On 11/9/2011 1:44 PM, Jason Hsu cried from the depths of the abyss: > I think Windows 8 will be a flop and possibly an even bigger fiasco > than Vista was. The average Windows user is even more resistant to > change than the average Linux user is. Windows 8 will be very > different from 7 and Vista and be an even bigger shock for people > still using XP. Windows Vista was Microsoft's Chevy Vega. I think > Windows 8 will be Microsoft's Chevy Citation. > I wouldn't be so sure. Tablets are becoming more popular for both biz & personal use. Smartphones are in almost every pocket already. Then there is the desktop. Put it all together, and that is a pretty cool situation. > The big test for Microsoft will come in 2014 as Windows XP support > ends. If Microsoft can't hold onto the XP users, it will lose market > share. If Microsoft goes down, its decline will be much faster than > that of General Motors. Unlike Microsoft, General Motors didn't have > the everybody-else-uses-it network effect. > Again, I wouldn't be so sure about this either. Win 7 is pretty solid, and XP users have been moving over for 2 years now. The bulk of the herd will be migrated to Win 7 before you know it. If Win 8 is a flop (like vista - which really wasn't that bad at the end of the day), then much like XP the win 7 users will ride it out until they get it right with the next release (win 9?). Desktop market share as of Oct 2011, M$ has 91.86%. Mac has 6.94%. Linux 1.19% source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qpcustomd=0 Don't get me wrong I love Linux, but you have to give MS a little credit. I don't think M$'s desktop products will be hitting the toilette anytime soon. I would be curious to see how the market share looks on the server side. To be honest my main focus with Linux since I first started using it in the 2nd half of the 90's to preset has always been on the server side. I think this is, and always has been Linux's strength.