Seven Reasons Why You Will Leave Microsoft Windows

Reason #7: The Future

In our final installment on why you’ll be leaving Windows, we talk about the future, but also knowing full well that there are plenty of pundits and plenty of prophets declaring the next big thing or fully confident that they know where things are heading.  Perhaps the safest prediction is one that admits the unpredictable nature of the computing experience, knowing the only predictable constant is change. Change is here, and change will continue to come.  How we get to the next big thing is what engineers and scientists and marketing people dream about.  What will be and where will it be first?

Mobility

Already we are seeing divergence in the mobile devices movement. With the advent of the iPhone, the playing field finally changed in favor of the ultimate kiosk, a handheld interface that accommodates an almost unlimited variety of applications that use a touch screen instead of a physical keypad.   This was a total shift in direction for all mobile devices going forward.  It was a reset, or paradigm shift in mobile communications, and mobile computing, and the competition was left in a lurch to try to even get close to the same functionality.  In the past six months we have seen even more mobile devices appear that mimic the iPhone.  It is easy to predict that this is the future of mobile communications and mobile computing.

Mobility is the hottest place to be, redefining our work and life experience through portable computing power unheard of even 5 years ago.  The average personal computer today has easily 100 times the computing power of computers of less than 10 years ago.  The logarithmic curve is staggering in how much more power you get today from hardware that has not increased in price.  Your $2000 of 10 years ago buys you more computer today than many research institutions could have dreamed of 10 years ago.

The Future

It is not difficult to extrapolate where things are going if you understand what works, and admit what doesn’t work should be abandoned in favor of what does.  Sure enough, as this post goes to press, rumors are flying on Apples’ new tablet, which is basically an oversized iPhone.  The closest thing to it will be the Kindle from Amazon, and this could indeed be a Kindle Killer.

Unfortunately for an unsuspecting public, marketing trumps common sense, and many consumers will make choices that on the surface appear completely logical, but underneath lay a labryth of deception awaiting even the most intelligent and discerning consumer.  The debate for the Windows consumer is, whether the process is at fault or is it the product.  The Windows consumer over the past 20 years has basically been bullied into more and more choices that they may not want to make, but really have no choice.  But soon they will have better and better alternatives that Windows will not be able to compete with.  Windows’ own architecture will prevent it from keeping up, especially in mobile devices, where Windows has had a rocky history.   Windows is not alone, Palm is desperately trying to survive in an already overcrowded market trying to beat Apples’ iPhone.

Agility

For the sophisticated user, utility must be balanced with style and forward-thinking work flow.  The iPhone has redefined much of the work flow people are attracted to, but the iPhone itself is a direct response to what people really want in how they conduct their mobile computing.

It doesn’t take much imagination to expect a larger tablet “iPhone-like” computer in the not too distant future.   As we go to press I stumbled on to articles appearing that specifically mention the tablet from Apple.

I imagine a larger, thinner tablet that will require no mouse, and have increased touch-screen capability.  I predict that it will redefine how we use computers, just like the iPhone redefined mobile communications, and redefine how we will be working with computers.

There will eventually be less and less keyboard and more dialog-based programming that requires only tactile touch on the right button at the right time.  The biggest challenge will be in accommodating the human tactile response and allow humans the ability to extend their intelligence, something that has been the holy grail for computer scientists since the advent of the mini-computer, the predecessor to the desktop and laptop you enjoy today.

Important to note too, that the new tablet coming from Apple has one distinct advantage over the competition, it will most likely share the app store, and the application development kits that are already serving the iPhone market.  This will be an even bigger boost to Apple, and make Windows seem even more irrelevant–except maybe for businesses that are stuck having to use Microsoft for the foreseeable future.

Sooner or later you will be leaving Windows.

To recap, here’s why you will be leaving Windows:

1.  Security

2.  Performance

3.  You Don’t Need Windows To Do That

4.  Registry & Upgrades

5.  Scalability

6. Interoperability

7. The Future

Seven Reasons Why You Will Leave Microsoft Windows

Reason #6 : Interoperability

In our last installment we talked about Windows’ scalability issues, and how Windows is falling behind, despite its shiny new appearance that Microsoft gives Windows every few years.  The consumer market is getting smarter, and Microsoft is running out of options with its aging Windows operating system.  Other options are available today that negate the need for Windows.

Whither Microsoft

Microsoft has done what few software companies can do well.   They take a product and continuously regenerate it into something you must update and upgrade constantly, with major upgrades typically costing you more money every time you go through the process.  This has been ingrained into our technology culture, giving customers little choice to do it any other way.  Microsoft upgrades are also time-consuming, risky vetures into a forward-only process that, if broken, could compromise a system and require a total re-installation of the operating system.

Microsoft has also created a large enough market that cannot change to something else unless the alternative can deliver a comparable product.  Clear evidence exists that people want to leave Windows, but many are either not quite ready or cannot leave because of certain application requirements where the application can only run on Windows.

Change, Challenge, Choice

Today, the computer user is now seeing the first real set of choices in the market in the 20 years of Microsoft dominance.  Several key factors have contributed to the new choices.  First, Linux.  Second Mac OSX.  Third Microsoft.   Other choices out there are virus-free, easy to update, easy to upgrade,  and more reliable than Windows.

Linux

Linux has a desktop you can use and do all the things you can do with Windows, and it runs on low power equipment better than Windows.

Yes it’s true, most office applications today can be replaced with what’s available on Linux.  There are some brand issues, and some consistent-look-and-feel issues, but for the most part every aspect of Office computing can be done on Linux, without ever using Microsoft.

In fact, if you really need a Windows experience, you can put a Windows world on your Linux machine as either a dual boot or Virtual Machine–for around $100 USD.  About the only thing you can’t do in this setup are heavy-duty games on a VM, but this may be changing as even laptops are getting more and more powerful.  But we’re not talking about games here, just Office applications.  You can also use a Remote Desktop Client in Linux to connect to Windows machines, which actually works better on Linux than the RDC from Microsoft, auto-logging you in with one click.

With the advent of the new versions of KDE’s desktop and Gnome and the surrounding software that accompanies them, Linux is now a viable desktop choice.

Next:Mac OSX