Vista as windows 95

There was effectively no real choice among PC operating systems. That left consumers with only the choice between a PC and a Mac.

Free Reign. Apple stumbled through a number of poor business decisions throughout the early 90s, leaving Microsoft with little effective competition. Microsoft on the other hand, was using PC manufactures to do its marketing and sales, provided much better support for developers, and wrote its own killer apps for Windows, principally Office.

A Perfect Storm. From the mid 80s to the mid 90s, Microsoft amassed fortunes as an application developer for the Mac. Tying sales of Windows 95 to Office helped to boost sales of both. Microsoft pushed the new version of Office as a reason to buy Windows 95, and Windows 95 helped kill sales of rival applications, including the then standard WordPerfect and Lotus , neither of which were available or optimized for Windows 95 at its launch.

That series of events conspired to create a perfect storm funneling the lion's share of new application and PC operating system revenues toward Microsoft and away from all rivals. The media was stunned that such a undistinguished product could have such remarkable market power. Many analysts concluded that Microsoft was simply being run by a brilliant visionary genius, and sold their souls into the eternal service of Microsoft. Ship Now, Fix it Later. Throughout the second half of the 90s, Windows 95 was improved upon with a series of updates.

The original "O" version of Windows 95 was nearly unusable, but updates in the "A" and later "B" versions made it workable. Those updates were only installed on new PCs however, and were not made freely available to users stuck with the original version. The solution for many users was simply to buy a new PC. Further updates would require users to pay at regular intervals for new versions that got progressively worse. Windows 98 , a paid upgrade, was released in June at a simpler event at Fort Mason in San Francisco.

In , Microsoft released another paid upgrade, Windows 98 Second Edition , which delivered more bug fixes and a new browser version. It also carried the Windows 4. In , Microsoft delivered more updates to home users in Windows ME , another paid upgrade internally designated as Windows 4. It was such a bad product many Windows users stuck with Win Uptake of Windows ME was so bad that Microsoft was later forced to extend its end of life support for Win The Gates Illusion.

The mystique of Bill Gates grew as Microsoft destroyed the competition in one industry after another, using products that in most cases weren't very remarkable.

In , had just released the first full version and first free update. Even before XP was delivered, Microsoft announced it would:. Why Won't Be Like Despite enjoying huge net profit margins of Why are the company's profits slipping?

Efforts to deliver on its promises in Longhorn, mobile devices, consumer electronics, music and media have all been huge failures. PC sales have slowed down as consumers waited for the new Longhorn, delivered now over three years late as Vista. Over the last five years, Microsoft replayed the same type of illusions it delivered in the early 90s:.

Software vs Hardware. One might imagine that demand for a new version of Windows should be higher now than it was a decade ago. There are some critical differences however. Today, PCs running Windows XP are serviceable, and there's no compelling reason for most users to pay hundreds of dollars for a software upgrade.

Most users upgrade when they buy a new PC. Ballmer probably didn't give the subject much thought, because his company can't figure out how to make money selling hardware, and is stuck trying to sell software to consumers.

The problem with that strategy is that consumers don't like to pay for software; they prefer to buy hardware. It's very difficult to sell software to anyone apart from professionals, who see the value of buying software as a tool. Vista simply doesn't offer much beyond Microsoft's assurance that it fixes the security and usability problems in XP. The problem is it really doesn't, and introduces problems of its own, such as slower performance. OMG Competition.

Another critical difference new in is that Windows Vista now has effective competition. Apple made a number of major changes between to bounce back as a retail and marketing powerhouse. Two years later, Vista is now largely being dismissed as Microsoft's version of Tiger, making it difficult to create excitement for it. Turned Tables, Sticky Sales. Oh, how the tables have turned. It gets even worse for Microsoft however. Every new Mac buyer not only expands the Mac market at the cost of Windows, but does so at a greater than ratio.

Macs last for years; typical PCs only 2. Every Mac sold takes out two or more unnecessary PCs, meaning fewer automatic sales of Windows at an accelerating pace.

Oh, and if you have a PC that is more than two years old, count yourself lucky. For every PC more than two years old, there are plenty of far more ancient Macs still in use. That's not the case with Dell or HP buyers, who are likely to buy whatever PC happens to be cheapest two years down the road. Once you go Mac, you don't go back. It's Not the Money. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, both of whom top the list of the world's richest individuals, are ready to retire and can't be too concerned about losing a few bucks to the Mac.

Lost revenue pales in comparison to how embarrassing its must be to have to suffer through the unveiling of their charlatan scams to deliver the world old, overpriced technology wrapped up in a frumpy me-too package. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third rate products. Since then, innovation at Apple under Jobs has demonstrated just how third rate many of Microsoft's products are in comparison. If a company with a quarter the market valuation, a quarter the employees, and a sixth the profits of Microsoft can dethrone the company in its operating system development efforts, block its attempts to expand its monopoly into music and media DRM, and embarrass it in mobile development, how would Microsoft do on an equal playing field?

Blame Bad Management. What gives Microsoft such an ill reputation for anti-competitive behavior and mediocre products is the faulty vision and blinding greed of its upper management, particularly Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

Together, they have done more to stifle new ideas and glut the market with bad products than any other force in our lifetime. Insert Disk 1 into drive A or whatever drive you prefer. At the command prompt, type the following: edit filename. Change to the Windows directory on your C drive. My Computer. Network Neighborhood. Recycle Bin. Welcome Window. Internet Explorer. This Windows 95 website was designed by Norman Durkee.

For those viewing on smaller devices Short Feature List: All windows and desktop icons are now draggable. Play FreeCell from the games tab in the start menu! Original Win95 splash screen added, equipped with the iconic boot up sound!

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