NotoriousREV

Well, with MS announcing Longhorn to be available by the end of 2006 missing several features and further delays of WinFS, does this mean we are witnessing beginning of the end of MS's stranglehold?

Clearly the current version of MacOS is superior in many ways to Windows (in a real way as well, not just in a "I prefer Macs" way, I personlly hate the damn things), LINUX is gaining massive ground worldwide as an acceptable OS for business at long last, rather than being the preserve of die-hard techno geeks, so could Microsoft have finally shot themselves in the foot?

Discuss

Miles

I've thought for a while, that MS are exposed to a strong competitor taking a lead in the next couple of years before Longhorn comes out. Unfortunately, OS X is Mac only and the various versions of Linux are not as straightforward as Windows. Also, perhaps there are too many versions of Linux - even working in the industry (albeit with MS products), I've got no idea what the differences between the various distributions.

BlkKnight

linux will never hit the mainstream desktop market - although they are trying.

MAC - very niche. Good at what it does. Unable to do other things (play games for a start)

Pars

Linux does everything that Windows does in terms of being an OS.

angrynorth

Linux is fantastic at what it does and fairly easy to use once set up Fedora being probably the most user friendly build there is, but Longhorn should be a better operating system than this once it gets released.

BlkKnight, I don't particularly think the Mac is a niche product. It does have a stigma of being only a design/audio/video machine but your average Joe would find it very agreeable. But like you say, this is so long as they aren't a pro gamer The Macs do play games very well, its just unfortunate that there aren't many games ported over.

Honestly, I think Longhorn will be an amazing OS when it does appear as it looks for once that MS are actually making an effort, and the previews I have seen of the later builds look reasonable and if implemented correctly the graphics acceleration through Avalon will be very cool. Saying that though, 80% of the stuff in it is what OSX already has, and if MS doesn't pull their fingers from their collective ***** then I am not so sure we will ever see Longhorn in the form that MS intended it to be, and if we do it won't be till 2009. Where as the next build of OSX (Tiger) is out next year, and has most of Longhorns features already. I can't imagine where Apple will be in 5 years.


www.demomac.com

NotoriousREV

I think Mac's are a lot less niche than they were and the advances they've made with OsX and the much-touted future releases will drive them more mainstream (need to sort out the prices though )

Linux is just waiting for someone to invent a version of StarOffice that works properly and 75% of normal users wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Linux desktop and a Windows desktop (except the Linux one would be faster).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Windows or pro-Linux I'm happy that they both do things better than each other, but I think the decision to hold off on WinFS until after the Longhorn release and to release Longhorn late and missing big chunks of functionality could bite MS on the *** big-time. XP will be 5 years old by the time Longhorn comes along, that's ancient in terms of OS's.

NotoriousREV

Angrynorth, apparently Avalon may not make the 1st release of Longhorn

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Linux is great if someone has set it all up for you, or you only need what's in the distro and it all works when you install it yourself. But it badly needs a unified, easy-to-use, idiot-proof installer/uninstaller. RPMs are getting there, but you still need to poke around a bit, and the vast majority of users simply aren't prepared to do that. H*ll, most of them are scared to use Windows Update. And then a lot of software is only avaialble as source files - how many n00bs like playing with them? I played with Linux for a year or so (Mandrake 9.0, 9.1, 9.2 and 10.0, Suse 9.0, and a couple of Redhat distros) but when the drive they were on died I really didn't have the inclination to do anything to replace it. Linux is still too much a geeks toy, not a mainstream product - at least without a guru to hand.


M

angrynorth

That sucks That was something that could have competed with Quartz Extreme and the new Core Image / Video in Tiger. I only thought they were going to be missing WinFS and a couple of other things, if Avalon isn't there then Longhorn will be pretty much a slightly more secure WinXP with a different skin.

The thing is, even being a very Mac person, I want Longhorn to be a good product because it will make my life easier in the long run.