Longhorn delayed .... again .... BAAHAAHAHAHA
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like it's going to be 2007 now.
What in the fuck are they doing?
http://www.google.com/search?q=stocks:AAPL
What in the fuck are they doing?
http://www.google.com/search?q=stocks:AAPL
Quote:
Elizabeth Millard, www.cio-today.com
In the last few weeks, the tech industry has been buzzing with speculation that Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) next OS release, Longhorn, will not be ready for its planned 2006 unveiling.
If the OS is put off until 2007, some competitors could win more profits, but many analysts say that software and hardware partners will face the most serious challenges and could end up losing more than they anticipated.
This is not the first time Longhorn has had rumors about delay swirling around it, but because some of those rumors have come true, many in the industry are waiting to see if 2006 really will be the year of Longhorn -- or if they need to take their business elsewhere.
Competitive Edge
If Longhorn is put off by a few quarters, the most likely candidates to win an edge over Microsoft will be the developers of alternative operating systems and their vendors, such as Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL - news), Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT - news), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) and others.
"The open-source world would be ecstatic to have a Longhorn delay," said Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio. "They'll see it as Linux having two years to get its ducks lined up in a row, and more time to erode Microsoft's market share."
Although other operating systems have very limited adoption when compared to Microsoft's tight clamp on the market, a Longhorn delay could create an opening.
"At this point, Microsoft has to be very careful about keeping its customers informed and sticking to a roadmap," said DiDio. "Whenever there's a delay of any kind, you have to worry about competition."
Skipped Holiday
While competitors might benefit, Microsoft's partners would probably suffer, according to META Group analyst Steve Kleynhans.
"If there's another delay, I think the PC industry en masse would descend on Redmond like a lynch mob," he said. "It needs to hit the streets before the end of 2006 for the holiday season, and companies already have that in their sales projections."
Even if Longhorn is pushed back by a quarter or two, it would hurt partners because they would have missed an important selling season, noted Kleynhans.
"Microsoft is highly motivated to make sure Longhorn ships in a timely fashion, so people don't have to postpone the rate at which revenue comes in," he said. "That means they'll probably start trimming things out of the OS just to get it out the door."
Enterprise Indifference
Although competitors might be eager for Longhorn developers to drag their feet, analysts are not convinced that it will make a significant impact on most enterprise customers.
"By this time, companies are used to delay, so they're not sitting around waiting for Longhorn before going through with their strategies," said IDC analyst Roger Kay.
Many companies are likely to wait while Longhorn is out for at least a year before bringing it into the enterprise, Kay predicted. "We're at least three years away from corporate adoption on a large scale," he said.
_
Despite the wait-and-see attitude, enterprise customers are anticipating using Longhorn, which might limit competitor success even if the release date changes. "I don't see a delay as an opportunity for Linux or other vendors," he said. "Not unless Microsoft suddenly falls apart and doesn't deliver it at all. But I don't see that happening."
Pyramid Building
Kleynhans noted that, Whether or not Longhorn meets its release date, companies should be ready not just for the OS, but also for what will follow it.
"Longhorn is a massive undertaking because it makes incredible changes to how applications interact with the OS without shutting off the existing world," he said. "It would be fair to say no one has ever undertaken software change as big as this before."
Because it will represent an overwhelming shift, Kleynhans expects a stream of Longhorn-related products coming into the market after the OS release, both from Microsoft and from other vendors.
"There's going to be a lot of churn in terms of products, and service packs," he said. "No matter when it comes out, there's going to be more change in the market than most people expect."
Elizabeth Millard, www.cio-today.com
In the last few weeks, the tech industry has been buzzing with speculation that Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) next OS release, Longhorn, will not be ready for its planned 2006 unveiling.
If the OS is put off until 2007, some competitors could win more profits, but many analysts say that software and hardware partners will face the most serious challenges and could end up losing more than they anticipated.
This is not the first time Longhorn has had rumors about delay swirling around it, but because some of those rumors have come true, many in the industry are waiting to see if 2006 really will be the year of Longhorn -- or if they need to take their business elsewhere.
Competitive Edge
If Longhorn is put off by a few quarters, the most likely candidates to win an edge over Microsoft will be the developers of alternative operating systems and their vendors, such as Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL - news), Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT - news), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) and others.
"The open-source world would be ecstatic to have a Longhorn delay," said Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio. "They'll see it as Linux having two years to get its ducks lined up in a row, and more time to erode Microsoft's market share."
Although other operating systems have very limited adoption when compared to Microsoft's tight clamp on the market, a Longhorn delay could create an opening.
"At this point, Microsoft has to be very careful about keeping its customers informed and sticking to a roadmap," said DiDio. "Whenever there's a delay of any kind, you have to worry about competition."
Skipped Holiday
While competitors might benefit, Microsoft's partners would probably suffer, according to META Group analyst Steve Kleynhans.
"If there's another delay, I think the PC industry en masse would descend on Redmond like a lynch mob," he said. "It needs to hit the streets before the end of 2006 for the holiday season, and companies already have that in their sales projections."
Even if Longhorn is pushed back by a quarter or two, it would hurt partners because they would have missed an important selling season, noted Kleynhans.
"Microsoft is highly motivated to make sure Longhorn ships in a timely fashion, so people don't have to postpone the rate at which revenue comes in," he said. "That means they'll probably start trimming things out of the OS just to get it out the door."
Enterprise Indifference
Although competitors might be eager for Longhorn developers to drag their feet, analysts are not convinced that it will make a significant impact on most enterprise customers.
"By this time, companies are used to delay, so they're not sitting around waiting for Longhorn before going through with their strategies," said IDC analyst Roger Kay.
Many companies are likely to wait while Longhorn is out for at least a year before bringing it into the enterprise, Kay predicted. "We're at least three years away from corporate adoption on a large scale," he said.
_
Despite the wait-and-see attitude, enterprise customers are anticipating using Longhorn, which might limit competitor success even if the release date changes. "I don't see a delay as an opportunity for Linux or other vendors," he said. "Not unless Microsoft suddenly falls apart and doesn't deliver it at all. But I don't see that happening."
Pyramid Building
Kleynhans noted that, Whether or not Longhorn meets its release date, companies should be ready not just for the OS, but also for what will follow it.
"Longhorn is a massive undertaking because it makes incredible changes to how applications interact with the OS without shutting off the existing world," he said. "It would be fair to say no one has ever undertaken software change as big as this before."
Because it will represent an overwhelming shift, Kleynhans expects a stream of Longhorn-related products coming into the market after the OS release, both from Microsoft and from other vendors.
"There's going to be a lot of churn in terms of products, and service packs," he said. "No matter when it comes out, there's going to be more change in the market than most people expect."
Comments
Originally posted by the cool gut
[B]Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like it's going to be 2007 now.
What in the fuck are they doing?
My guess is trying to make up for (perhaps huge) deficiencies that the general populace might have accepted prior to the recent surge in OS X/Mac popularity.
In other words, trying to make the improvements noticeable enough for people to want to buy it.
Personally, until they fix the disaster that they've created with spyware/virii/etc, they may as well stop piling on useless new features.
(And by the time they do get their crap in one sock both Linux and OSX will have them by the shorhairs.)
Originally posted by dmz
They are WAY to bloated to function. The groupthink at Megashaft will be its undoing. They have an attitude adjustment of IBM proportions in their future.
(And by the time they do get their crap in one sock both Linux and OSX will have them by the shorhairs.)
I agree, I agree.
Originally posted by MarcUK
I agree, I agree.
Longhorn is another bolt-on, right??? I can't see these dingbats, doing anyting but throwing the whole thing out and starting over. If they had any brains they'd put their own frontend on 'nix fire up WINE and call it a day.
But then when their mission statement includes a "no lube for the consumer" clause maybe the whole company needs devote themselves to writing sequels to VG titles authored by real, live talented people. At this point, the management desicions and coporate culture of Ballmer and the gang have got to be roughly analogous to the final sequence of Scarface.
seems to me this article basically talks about what would happen if Longhorn gets delayed again. It's a far cry from claiming it is, or even might be, delayed again.
Originally posted by rageous
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seems to me this article basically talks about what would happy if Longhorn gets delayed again. It's a far cry from claiming it is, or even might be, delayed again.
Like always the mods around here are right.
I will however point out how incredible delayed it already is and how many core features that have been downgraded or even pulled. When Apple ditched one "next great OS" after another before going with what now is X, at least they skipped inferior projects to better ones. MS neither deliver on time or with the promised features.
I SOO hope Apple have a group working on the next OS right now. If MS releases the new Windows in 2007 or 2008 it would be cool to have a small midlife celebration for X with a very general technology taste of what the next OS will bring in 7 year. Remember Apple touched X as the OS for next 15 years back in 1999.
Off-topic, in layman's terms why doesn't Apple have pop-ups, spyware, etc. Many of my financial sites have legitimate pop-ups for entering data. How does Safari handle this?
Originally posted by Advance The Man
Off-topic, in layman's terms why doesn't Apple have pop-ups, spyware, etc. Many of my financial sites have legitimate pop-ups for entering data. How does Safari handle this?
just like any other non-internet explorer browser. pop-up blocking needs to be disbled in order to see them. you'll even see these institutions urge visitors to turn off pop-up blocking. problem is, as our own lil' AI has shown here, some especially evil pop-up advertisers have found ways around current ad and pop-up blocking techniques.
i'll let more intelligent folks than i answer why macs don't have the virii/spyware/hack problems windows machines do.
Off-topic, in layman's terms why doesn't Apple have pop-ups, spyware, etc. Many of my financial sites have legitimate pop-ups for entering data. How does Safari handle this? [/B]
This is where Mozilla has a great advantage, because it allows you to manage pop-up blocking on a site-by-site basis. (I haven't tried Firefox yet, but I'm guessing this feature is there too, since Firefox is essentially Mozilla stripped down to just the web browser part of Mozilla.)
Originally posted by rageous
Any good site will allow you to launch a popup with a clickable link, not just launch one as they see fit. All browsers allow you to willingly launch popups.
Any good site designer would not use pop ups as part of the design of the site.
Originally posted by a_greer
Any good site designer would not use pop ups as part of the design of the site.
I disagree... there are instances where good design will use a popup. The primary advantage is that your existing window state is preserved while you perform some additional function in the popup. Sure, this aint necessary on Jimbo's Hot Blogzzz .com but for web-apps don't discount it.
That said, I generally prefer a single window app that use a few discriminate popups where the popup functionality is an advantage.
Originally posted by a_greer
Any good site designer would not use pop ups as part of the design of the site.
Not true at all, particularly for sites that want to display art. Having thumbnails and/or decriptive text links to popup windows displaying large res versions of that art is far better than keeping everything enclosed within the parent window.
It save people from having to do a ton of navigating and excessive use of the back/forward buttons.
i'll let more intelligent folks than i answer why macs don't have the virii/spyware/hack problems windows machines do.
(The intelligent folks part doesn't apply to me...) They still dominate the desktop market and enjoy a huge slice of enterprise. This coupled with Windows loosey-goosey internet security/coding (layman talk here...) makes them a desirable target for malicious hackers.
I think if the shoe were on the other foot and Apple was the 800lb gorilla, Mac users would be wrestling with hackers also. Probably not anywhere near the degree that infects Windows users, but it would be bad.