Instead of trying to shoehorn Linux into Windows, they could have launched another product with some of the ideas here. Then Windows 10 would not be in limbo (in terms of UI and features).
I don't understand why Apple and Microsoft feel stuck to one OS.
If MS were to write a new bespoke OS that requires new everything and maintains no backward compatibility (that's the point of a new OS, isn't it?) and launch it to the world, the amount of people who'd rush out and buy it can be counted on one hand. It could be absolutely revolutionary, but it would lack one major thing:
Momentum.
Look at every OS that's on the market right now. It solves a problem. Right now there are very few people who can't pick an OS off the shelf that will solve their particular problem. Be it an RTOS or a fancy gui that your grandma is comfortable with, the software already exists.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is that unless you can upend the current OS landscape while maintaining compatibilty, then a new OS for the masses doesn't solve a problem. It creates one.
Though in name it's not a new OS, Windows 8, 10 are new experiences for anyone who uses them since Windows 7.
I think you're right about momentum, MS isn't able to come out of it's momentum of the old into the new.
For example, Apple transitions to a new OS with confidence and takes the ecosystem with it in a blink of an eye because they are trying control their momentum instead of being driven by it.
Edit: Windows can maintain backward compatibility with its ecosystem if they did it well, like Apple has done.
> Instead of trying to shoehorn Linux into Windows, they could have launched another product with some of the ideas here. Then Windows 10 would not be in limbo (in terms of UI and features).
You have cause and effect the wrong way there: Windows 10 is in limbo precisely because MS have acknowledged that massive new OS rewrites every few years isn't cost effective. Not because Microsoft can't work out how to ship a new OS. There was a press release about how Windows would adopt a different release cycle around the launch time of Win 10.
> I don't understand why Apple and Microsoft feel stuck to one OS.
I don't understand why you think Apple or Microsoft fragmenting their install base would be a good thing for business.
geocrasher|5 years ago
Momentum.
Look at every OS that's on the market right now. It solves a problem. Right now there are very few people who can't pick an OS off the shelf that will solve their particular problem. Be it an RTOS or a fancy gui that your grandma is comfortable with, the software already exists.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is that unless you can upend the current OS landscape while maintaining compatibilty, then a new OS for the masses doesn't solve a problem. It creates one.
kowsheek|5 years ago
I think you're right about momentum, MS isn't able to come out of it's momentum of the old into the new.
For example, Apple transitions to a new OS with confidence and takes the ecosystem with it in a blink of an eye because they are trying control their momentum instead of being driven by it.
Edit: Windows can maintain backward compatibility with its ecosystem if they did it well, like Apple has done.
hnlmorg|5 years ago
You have cause and effect the wrong way there: Windows 10 is in limbo precisely because MS have acknowledged that massive new OS rewrites every few years isn't cost effective. Not because Microsoft can't work out how to ship a new OS. There was a press release about how Windows would adopt a different release cycle around the launch time of Win 10.
> I don't understand why Apple and Microsoft feel stuck to one OS.
I don't understand why you think Apple or Microsoft fragmenting their install base would be a good thing for business.