Longhorn could be tough sell for Microsoft

[Sourabh]

Longhorn could be tough sell for Microsoft

Longhorn has already survived several major delays, intense scrutiny from the industry and a radical redesign of its features.

But the toughest test for Microsoft's next release of Windows is still to come: Will anyone buy it?

Even though its been five years since Windows XP's debut, Microsoft could still face a tough sell when it releases Longhorn next year. With past updates, users had clamored for more stability and security, but analysts say people are pretty happy with Windows XP.

"Microsoft for the very first time is going to be faced with the challenge of being the player whose (operating system) is 'good enough'" as is, said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.

Source

 

[icecoolz]

hmmm interesting. My take is that the article might well be true. Plus a lot of the current systems run Windows Xp on a 128 MB ram with a few services disabled. And the minimum system req is going to be 512 megs of RAM and I think its going to be 64 bit as well. Major drawbacks. Plus XP is actually very very stable and hence it wont force people to upgrade. I for one happen to agree with the article.

 

[enoonmai]

Well, they said the same thing about Windows XP and Windows 2000, but people did migrate. Plus, Longhorn will feature WinFS (in a post-release update) and support for Palladium, so that might make more people migrate. Truth is, nothing can be said until it actually comes out and we can get a hands-on look at it. I think it would be very well worth upgrading to Longhorn. Just my $0.02.

 

[icecoolz]

people upgraded from 2000 to XP mainly because of the system requirments being similar. I say mainly because tho 2000 was a huge improvement to 98/NT, XP was even better in terms of stability. The biggest differentiating factor being the H/W req for longhorn 64 bit and 512 RAM min configs). This might just deter a lot of people

 

[Satissh S]

Iam not sure of other countries, as for as india is concerned i don't think it would be a big hit!
Reasons:
1. Linux is gaining popularity due to its cheap price.
2. About 60% users in India use pc's for office productivity which of course does not demand some serious configs.
3. The recently released WinXP starter edition is quite decent though its crippled.

 

[Wizard No.2]

Iam not sure of other countries, as for as india is concerned i don't think it would be a big hit!
Reasons:
1. Linux is gaining popularity due to its cheap price.
2. About 60% users in India use pc's for office productivity which of course does not demand some serious configs.
3. The recently released WinXP starter edition is quite decent though its crippled.

I agree with these, In the remainin 40% , people with a powerful rig wil constitute @ the max of 10%

IMO, only a HiFi gamer has got tht powerful Rig ( whch is need by Longhorn OS )

 

[gamefreak14]

IMHO, from an american perspective, it'll sell like hotcakes. Very few people own a pc with lesser than 256 MB of RAM. Most of them buy fully configured Dell's, gateway's and alienwares....so actually, longhorn could be a nice incentive for most of them to further upgrade their pcs, most probably to the 64 bit platform. I agree that M$ will have more OEM sales. We'll see so many retailers with their corny tag "X recommends Microsoft Windows Longhorn"!!
Have a look at sales of MSOffice '03...Nothing much has changed from office XP to office 2003...yet, they've had their share of buyers...

 

[sunnydiv]

yeh, it better not be

"just another operating system"

but as you have seen before, things can take turn for the worst

many software makers, stoped making windows 98 version, and only made xp versions., many people had problem with drivers. so on and so forth.

so it better be more than just a operating system.

 

[khattam_]

IMHO, from an american perspective, it'll sell like hotcakes. Very few people own a pc with lesser than 256 MB of RAM. Most of them buy fully configured Dell's, gateway's and alienwares....so actually, longhorn could be a nice incentive for most of them to further upgrade their pcs, most probably to the 64 bit platform. I agree that M$ will have more OEM sales. We'll see so many retailers with their corny tag "X recommends Microsoft Windows Longhorn"!!
Have a look at sales of MSOffice '03...Nothing much has changed from office XP to office 2003...yet, they've had their share of buyers...

Yeah may be new buyers did. But i don't think many of them upgraded from Office XP to Office 2003...........
Same case with XP.................
And about RAM, I use XP and have only 128.........

 

[gamefreak14]

And about RAM, I use XP and have only 128.........

from an american perspective, it'll sell like hotcakes

[/quote]

 

[casanova]

Hey WinFS will also be supporting windows XP.
And the migrating issues are definetly going to be there.
It depends wat the user wants.
If database, higher security, latest versions, more fixes, new look,etc he wil prefer Longhorn.
Some softwares have compatibility issues with Win XP.
No doubt they run, but cause lot of trouble fro ex, PHP, Oracle, etc.
But for gamers, Windows XP is going to be the safest deal.
Reason is They already have it so no need to buy and can invest in some graphics card. Hey if you think they will buy pirated Longhorn cds then they can buy pirated game cds as well.
But for serious computer users, Longhorn is a must try.
If you afford to buy originals better do or I think atleast try by using the pirated versions.
After all "Old is gold" but "New is diamond".
Longhorn is also going to have enhanced graphics support.
Some codename for that also, dont remember.
Sry 4 tat.

 

[Satissh S]

What you guy's know about something called as short horn. I think i came across it in a digit issue. It's said to be shipped b4 Long horn :roll: 8)

 

[khattam_]

What you guy's know about something called as short horn. I think i came across it in a digit issue. It's said to be shipped b4 Long horn :roll: 8)

Yeah I heard of that. Actually, Longhorn was supposed to be released but the development never stopped. So some of them had an idea of releasing the smaller version of Longhorn, one which would have only few capabilities of Longhorn. So some ppl wanted to call it shorthorn............. I don't know if it is ever gonna be released.
For now, Longhorn beta is working for ppl who wanna try it.............But I think it was a stolen copy and is being distributed illegally..............

 

[mail2and]

firstly in 2 years.. around 10% of the market will be captured by MAC with its mini... even dealers who didn't know what a MAC was... are selling MINI's now... So i guess Tiger which is around 3 years ahead of longhorn .. technology wise... is going to capture the imagination.... whatever you say Billva won't get the respect that Steve Jobs gets....

 

[busyanuj]

wake up andy, dun expect India to get any far as far as Apple and Mac OS are concerned

many computer purchasers dun even afford original software and windows xp !
most of the games (pirated ofcourse) are made for windows, linux is totally considered to be for geeks...

in all likelyhood, Mac is going to be perceived as something only for the elite.

 

[sreevirus]

well, we do know that in india, the major purchaser of desktop PCs constitute the middle class, and there r three types of ppl who can be categorised as follows: the ones who are well versed with computers (class A), the ones who know very little abt them (class B), and the ones who buy them for office use(class C) (most of the times, i have seen this class has very little knowledge abt the broad aspects, but they do have vast knowledge abt the software that they use, like tally, office, etc [and they r limited to it])
now lets see...the class A ppl if upgrading, will mostly try to upgrade their PCs to be longhorn compatible.
class B...well, they dont know much do they? the questions usually asked by them are: is it a pentium 4? 2.4 ghz? and most of them stick by that...they wont ask abt the ram, the mobo, the hdd,.... they usually will have to depend on the suggestions of class A, or they will blindly follow the advice of the PC assembler at the nearby shop (they end up with an average PC with a 40 GB hdd and 128 MB ram, but ofcourse, they have a very fast P4 processor ) and after they bought the PC, the first thing that happens is usually, games and net surfing....slowly, they too turn to class A users and then realize that they have bought a ferrari without wheels.
now class C, most of the in this class r happy with windows 98...they just want to get the work done quick.

so...will longhorn sell? yes, i cud ofcourse be wrong, but only 1 in 30 members of class A will get a genuine copy of it...class B, well, they dont consider software as a commodity do they? its longhorn, its microsoft, its windows, and it WILL be pirated and it will be bought for not more that 50 bucks. (also, they will get a genuine copy if they r buying a pc from some company like HCL or Zenith)

and class C? hehe...they might continue to stick with win98, or may move to XP...afterall, they dont need 512 megs of ram for tally do they?

so.....i'm just illustrating gamefreak's point...it will be ok in places like the US, but in india, general users buying genuine LH copies will be a very rare spectacle...

and in this scenario, a mac mini? hmmm... nope, i dont think so, its not at all popular among the middle class, so the prospect of it having a share of 10% of all computer users in india in two years is very low....also, the ease of availabilty of hardware as well as softwares for it cud prove to be a problem....as anuj said, its only for the elite. (besides, linux as a desktop OS is also catching up)

disclaimer: why i said all this? coz i belong to and come from a pure middle class locality, i belonged to class B when i got my present PC, and now, i may be in class A....these r just my views. conditions may be subject to change with area though

 

[technoteen]

i would say that as far as users taking up longhorn(and when it happens) is considered no one can stop that from happening(neither apple nor linux),
the ques is how many of them will be pirated, i think that the percentage of genuine is gonna increase because as sreevirus mentiond the "Class B" is more and more moving towards company manufactured pcs which naturally have genuine os and also with increasing foothold of WTA and for that matter microsoft in indian markets, overall piracy in filed of software is gonna reduce in coming years

when xp was released everyone was saying that it will be a failure but i dont find it. even it has picked up in indian market in the last two years with a large majority moving to it.

i would like to add that longhorn is not only 64 bit editon it will be available in 32 bit as well also that winfs will be available for winxp as well

 

[pallavnawani]

Hi,

Talk about Longhorn when it is finally released. It is a microsoft product, Longhorn could take a long long long long time in coming...

When WinNT first came out, Microsoft promised a OFS (Object File System). This filesystem was to have all the capabilities that they promise today for WinFS. Then later MS said thet OFS was in beta, and would be released after Win NT was released. 10 years, and no sign of OFS.

Then they promise _same_ thing with Longhorn. Now they say winFS will be beta when Longhorn is released and will be released after Longhorn is released!! Who knows whether they will _actually_ release winFS or not, they could just be up to their old tricks again...

As samuel Jackson said:

Only thing we learn from history is that people do not learn from history.

See here:
*www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/09/04/0157204

By the way, 64 bit winXP beta is already out, and available for free.

Pallav

 

[Ashis]

Guys Guys....
No bodyis gonna purchase LongHorn so whats the problem with Upgrading !!!
the only problem is for Corporates

I can Wate for 2008 :roll: ........It really doesn't matter much
....XP Works Pretty Well

 

[DKant]

Off topic but Sree's 'class B' just reminded me of something very humorous. I was talking to this guy trying to sell a game to me (dun remember what it was..NFS:UG may be) I told him I didn't have enuf RAM or a decent g-card, and to that he said, "If u install XP u'll get 256MB RAM na?" It took a lot for me to come out of there alive...I cld have died laughing.

Newayz. Plz get back to the discussion.