This is the full unedited version of the article I wrote for the Inquirer.
I was planning on writing this article after my trip to Microsoft last week, and thank goodness I did. I must tell you, I was expecting something completely different prior to my visit. Microsoft’s gaming group is full of open and honest people who are quite aware of the competitive landscape – and funny enough they seem understated and modest about it. As a big Microsoft fan it was a refreshing trip. Perhaps they’ll be open to some suggestions.
Is Microsoft Vista driving demand for new PCs? Personally I don’t believe that Vista is creating incremental demand for new computers but I think things are about to change.
Microsoft is investing a significant amount of resources into the entertainment side of Vista, and Games for Windows looks promising. Games for Windows is more than just a marketing campaign, it should add significant benefit to the PC and console gaming experience. Microsoft is pushing for an easier installation experience, XBOX controller compatibility, and a full inter-compatible console/pc communication system. These are just some of the awesome features that Microsoft is driving for, there are many more that I probably can’t discuss until they show up. Rest assured, Games for Windows is not hype and I think developers should take a serious look at it.
Beyond Games for Windows there is still DirectX 10, and I believe DX10 will drive Vista demand significantly. There are new game titles, including Company of Heroes which will eventually support DX10 (not sure when). That said Company of Heroes looks amazing as it is, so it’s hard to imagine what DX10 will do for it. According to the developers there should be some significant tangible benefits.
So I’m really excited for Vista and what it will bring to the gaming experience, although I wish is was ready at launch. As you might guess in an open ecosystem it’s nearly impossible to guarantee that all partners will be ready to execute on a specific date. In fact many of Microsoft’s partners were caught with their pants down when Vista launched and they’re STILL trying to get things working right.
Regardless I am a firm believer that Microsoft’s future success in the OS space will be driven on the back of DirectX and their gaming team. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Intel’s riding success on the backs of their Israeli engineering team. In fact, I said it before and I’ll say it again, Vista’s demand will increase based on tangible benefits of DirectX and Gaming. Sure Microsoft Office is amazing, but I don’t believe Office drives significant incremental demand for Vista because you can buy Office for other platforms as well.
This is where the story gets interesting. At the risk of skipping a few milestones I’m about to cram some history into a few paragraphs.
Microsoft's Next Chapter
Back in the day when IBM OS/2, Amiga, and Apple roamed the land, the competitive landscape was somewhat interesting. Businesses dedicated to Apple, Amiga, and IBM compatible PCs were flourishing. Novell was growing on the enterprise networking side, UNIX was rampant, and Microsoft had recently launched Windows.
Due to their execution, heritage of innovation, a bit of luck, and their commitment to meeting the demands of the mass market it didn’t take long for things to shift in Microsoft’s favour. Ultimately it was Microsoft against the world, and the landscape ended up being somewhat desolate.
Witnessing the death of such movements was a real disappointment for many. Perhaps the disappointment was related to the battle and not so much the outcome.
Either way it was like watching Godzilla run through the city destroying everything with nary a remnant in sight. Yes, the action was short lived, Apple was left for dead, and there was nothing left except hope.
It was soon declared that Microsoft was the king of the PC world and no one would ever attempt to compete with them. I mean, why bother right? Windows did everything we needed it to do for a reasonable price and everyone used it. Over the years there were claims that Microsoft’s monopolist tactics were aggressive and somewhat uncompetitive. I never really paid attention, all I knew was Microsoft helped build many successful businesses. They also managed to kill a few companies along the way. Like them or hate them when you analyze the core of their business, Microsoft was successful because people felt comfortable with them. That said, you know it’s time for a reality check when your customers start to feel comfortable with someone else’s product.
I have always been a fan of Microsoft. That said, I’m not a fan of complacency, and if left unchecked for years (and years and years) it may lead to adverse consequences. The one thing Microsoft has been lacking is big-time competition in the core operating system space.
How times have changed; Apple, once left for dead, is now a mainstream contender. Companies like Google and Yahoo! come out of nowhere, and Wall Street witnesses as their valuations reach heights that only a few could imagine.
In the meantime some say that Microsoft has become a victim of their own success. Let’s face it, lazy people don’t get rich but rich people sure as heck get lazy. I’m sure there are people at Microsoft that are somewhat unaware of what’s happening around them.
I think we’ve reached a point in time when people would welcome and support a new operating system. The landscape has changed immensely and there are warriors with huge war chests gaining power. These new warriors are out in the open, waiting for the day that they can come out and announce their big plans.
I don’t think it’s as simple as someone launching another half-baked distribution of Linux. Don’t get me wrong, I think Linux is awesome, and while I like open source I think there are limitations when it comes to consistency, support, and ease of use.
I think there are at least three major threats to Microsoft’s dominance in the operating system space.
Imagine if someone setup an industry recognized open source consortium whose sole job is to certifying any modifications and new applications to the OS regardless of distribution. At least we would get some consistency, and people could profit from their work.
Another possible scenario would be for a giant company, like Google, to step out and launch a clean easy to use version of Linux (or something of the like) that does absolutely everything a PC or Mac does but better.
The third and certainly most obvious threat is if Apple decided to license their OS. An interesting prospect, and perhaps not as unlikely as some people would like to think.
Yes, there are many possible threats - I could sit here and list them off, but I don't want to give my competitors any ideas, and I'm sure that Microsoft hires people to focus on strategy all day long.
No matter what happens, Microsoft has gaming in their favour. They should be placing as many resources as possible into their gaming divisions to help carry the company forward through challenging times. Gaming and highly immersive entertainment will also help drive demand for Vista Ultimate.
They also have Microsoft Office, which is successful on both Apple and Windows based machines. There is no better Office productivity suite than Microsoft Office, but it helps if Microsoft influences the rest of the ecosystem as well.
I’m sure Microsoft eagerly searches for young hungry blood, but it’s hard to find good people when companies like Google and Yahoo! exist. Generation X&Y’ers have unique aspirations in life.
Yes, Microsoft has some threats, but I have full confidence that at least some of them are aware of their surroundings. Understanding your threats is half the battle to winning a war. I can only hope that the people I met are representative of those at the top of the totem pole.
I’m also guessing that the industry landscape will be completely different five years from now – let’s see what happens. Feel free to flame me now.
Back in the day when IBM OS/2, Amiga, and Apple roamed the land, the competitive landscape was somewhat interesting. Businesses dedicated to Apple, Amiga, and IBM compatible PCs were flourishing. Novell was growing on the enterprise networking side, UNIX was rampant, and Microsoft had recently launched Windows.
Due to their execution, heritage of innovation, a bit of luck, and their commitment to meeting the demands of the mass market it didn’t take long for things to shift in Microsoft’s favour. Ultimately it was Microsoft against the world, and the landscape ended up being somewhat desolate.
Witnessing the death of such movements was a real disappointment for many. Perhaps the disappointment was related to the battle and not so much the outcome.
Either way it was like watching Godzilla run through the city destroying everything with nary a remnant in sight. Yes, the action was short lived, Apple was left for dead, and there was nothing left except hope.
It was soon declared that Microsoft was the king of the PC world and no one would ever attempt to compete with them. I mean, why bother right? Windows did everything we needed it to do for a reasonable price and everyone used it. Over the years there were claims that Microsoft’s monopolist tactics were aggressive and somewhat uncompetitive. I never really paid attention, all I knew was Microsoft helped build many successful businesses. They also managed to kill a few companies along the way. Like them or hate them when you analyze the core of their business, Microsoft was successful because people felt comfortable with them. That said, you know it’s time for a reality check when your customers start to feel comfortable with someone else’s product.
I have always been a fan of Microsoft. That said, I’m not a fan of complacency, and if left unchecked for years (and years and years) it may lead to adverse consequences. The one thing Microsoft has been lacking is big-time competition in the core operating system space.
How times have changed; Apple, once left for dead, is now a mainstream contender. Companies like Google and Yahoo! come out of nowhere, and Wall Street witnesses as their valuations reach heights that only a few could imagine.
In the meantime some say that Microsoft has become a victim of their own success. Let’s face it, lazy people don’t get rich but rich people sure as heck get lazy. I’m sure there are people at Microsoft that are somewhat unaware of what’s happening around them.
I think we’ve reached a point in time when people would welcome and support a new operating system. The landscape has changed immensely and there are warriors with huge war chests gaining power. These new warriors are out in the open, waiting for the day that they can come out and announce their big plans.
I don’t think it’s as simple as someone launching another half-baked distribution of Linux. Don’t get me wrong, I think Linux is awesome, and while I like open source I think there are limitations when it comes to consistency, support, and ease of use.
I think there are at least three major threats to Microsoft’s dominance in the operating system space.
Imagine if someone setup an industry recognized open source consortium whose sole job is to certifying any modifications and new applications to the OS regardless of distribution. At least we would get some consistency, and people could profit from their work.
Another possible scenario would be for a giant company, like Google, to step out and launch a clean easy to use version of Linux (or something of the like) that does absolutely everything a PC or Mac does but better.
The third and certainly most obvious threat is if Apple decided to license their OS. An interesting prospect, and perhaps not as unlikely as some people would like to think.
Yes, there are many possible threats - I could sit here and list them off, but I don't want to give my competitors any ideas, and I'm sure that Microsoft hires people to focus on strategy all day long.
No matter what happens, Microsoft has gaming in their favour. They should be placing as many resources as possible into their gaming divisions to help carry the company forward through challenging times. Gaming and highly immersive entertainment will also help drive demand for Vista Ultimate.
They also have Microsoft Office, which is successful on both Apple and Windows based machines. There is no better Office productivity suite than Microsoft Office, but it helps if Microsoft influences the rest of the ecosystem as well.
I’m sure Microsoft eagerly searches for young hungry blood, but it’s hard to find good people when companies like Google and Yahoo! exist. Generation X&Y’ers have unique aspirations in life.
Yes, Microsoft has some threats, but I have full confidence that at least some of them are aware of their surroundings. Understanding your threats is half the battle to winning a war. I can only hope that the people I met are representative of those at the top of the totem pole.
I’m also guessing that the industry landscape will be completely different five years from now – let’s see what happens. Feel free to flame me now.
27 blogger comments:
First off, I can't wait to see what's in the pipeline for Voodoo.
I think you're giving Microsoft too much credit. To begin with, Vista's UI is horrible. I would expect that sort of UI refinement from an open source OS. The widgets are an annoying version of Yahoo and Apple's offering and window management is no better in Vista than XP. I'm so dissapointed in Vista. 7 years of work to deliver a product that doesn't even have all of the initial technologies it promised.
Yes it has gaming, but for how much longer? A shift is taking place where people dont' neccessarily want better graphics - or are not willing to spend $1000 on a graphics card that delivers 'better' graphics. The flop of the PS3 is a good example of how power is no longer the necessary component to success in the gaming world. Hardware needs to take a break and a focus on software needs to be applied - lets let the programmers take advantage of multiple cores and 64 bit processes.
The 'Windows' and Gaming world need to take a step back and a larger focus on the actual games and the OS are needed.
This is probably why Apple's popularity is growing. There's a great union of hardware and software in Apple products. They work with each other, and one always has the other one in mind it seems. Try running Vista on a 6 year old computer. You'll definitely be able to run Tiger on a 6 year old piece of Apple hardware - probably Leopard too.
Microsoft is so lost and is bleeding money. Their marketing budget for Vista is obscene and unncessary and a dangerous indication of Microsoft's current mentality.
A great indicator of how lost Microsoft is with thier Zune. You have to love how faithful subscribers to their URGE music service have no incentive to choose the Microsoft product over the Apple product- they both won't work with URGE. In order to get music on your Zune, you'll have to join a new music service and pay for your songs again.
Correct me if I'm wrong. For the record - I was a huge PC fanatic (still to this day) but I am also an Apple user too... more and more Apple lately.
Hey - Kevin Rose and Anand lal Shimpi seem to be on the right track with their Apple switch.
Things are about to change indeed.
With the launch of the Vista capable 690G chipset, what will happen next?
Rahul, there a blog:
http://scientiasblog.blogspot.com/
Take a look, maybe you'll find it worth your time.
First of all, Microsoft needs to stop blaming piracy for lack of Vista sales. Then, they need to get rid of the DRM bullshit and fix the damn operating system so that it performs on par with XP, or even faster, in terms of gaming. Right now, Vista actually decreases my FPS in Half-life 2: EP1 as opposed to XP, which runs just fine.
This is an interesting post. I agree with you that people are ready for options when it comes to an OS.
MAC OS seems a likely candidate, but once Apple dumps it out for use on other hardware, it loses its 'ease of use' because then people will have to tweak it for use on their own system, there will still be driver issues, and basically nothing changes except that a new option is available. In effect it would do nothing for consumers as a whole.
The open source community is fantastic - in fact I get most of my web apps from sourceforge et al, but does it have the cohesion to produce a good OS? Not at this point - simple apps are hard enough to collaborate on. Unless there is a monetary gain, not many people are willing to dole out their energy for such a massive project.
And consortiums do well for establishing standards, but not well for establishing working systems for the consumer. So even if we had key players all agreeing on the best way to 'do something', that doesn't mean it will be done. Look at OpenGL - great concept but in the end a failure.
So in effect, to create a new-breed OS we first need a new ***organization*** that is holistic, democratic, non-commercial and whose intent is solely to make a good user friendly OS (but not to the point where it can't be tweaked to be used in consoles, servers, or mobile hardware).
The organization has to exist first. Know any rich people without any affiliations or side interests who have the free time, money, and energy, Rahul?
First of all, Microsoft needs to stop blaming piracy for lack of Vista sales. Then, they need to get rid of the DRM bullshit and fix the damn operating system so that it performs on par with XP, or even faster, in terms of gaming. Right now, Vista actually decreases my FPS in Half-life 2: EP1 as opposed to XP, which runs just fine.
Yeah, the performance issue is pretty terrible. I never look at my desktop or have any need or want for transparent windows or task-switching fanciness. It seems that Vista is completely irrelevant and a step down for myself and many other people who wish they hadn't upgraded (I knew it was going to be somewhat bad when I tried out the last RC so fortunately I didn't buy/install it).
And the security features of Vista seem to be more security for MS and less for the user. Plus the ridiculous 'upgrade' feature means that I have to have my windows 98 disc on hand to install XP, and then install Vista if I ever wanted to do a clean install. So I'll be stuck with 10+ year old discs down the road. Good thinking, Microsoft! Or else spend twice as much for the full version.
So like the person above said 5+ years of development, a step down in performance (so far), the same old song and dance security and installation issues, DX 10 backwards compatability issues, incredibly high price, and higher hardware demands make Vista look pretty unappealing.
Seems you share a few similar thoughts about Microsoft's prospects that I outlined in my own Blog back in February (when MS was in the news about Pirates).
Arghh! It’s those Pirates again! Says Microsoft’s Ballmer
Microsoft's problem is they are structured for selling into large corporations. Sure they can play the gamer game, but they won't be able to support the sales and profits to maintain their stock price and employment levels. Unless they can somehow convince major corporations that it's ok to spend six hours a day playing video games instead of accounting, engineering, marketing, and shipping things.
Or picture this, HP stops selling anything but Voodoo machines. Can that sustain the rest of the company - can they be dressed-up or fitted for business?
Microsoft is chasing a (promising) niche but they will have some bad surprises as they "right-size" themselves to match it. Then again, they can devise something to keep the business side expanding too. But don't wait too long.
J
Great post as usual. Now maybe people will believe me when I say that gaming has ALWAYS been what kept Linux and MacOS at bay.
Between DX and OpenGL, MS has nothing to worry about.
They need to make sure though that they really stick with it though as you said.
I'm actually waiting for full-featured GPU drivers before I dump XP.
I love Vista and as soon as I can Horizontal Span across my two monitors I won't look back.
NOT excited, NOT awesome!
Vista NOT for games at this point!
Vista NOT for games in 1 year!
Vista for games in 3 years, when it's not Vista, but "afterVista"!
Vista is slow for games at this point, sucks for compatibility with anything.
Just moronic advertisement junk for where target audience are idiots (and it will enter history as such)
Actually, I found this piece informative and well written. That being said, I did have a couple questions that arose fromm reading this.
1. Is "Games for Windows" going to drive more PC game development? It seems as though all the focus is on consoles these days with only a handful of titles each year worthy of my $$$.
2. Is "Games for Windows" going to address the quality of games released? What I mean by this is are we going to see less nonsense like EA releasing a whole new game like Battlefield 2142 when there are still dozens of bugs and issues with BF2? Will "Games for Windows" spur the development of better games?
Thanks for the great article.
Lots of good things there, but one small nudge. The incompatability of Xbox and PC controllers was contrived and designed by the MS people. So its a bit coy to go see this stuff about drawing together stuff that they should have done so anyway.
They are not doing us a favour with that, they are correcting a previous wrong. While I applaud such moves, lets just remember who made the mess originally.
DS
Rahul:If I installed Vista on PC's I built I would be out of Buisness in a week.
Vista Sucks.
Freddy
"You can't run a $30[0]* billion company on games" -Bob Colwell
*Approx, market cap.
As much as I think he's right on. It seems like there are plenty of counterexamples.
-Glen
Hi,
You said, "Many of Microsoft’s partners were caught with their pants down when Vista launched and they’re STILL trying to get things working right." This makes me laugh since Vista was so overdue they should have been easily ready at launch if they were their "partners" I say Vista is like Millennium Edition was and is a hacked piece of crap with no open GL support.
I will stay with my Mac and you can keep Vista.
I don't hate MS just their crappy security holed OS. I am waiting and will be getting a second generation 360 (due out soon) and a PS3 after it has more time for better games to release which will still be about half the price it would cost me to build a Windows Gaming rig.
I currently use a 12" G4 powerbook for my computer. Gave my last dedicated Windows PC to my nephew. I am picking up a 24" iMac when Leopard releases and will install Windows XP (I bought a OEM edition just before Vista released knowing they would quickly disappear) under bootcamp and will be able to play legacy PC games that I want for years to come. Anyway the best PC games always find their way to the Mac OS.
Have a great day,
Glenn
PS OS X will be fully 64 bit when Leopard releases but Apple only needs two flavors of the OS, Server and User.
It will run all 32 bit apps just fine. Tell me Windows can do this so I can have a good laugh :-)
Im afraid , that in my humble opinion, you're wrong regarding what are the most important aspects of windows Vista for Windows.
I wont be surprised most efforts (if not almost all ) of them, are towards the digital rights protections of anti piracy, and embeeding it into the Vista core (kernel)at a root level.
and at same time, increase their power in therms of monopoly (prevent easy programing for other developers)
Actually, I'm not going to flame you. But since you mentioned complacency I might remind you that a modern distribution of Linux installs, locates hardware and updates a lot more smoothly than Windows does. It also as good as or better than W. at recognizing removable (e.g. USB) devices. Its definitely a contender. If you contrast that with Windows then Windows seems to be going backwards -- Vista doesn't seem to give you anything new except a lot of grief. Vista will probably sort itself out over the next year or so but for now its got nothing new to offer (and it even looks a bit like KDE!)
I don't know a thing about Vista but assure you that on college campuses MSFT is way way hotter than Yahoo! or Google. I go to one of the best Bschools in the country.
Before recruiting started last year, Google was the flavor of the day. However, Google's disorganized and haphazard way of recruiting has really hurt their reputation.
MSFT on the other hand, has a rigorous and judicious process. And they have no qualms throwing money after good people.
Console's and PC's gaming together sound like a Nightmare. PC's games have way to many little kids playing games that are made for adaults now. PC games would also have to be dumbed down even more then they have been over the last few years. There will be so much complaining from people thinking they should be awesome players but come up against expert gamers that have been playing online for years with "state of the art" hardware. BF2 is a perfect example of dumbing down a game to appease the "console kids" that are new to PC's . They come up against online expert killers and start posting about cheats , bugs and just how the games works. SO then they dumb it down some more in the next patch.
One thing you do not seem to understand about running games on any other OS then Windows is DirectX. All they need to do is get DX working on Linux or any other OS for that matter and I will be the first to destroy all my Windows OS disks and would never look back.
Sood:That's fine I know Mike ,So You like Vista Huh?It does look good but trying to find what You are looking for is a work in progess.
I would have thought Drivers would be a non issue by now.Local Office depot is getting a lot of Returns of PC's that come with Vista.
They were supposed to put in a New file Structure that did me in right there plus all the Spyware in it.
I will run XP till 2010 unless some major changes happen but I highly doubt it.
I wish Jobs would make a Mac OS for X86 Now that would make My Year.
Freddy
Dear Sir,
I think maybe you should listen to what the gaming communities have to say about 'Games for Windows'.... The whole concept of forcing us the players to use an Xbox controller is leading to the collapse of the PC gaming world. If we wanted to be constrained by some stupid childs device we would all be using PS2's. So far I have two games for windows Legacy and Battlestations Middway, both games suck. Both games have numerous threads in forums about how debilitating the fixed control system is. How long have we had the ability to re-configure the controls of a game? And now M$ seeks to force us into becoming Xbox Junkies in the hope they will sell more overpriced handsets in a hope to make back some of the money they loose on selling the main console.
I for one will no longer be buying any games for windows labled products as I see this as meaning the game is for console kiddies. However I wish you luck in your love of all things the vole does and your undying believe that they can do no wrong...
Hey there,
just want to say that i totaly agree with you in that article.And lets be honest, gaming and entertainmet "fuel" the moving forward in IT techologies, talking about computers: More powerful CPUs,faster RAMs,bigger and more efficient PSUs,better Sound Cards, and of course great new Video Cards. And others: new cel phones where you can play,surf the web,take photos, etc. I am sure i am missing one or another thing, of course all those abode were going to see the light of day, but gaming and entert. made them come faster, but thats the way things go right now...and as a gamer, i say BRING IT ON!! XD
Anyways, thats all i got to say. Keep up the good work.
Cheers.
note:sorry for my english, probably did some mistakes :P
And a flame you shall have. Perhaps I should send you a DELL Laptop.
I don't think Vista is going to help PC Gaming's problem at all. If anything, it's going to blur the standards between the 360 and the PC and make people lean towards the 360, as it is a much less expensive solution than an operating system and DirectX10 hardware. If anything, they should take what makes the PC So glorious already and find a way to make it the mainstream without hurting it, rather than turning it into an overpriced 360 with rather expensive extras.
"One thing you do not seem to understand about running games on any other OS then Windows is DirectX. All they need to do is get DX working on Linux or any other OS for that matter and I will be the first to destroy all my Windows OS disks and would never look back."
That already exists, its just not well known at the moment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedega
It also runs on OS-X and comes with many of the preconfiguration settings for popular games. If Apple were to embrace this kind of technology you could rest assured a rise in popularity.
I'm sorry, Mr Sood, but I see nothing in Vista that compels me to upgrade, whereas DRM infection and resource-hogging drive me clear away.
Don't be mistaken though, I like XP very much. Having gone from DOS 1.0, I can confidently say that XP Pro has to be the best Microsoft OS ever, and I am happy to own the disc on that.
But Vista ? No games are requiring Vista at this point, and fail to see why I should pay again to play games I already have on XP just for DX10 gaming. Why pay again ? Because if there is any use in going to Vista, it can only be for 64-bit computing. It is ridiculous to go for a new 32-bit OS these days.
Unfortunately, 64-bit Vista has even more issues than the 32-bit version. On top of that, gaming (which is our consideration here) is just not as good on 64-bit Vista as it is on 32-bit XP.
Of course, with a native DX10 title that might change, but we have none yet. We have no final driver set either. And we know Vista is stuffed to the gills with user-restriction "functionality", that inevitably slows it down (been hearing of 50% CPU use for the DRM tasks).
So Vista is really not on my schedule for the moment, especially given that my current games stand a fair chance of not working on it either. Dual-boot XP/Vista ? That just might happen the day something worthwhile comes out on DX10 - unless, of course, lack of uptake makes MS port DX10 to XP.
I believe that is entirely possible. Moreover, I believe that us gamers are going to be the ones deciding the fate of Vista. Businesses have no interest in it, it will increase the cost for no clear benefit. Users do not upgrade in general, they just buy another PC when the current one is toast. That leaves gamers, who for the moment have no reason to go for Vista and every reason not to (less performance, unacceptable restrictions).
To me that says that Vista gaming is not going to take off, and DX10 will be ported to XP which, as a direct consequence, will further delay the Vista bandwagon.
The coming months may prove me wrong. Drivers may come out that solve the performance issue, DX10 games may well be a total must-have worth selling the girlfriend for, and DRM may just end up toned down a notch or twenty (ironic that MS publishes Vista with all that DRM stuff when we now have 2 major music companies that have officially abandoned it).
If all that happens, then Vista will become much more enticing to gamers, and that will start the ball rolling.
But for now, Vista is a leper and I am keeping it way far from my hard disk.
Pascal.
I think the problem with Vista is that in the past Microsoft was always responding to the initiatives of rivals. Companies would introduce items like word processors, spreadsheets, desktop GUI, browsers, media players, etc., and Microsoft's response would be to copy the rival product and add it to their system. Sadly, now that they have defeated their rivals MS has no one to copy, and what we're seeing in Vista is what happens when MS tries to innovate and lead the market by itself.
If you ask me, Microsoft is the victim of its own success. It has played the computer software game like hands of poker, alternately bluffing and raising stakes to push other players out of the game. Winner take all.
If Microsoft had been a team player instead of a "winner take all" type, I believe we'd see more of a continuous ferment of creativity.
IMO, the main virtue of Vista is DirectX 10 - something we used to get for free. That and the largely unsupported 64-bit OS.
If Linux had better support for gaming, media, and 64-bit computing I'd be there in a flash.
Mr. Sood,
I can not help but think that you have become a big corporate "b".. I can not believe that you are pro Vista.. have you even installed that thing?
Ok, I know.. you have to say that so you can sell more Voodoos! But please cut the crab about honesty!
Hi, I have a couple questions for you...I know you have gotten Crossfire to work on nForce4 boards before, and I was wondering if you could give me a heads up on what you tried. I have an Asus A8N-SLI Premium NF4 board, and a couple ATI cards. I've tried a couple things, but I'd appreciate some guidance.
Thanks!
You can contact me at allanonGrimbold@gmail.com
Is it just me? All your flamers are a bunch of idiots! Yes vista has issues...so did xp. Yes games are not so good yet but thats nvidia/ati fault. They told you from day one that if you wanted vista you had to upgrade morons. Has anyone heard of dualboot here. Are you flamers just to be flamers? Consoles are ok but will never reach the specs of a gaming rig. Half of the fun in a gaming rig is building it. Which brings me to my last point. The only problem I have is with voodoo. You used to change almost monthly. You used to release new product before it was officially released. I first liked the idea of the acquisition now I wonder if Voodoo has lost its drive. That is the reason I built my own rig. In doing so i discovered it is almost more enjoyable then using it.
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