fool me twice?? windows 7 arrives next month

Windows 7

fool me once, shame on windows vista. fool me twice, i’ll never use your software again.

microsoft is shipping windows 7 on october 22, 2009, and this time it had better work. windows 7 is essentially what vista was supposed to be: the next great thing after windows xp. but vista was death incarnate was digital cancer had so many problems, that loyal windows users clung for dear life to xp, and it prompted the unthinkable to happen: someone else (google) to jump into the operating system competition (with google chrome).

the situation is a bit more dire than most people realize. the door is already wide open for google not only to continue domination in the search market (bing+yahoo still loses to google badly), but to take over in the operating system market as well. with apple’s resurgence as the greatest operating system and computer on earth and google on the way to the top, microsoft absolutely must deliver with windows 7.

microsoft managed to survive the vista debacle because they can hemorrhage cash for years and still not need to visit the emergency room. but if they fail again, microsoft will have so violated the public’s trust in their brand that they may not recover. with their stock price still worth less that it was one two five years ago, and with essential ownership of a partnership with flailing yahoo, it is essential that windows 7 be a success. otherwise, the inevitable will happen long before it should: google will rise to the top and displace microsoft as the world’s leading operating system.

i’ll be loading windows 7 onto my dell xps virtual reality machine. but fool me twice, shame on micosoft (and pity those who still own msft shares if windows 7 fails).

google’s caffeine spells further trouble for microsoft and bing

Google Caffeine

now that microsoft has purchased taken over partnered with yahoo, it is google’s move. i had commented earlier that google’s venture into the pc operating system business would mean temporary salvation for flailing yahoo, and this has come to pass with the partnership with microsoft. then again, this was expected. microsoft’s partnership with yahoo means google must now step up its game. the fact that they knew this was coming were prepared for this partnership was made manifest by their announcement of ‘caffeine’: the next generation of google search technology. google’s quick response to microsoft’s long and labored with partnership negotiations with yahoo reveals that google is holding all the cards and driving the development of the web-based communication services we use.

the article states:

Basically Google engineers are re-writing the foundation code of their search engine infrastructure. The Caffeine preview is meant for developers to test search page powered with same Google search engine. This infrastructural change will be the foundation for the future indexing changes that will take place in Google s search engine to speed up website. By speed, the next-generation architecture would be focused on offering real-time search results.

real-time searches? wow! that is fast. and the timing of it will make microsoft’s bing obsolete before it is fully adopted by the public.

this is one strategic area where google (and apple for the matter) is superior to microsoft. while microsoft produces new software, tests it, tweaks it, and then launches it with much fanfare (only to watch it bomb like vista), google develops a simple version of a much-demanded software and soft launches it as a beta to an open development community. this not only allows new ideas and innovation to be integrated into google’s existing products in development, but gives google users a sense of ownership in the forthcoming product. everyone likes to say, ‘i helped with that,’ or ‘i already use that’ whenever something new is released. google understands this and exploits it like no other. google then tweaks the live product, instead of holding the product back until it is supposedly ‘perfected.’

in the rapidly changing world of technology, you’ve got to be ahead of the competition not only in innovation and development, but in release to the public. google has perfected this; they wait to announce new product offerings on the heels of their competition’s announcements, essentially drafting off of their competition’s expensive press release campaigns and taking the wind out of their sails all in one swift motion. there is nothing more frustrating than working for years on a new product, ramping up the release, and spending time and money and releasing it to the public, only to have someone else announce something better a week later. microsoft is learning this the hard way.

and if you haven’t yet seen this classic video, this is why i use mac and google.

google to launch pc operating system

google announced it will finally soon be launching an os for pcs based on its new google chrome web browser. i welcome this new software for a couple of reasons. 1) google does things properly. 2) a real google competitor will bring the cost of microsoft’s browser down. 3) anything is better than vista.

i don’t think people realize how much trouble this really spells for microsoft. their stock is down, vista flopped, and they still have no solution for the vista problem. meanwhile, apple is on the rise, not only in the device market but in pc market share as well. a google chrome os could spell significant trouble for an already reeling microsoft. yes, they have a lot of cash, and have been able to buy up competition or wait out better software solutions until they catch up technologically, but i’m guessing google wants neither to sell or drag their feet.

the big winner in all this: yahoo. after their ceo, jerry yang, refused to sell to partner up with microsoft, microsoft walked, and yahoo’s share price plummeted, leading to yang’s ouster. maybe this announcement by google will drive microsoft back to yahoo for talks, lifting yahoo’s share price.