open-source WebKit engine and can be removed completely simply by dragging its icon to the Trash (any other bundled tool can be deleted in the same way).

Internet Explorer was never integrated with the system. Internet Explorer is a small utility to access a system built-in HTML renderer, protocol and content format handlers. In a modern age defining it as 'bundling' is senseless.

[Afrospinach]

To be honest, I personally think the level of support microsoft gives its windows products has been tremendous(but lets not get carried away it is in self interest). I think paying for the updates is worthwhile, the only thing that bugs me is it will probably not be superior to the service we already get for free.

[ati87]

Following the smarthphone route may be a necessary evil for Microsoft and it's partners.

Part of the reason the PC market is slowing down is because people aren't replacing their computers like they used to and having a faster upgrade cycle might help computer manufactures.

Another important addition to having a shorter period between OS releases is that you don't have to wait 5 - 7 years for new functionality.

[vesseblah]

Part of the reason the PC market is slowing down is because people aren't replacing their computers like they used to and having a faster upgrade cycle might help computer manufactures.

People are replacing their computers with tablets at increasing speed. You don't need whole desktop computer to sufr porn and read facebook updates.

Another important addition to having a shorter period between OS releases is that you don't have to wait 5 - 7 years for new functionality.

There isn't massive amount of new functionality added in latest Windows or OSX so that's not really a problem.

[Deleted]

Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8. If anything they've pushed out less this decade than they did back from 90-00

[ati87]

People are replacing their computers with tablets at increasing speed. You don't need whole desktop computer to sufr porn and read facebook updates.



There isn't massive amount of new functionality added in latest Windows or OSX so that's not really a problem.

Tablets have the advantage of being a new product and the current life cycle of a tablet is low, tablets of 2 years ago are practically unusable with current apps but in comparison computers won't have any issues. However the desktop/laptop won't be leaving the household because as long as people have children eventually people will need to use computers because those children will need to do assignments.

And the majority of the changes of a new OS isn't on the surface, the fact that W8 launch time is shorter then W7 is the proof of that. And the biggest changes between ME and XP was security changes and the biggest change between XP and Vista was the driver changes.

[This name sucks]

Tablets have the advantage of being a new product and the current life cycle of a tablet is low, tablets of 2 years ago are practically unusable with current apps but in comparison computers won't have any issues. However the desktop/laptop won't be leaving the household because as long as people have children eventually people will need to use computers because those children will need to do assignments.

And the majority of the changes of a new OS isn't on the surface, the fact that W8 launch time is shorter then W7 is the proof of that. And the biggest changes between ME and XP was security changes and the biggest change between XP and Vista was the driver changes.

I hope you aren't implying that those driver changes weren't incredibly important.

Also my computer turns on from a cold boot in about 15 seconds. About how long it takes for me to press my monitor power button and to get settled in my chair.

Not sure what the benefit would be in a faster start up time.

[vesseblah]

And the majority of the changes of a new OS isn't on the surface, the fact that W8 launch time is shorter then W7 is the proof of that. And the biggest changes between ME and XP was security changes and the biggest change between XP and Vista was the driver changes.

There's a crapton of refinement for sure, like for example the driver model change for Vista removed 90% of bluescreen crashes, but new functionality for users? Most visible must be breaking of 4GB memory barrier with 64bit Vista.

Major new functionality (ironically in)visible to users in Win8 is definitely the built-in AV program which is enabled from first boot.

[Mongoose19]

So in other words pay for service packs? Woo....

[This name sucks]

There's a crapton of refinement for sure, like for example the driver model change for Vista removed 90% of bluescreen crashes, but new functionality for users? Most visible must be breaking of 4GB memory barrier with 64bit Vista.

Major new functionality (ironically in)visible to users in Win8 is definitely the built-in AV program which is enabled from first boot.

How are they not getting their balls sued off for that.

In the early 2000s when there was new massive virus every month everyone was forced to use shitty anti viruses like norton or something like that which did literally nothing to stop the virus but would use up colossal amounts of the pitiful system resources that were available at the time.

Microsoft was forbidden from creating their own that would be actually functional and had to let a 3rd party do it for them, causing a massive clusterfuck and the stigma from them still lingering on today. (Anti viruses + games = bad)

Its also the reason you had to download a lot of things, that have been traditionally bundled with windows, separately with windows 7 like a mail client.

[vesseblah]

How are they not getting their balls sued off for that.

Same reason Apple isn't. Certain things are expected and assumed to be integral part of fully functional OS today.

It's sure Microsoft has been really careful with bundling of stuff before, but it looks like they decided to give it another go now with built-in AV and PDF reader and whatnot.

[SodiumChloride]

1) Microsoft has been slapped with anti-competitive practices lawsuits many times for bundling stuff with the OS so they literally can't bundle anything. If they had free pass to do any shit they want like Apple does, Windows default software would've been better years ago. For example RealPlayer is and has always been hopeless turd nobody actually wants to use, but because of their lawsuit MS was unable to bundle in proper media player for a decade.

Oh I'm quite sure threatening OEMs that tried to bundle other web browsers - threatening to making Windows "prohibitively expansive" to them, driving them out of business - has more to do with them getting nailed with anti-trust than the bundling.

[ati87]

I hope you aren't implying that those driver changes weren't incredibly important.

Also my computer turns on from a cold boot in about 15 seconds. About how long it takes for me to press my monitor power button and to get settled in my chair.

Not sure what the benefit would be in a faster start up time.

I was responding to another person who said that their wasn't a big difference between new windows verions.

My response was that their was except you don't really see the changes in every day use.

[Deleted]

I was responding to another person who said that their wasn't a big difference between new windows verions.

My response was that their was except you don't really see the changes in every day use.

People time W8 boot up time when metro has started up. But if you have a program to remove this you can see that the PC is still very much booting up while metro has opened.

The "quick times" that people record with W8 are inaccurate because of this. The boot up times for W7 and W8 are quite similar (Although I won't deny that W8 is still quicker).