Longhorn could be tough sell for Microsoft

[Liebe]

to be honest, i stopped reading this thread after the second page. people honestly think a microsoft OS will not sell? thats a load of garbage. one of the most powerful marketing companies on the planet is not going to have trouble selling an OS after a 5 year hiatus. aside from the people that dont need or want to spend money on it, there will be thousands of computers sold with it pre-installed the day it is released, plus all the early adopters and techno geeks. and then it will trickle out to everyone else that hasnt got it yet.

[Veedems Veteran]

dear god.. i hate when things like this come up, it's pointless really. 

longhorn is gonna sell, it's someones opinion, and it's been waited for for almost 2 years now.  stop these stupid little quotes that people THINk is gonna happen, and get the FACTS.

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I honestly don't think it's going to sell as well, initially. With hardware advances, for the average user, slowing greatly (we aren't doubling processor speed every 18 months anymore), people are less likely to buy a new system and, well, most average users only get a new OS when they get a new system.

[Hexlord]

to be honest, i stopped reading this thread after the second page.  people honestly think a microsoft OS will not sell?  thats a load of garbage.  one of the most powerful marketing companies on the planet is not going to have trouble selling an OS after a 5 year hiatus.  aside from the people that dont need or want to spend money on it, there will be thousands of computers sold with it pre-installed the day it is released, plus all the early adopters and techno geeks.  and then it will trickle out to everyone else that hasnt got it yet.

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To a certain extent it is true.. even Win ME sells :rofl:

[JakeM741]

Well all the new computers are gonna come with longhorn loaded on it most likely...so every pc off the shelves should have it on it....thats a hell of a lot of pcs

[g-n-t]

Well all the new computers are gonna come with longhorn loaded on it most likely...so every pc off the shelves should have it on it....thats a hell of a lot of pcs

585701595[/snapback]

but the question is, will people buy new computer?

by the time longhorn is out, most people will have a 2.5ghz+ computer with 512mb ram. that runs xp very fast. why would people buy a new computer if there is no software to take advantage of it? they can still run office 2k6/7 on their windows xp pc's and i REALLY doubt that it will have any problems running on that kind of system.

on the other hand, windows has a "timebomb" to slowly start slowing down until the speed is unbearable. unfortuantely, people will not realise it as it is a gradual slowing and they just assume that old computer are slow. just reformat the damn thing, it will be the exact same way it was when you thought it was woth 1500 bucks a year ago!

basically, longhorn will sell mostly with new pc's but not because people need it, but because people dont know any better.

[Raum]

on the other hand, windows has a "timebomb" to slowly start slowing down until the speed is unbearable. unfortuantely, people will not realise it as it is a gradual slowing and they just assume that old computer are slow.

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Source?

[Marduk]

I'm suprised nobody mentioned Palladium(sp?) weren't they saying for a while you'd need a mobo that supported it or had it on-bord?

[Raum]

I'm suprised nobody mentioned Palladium(sp?) weren't they saying for a while you'd need a mobo that supported it or had it on-bord?

585701655[/snapback]

Yeah, when that was announced that was big.

If Longhorn is too big on the whole media lockdown we control what you use your computer for bull****, I'll be sticking to Slackware and XP.

[g-n-t]

Source?

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no, not like a real "timebomb," windows just slows down after a while and you have to reformat regularly. i doubt it is done on purpose though, lol.

[Raum]

No, that's just called Windows requires some maintenence. IE, defragging, cleaning up the registry, emptyingt he recycle bin and so forth. If you no what you're doing, your OS won't slow much at all, not that a fresh format is a bad idea every few months.

[g-n-t]

No, that's just called Windows requires some maintenence.  IE, defragging, cleaning up the registry, emptyingt he recycle bin and so forth.  If you no what you're doing, your OS won't slow much at all, not that a fresh format is a bad idea every few months.

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exactly.

and how many people know what they are doing? 1 out of every 100 average computer users? if that.

[+Warwagon MVC]

why would it be tough sell, when it is released it will be the newest microsoft operating system, there for its going to come on every new computer and every mom and pop are going to buy it at walmart and try to install it on their home system. Just like alot of kids tell there parents they need to install xp because it is alot better than 98, (which it is) but they come to the parents house and install it for their parents, then the parents call me (computer repair guy) because thier computer is running really slow. Well the son (who odly enough according to the father, teaches a computer course) installed XP on their parents system that only had 64 megs of ram. Also who cares about the delays.. the average joe has never even heard the code name longhorn let alone that its been delayed

[sundayx Veteran]

xp is good enough. hell win98 is good enough if youre jsut surfing, emailing and perhaps doing some letters. longhorns going to be a slow start for ms, cause only people who are buying new computers (packaged) and computer nerds would get a copy. imo longhorns just for the speed/ease of use, new techs/softwares, eye candy etc

[5Horizons]

It'll probably be as tough as a sell as XP was. Basically all XP did was bring users over to the NT side of things and add a few usability features and graphical bells and whistles. I remember a lot of people saying that they wouldn't upgrade from 2000 or 98, and there'll be people like that this time too. Heck, I even waited quite a long time before upgrading, and just this year my school is finally installing XP on all the computers.

I guess the real key to this is whether or not Microsoft can deliver the amazing new experience they keep hyping. Like many people have said, hardware just isn't getting outdated as fast anymore and computers are going to be a tough sell for Dell and the rest too, eventually (heh, until some sort of big breakthrough hits)...

[g-n-t]

win98 was insecure and crashed frequently. that is not so with windows xp. And although longhorn will be faster at RTM than it is now in the alphas, i REALLY doubt it will be anywhere near as fast as xp.

@mx3, but most people used ME/98 at the time. 2k was really only used in bussinesses, so MS didnt have much competition there, especially since 2k cost more than xp home. however, many bussinesses still use win 2k and not xp because there really isnt much there to justify an upgrade. although this is not as true with longhorn, you must also remember that xp was released 2 years after 2k, and longhorn is going to take 5 years.

at first, they did hype it, then they realized they couldnt live up to it, so they started cutting features. little by little(first taking off network winFS THEN all winFS, as it stands, all info points that there will be no sidebar, although this might still cahnge), they took away the features that made longhorn great and ported the others back to windows xp.

MS was between a rock and a hard place. either make your current product better to compete with linux/osx and risk not selling truckloads of the next update, or keep xp crappy to encourage people to upgrade to longhorn, and to your competitors products.

however, MS can afford to lose money on longhorn, but they cant afford to lose their customers.

[Argote]

windows has a "timebomb" to slowly start slowing down until the speed is unbearable.

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I think the oficial term is The "Registry"

[Ivan Kot]

I think Microsoft has a chance to sell a good number of copies because of people's curiosity - noone knows what the next version will look like and Microsoft also does not announce anything that makes people want to check what will it be like - nice marketing strategy, I think. :)

Anyhow, I will check it out when it will be released - here it will cost about 3$ like every other cd :)

[5Horizons]

@mx3, but most people used ME/98 at the time. 2k was really only used in bussinesses, so MS didnt have much competition there, especially since 2k cost more than xp home.

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Well, when I was talking about 2k I meant businesses using it for their workstations. And I agree, there wasn't much benefit for the businesses there.

It'll be interesting to see what Microsoft comes up with to help push people toward LH. ;)

[nvizible]

To be very honest, I won't just go out and purchase it. Rather, I will wait; firstly to see whether it will be widely adopted, and secondly for there to be enough mods and themes for it. When such a time arrives, I'll switch! :yes:

[raskren]

i cant get over the name LongHorn

ahahhaahahaha

585702016[/snapback]

Longhorn is the codename for this product. The "retail name" is going to something different to keep people like you from sh!tting themselves.

[jerry]

I think Microsoft has a chance to sell a good number of copies because of people's curiosity - noone knows what the next version will look like and Microsoft also does not announce anything that makes people want to check what will it be like - nice marketing strategy, I think. :)

585702012[/snapback]

Thats makes absolutely ZERO sense. Its still not in Beta stage yet and there are tons of themes, styles, side bars, transparent effects, etc. even the friggin status clock has been copied. So by the time it is ready for release, a large % of people will know it. Even if they dont, Microsoft will promote the hell out of it marketing all its new features.

Anyhow, I will check it out when it will be released - here it will cost about 3$ like every other cd :)

585702012[/snapback]

And thanks for letting us know your plans on pirating it. :pinch:

[g-n-t]

hes not going to pirate it, someone else is.

and when you live in a country where buying a pirated copy is easier(not to mention cheaper) than buying it retail, then the only person you can blame for that is MS.

[jerry]

hes not going to pirate it, someone else is.

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And he's not ? Buying a bootleg or pirated copy is still pirating.

[emel]

I will buy it after I buy a Dual-core AMD64 CPU with 1 gig RAM.. but in the meantiem I will just *get* it..

[Hexlord]

hes not going to pirate it, someone else is.

and when you live in a country where buying a pirated copy is easier(not to mention cheaper) than buying it retail, then the only person you can blame for that is MS.

585706233[/snapback]

Agreed.