Microsoft’s UK MD, Gordon Frazer, is quoted on the BBC news site as looking ahead to a time when computers do a better job of understanding what we want and when we want it.
He takes Ken Olsen to task for saying “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home”. This was in 1977. In 1977 there was no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home. Computers were only really useful when attached to larger computers in big organisations.
Compare this to:
Bill Gates, BusinessWeek, 26th November 1984
The next generation of interesting software will be done on the Macintosh, not the IBM PC.
and
Douglas Adams
The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place.
I think it’s frankly ironic that we have Microsoft telling us how the future is going to be when I see them becoming more and more irrelevant every day. This isn’t to say they are irrelevant now but for the last decade they have utterly dominated (and I mean that with every negative connotation) the IT industry. My comment therefore may only show them going from 90% dominance to 75% dominance but the end result is the same.
I still don’t know anyone who raves about Vista on their home machines. I know a few people who use it but they’re all the sort who have for the last decade been bleeding Microsoft blue and flying the Redmond flag. No surprise there then. It’s the normal people. Seems everyone is happy with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Sure – Vista is flying out the doors as people buy new PCs but the rate of adoption is truly uninspiring. I usually have a few people who beg me to come round and help them with their PCs. None of them, none of my family and friends, have even bought new PCs with Vista.
And the chance of them buying it off the shelf? Zero percent.