Longhorn could be tough sell for Microsoft

[jerry]

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 it will be five years after 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.

Complete Article

[trance]

Agreed.. with Avalon, Indigo and WinFS being backported to prior OS's, the impetus is not there to buy a new machine and buy LH.

Let me tell ya, LH runs barely passbily on HT 3.06 machines... It would be good on dual procs with 1GB+ of ram...

I have noplans of buying it...

[david]

I'd buy it.

[ev0|]

Agreed.. with Avalon, Indigo and WinFS being backported to prior OS's, the impetus is not there to buy a new machine and buy LH.

Let me tell ya, LH runs barely passbily on HT 3.06 machines... It would be good on dual procs with 1GB+ of ram...

I have noplans of buying it...

585699306[/snapback]

you have no idea how longhorn runs. If you're going to spread FUD, do it elsewhere. Forming opinions on pre-alpha releases of an OS is never a good idea.

[acerr]

dont you need a 64 bit processor to run it or somthing?

[Mercutio Vanse]

Oh rest assured, Microsoft will find some way of eventually forcing you to have to buy longhorn with thier power of a consolidated monopoly.

[b0m8er]

Let me tell ya, LH runs barely passbily on HT 3.06 machines... It would be good on dual procs with 1GB+ of ram...

585699306[/snapback]

Where did you get that info from??

Anyway I'm gonna buy it! Just bought new laptop, and I think it'd be powerful enough to run LH.

[Phemo]

Let me tell ya, LH runs barely passbily on HT 3.06 machines... It would be good on dual procs with 1GB+ of ram...

585699306[/snapback]

Yes, the leaked version of Longhorn runs badly. However, it was never meant to be seen by the general public. One possible reason is because Microsoft knew people would jump to conclusions like you just did.

In short, an alpha build is not representative of a final product. The final build is pretty much guaranteed to run better.

[L3thal Veteran]

They sure won't have trouble selling it to me, especially when I get it for 3/4 of the price due to my discount :D

[E t h a n]

I'm sure it won't run on my laptop. No plans to upgrade at all. XP is fine. My proggies all work fine. :rofl:

[theresiststance2003]

Windows XP is a wonderful operating system. Somehow I don't see the public buying into Longhorn when XP has been so stable and user friendly.

[Lee G. Veteran]

^ Agreed :yes:

[Valerus]

I don't know the specs, so I will be hesitant to purchase it

[webeagle12]

I have 3 computers and I dont plan to upgrade to Longhorn at all, just waste of money

[ev0|]

people will definately buy longhorn when they see how pretty and nice the new WGF enabled UI is. That's 1/2 the reason people buy macs now for christ's sake, because "it's so pretty". I seriously doubt microsoft is gonna have a hard time selling longhorn. For those of use who have been around for a while, we all remember the windows 2000 zealots when whistler was in beta (whistler was xp's codename) who said, you can do all this on win2k, etc etc, no one will buy whistler, it's gonna be slow, you're gonna need a 1 Ghz Computer to run it, etc etc. None of those things were true, and the same applies to LH. ;)

[Phemo]

people will definately buy longhorn when they see how pretty and nice the new WGF enabled UI is. That's 1/2 the reason people buy macs now for christ's sake, because "it's so pretty". I seriously doubt microsoft is gonna have a hard time selling longhorn. For those of use who have been around for a while, we all remember the windows 2000 zealots when whistler was in beta (whistler was xp's codename) who said, you can do all this on win2k, etc etc, no one will buy whistler, it's gonna be slow, you're gonna need a 1 Ghz Computer to run it, etc etc. None of those things were true, and the same applies to LH.  ;)

585699417[/snapback]

I completely agree. Saying right now whether you believe it's worth upgrading to or not is a bit pointless since none of us know exactly what features to expect just yet.

[jerry]

That's 1/2 the reason people buy macs now for christ's sake, because "it's so pretty".

585699417[/snapback]

Source to back that up or are we pulling figures from somewhere else ? :huh:

I seriously doubt microsoft is gonna have a hard time selling longhorn. For those of use who have been around for a while, we all remember the windows 2000 zealots when whistler was in beta (whistler was xp's codename) who said, you can do all this on win2k, etc etc, no one will buy whistler, it's gonna be slow, you're gonna need a 1 Ghz Computer to run it, etc etc. None of those things were true, and the same applies to LH.  ;)

585699417[/snapback]

Um I dont think there was any Windows 2000 vs Windows XP debate in the pre-XP era. Windows 2000 is aimed at corporate/business users where as XP is aimed at consumers.

And just for a fact, many people (power users) still use Windows 2000 over XP because they do not need the extra added features in XP.

[ev0|]

Um I dont think there was any Windows 2000 vs Windows XP debate in the pre-XP era.

Well, you're wrong. There was plenty of debate all over the internet's forums. ever heard of windows 2000 professional upgraded to Windows XP professional ?

Source to back that up or are we pulling figures from somewhere else ?

I don't have a source to back it up because no source exists jerry, give me a break. But I see alot of people around here and who talk to me in real life and the first thing they mention about why they like macs is "it just looks better than windows" I think we can all relate to that.

And just for a fact, many people (power users) still use Windows 2000 over XP

That might have been true 2 years ago, but since you can't even get SP2 for Internet Explorer on Windows2000, most people have been moving to XP. At my job, we had windows 2000 for the longest time, until 2004, when we switched completely over to Windows XP Service Pack 2. I can tell you it performs better than Windows 2000 does, supports more hardware and has improved experience overall. I am a System Administrator here and I know what I'm talking about.

Edited March 30, 2005 by ev0|

[jerry]

Well, you're wrong. There was plenty of debate all over the forums. ever heard of windows 2000 professional upgraded to Windows XP professional ?

585699462[/snapback]

Ok so I didnt come across such arguments but the comparision was a joke.

Windows 2000 - Corporate Businesses

Windows XP - Individual home users

Ofcourse Windows XP would sell more. Here the comparision is different;

Windows XP - Individual home users

Longhorn - Individual home users

Okay ?

I don't have a source to back it up because no source exists jerry, give me a break. But I see alot of people around here and who talk to me in real life and the first thing they mention about why they like macs is "it just looks better than windows" I think we can all relate to that.

585699462[/snapback]

Most people who are like that just install a Mac OS X theme :rofl: they wont buy a Mac just for that reason alone. If what you are saying was to be true, Apple would have a higher market share but instead what we see is a lot of people just make their Windows look like Mac OS. :D

[L3thal Veteran]

Most people who are like that just install a Mac OS X theme :rofl: they wont buy a Mac just for that reason alone. If what you are saying was to be true, Apple would have a higher market share but instead what we see is a lot of people just make their Windows look like Mac OS. :D

585699483[/snapback]

Very good point. That's why OS X themes are the most popular for XP.

[EduardValencia]

Longhorn will have a slow adoption through years (those times of 95,98,are over),because of the high system requirements it will have,just like xp,this is on microsoft plans.

People should understand this

Longhorn will be a Powerful graphical OS,the porting to XP of some of it's technology means that upgrading to longhorn could be a little bit expensive,more than expected.so they are assuring users who don't have plans to upgrade to have access to some core components of LH,this won't diminish and won't take out the LH excitement,because longhorn is simply more than that. :woot:

People will be impressed for sure,so microsoft,won't have hard times selling it. :yes:

[ev0|]

Very good point.  That's why OS X themes are the most popular for XP.

585699493[/snapback]

Come on guys - XP themes don't look anywhere near as nice as OS X does and you know it. You can't even get alpha blended shadows unless you use a buggy app like Y'z Shadow.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

It's stupid to make any claims about this now.

I'm sure plenty of people will buy Longhorn when it is released. Microsoft will have a massive marketing campaign behind it, and being the first major Windows upgrade in several years - it will get people's attention. The revamped UI will make people want to switch.

But there will also be a huge number of people that stay with XP until they get a new computer.

Microsoft's first goal is to kill off Windows 98/Me. And it's not just about getting people to buy a new version of Windows.

Supporting those legacy non-NT OSes holds back the entire industry.

Supporting Windows 2000/XP is far easier. Moving Windows 2000 users to XP is less urgent, though they've made a real push with their security technologies and the upcoming IE 7 to get users to make that upgrade more worthwhile.

Believe me, killing off Windows 98/Me is a very, very important step for the industry. Windows 2000 (or possibly even XP) will become the new technology "baseline" instead of Win9x. That means no DOS and Win32 baggage. That means .NET support. And on XP or later, that means WinFX support. The amount of baggage that ties Windows 2000/XP to the 9x era is far greater than you've probably ever imagined.

[EduardValencia]

Come on guys - XP themes don't look anywhere near as nice as OS X does and you know it. You can't even get alpha blended shadows unless you use a buggy app like Y'z Shadow.

585699503[/snapback]

You can say that for XP,but for longhorn the bird sings at another pace.

[Slimy]

it will come with every new computer, ppl will have it; others will want it