MICROSOFT'S CRIPPLEWARE
Microsoft — the largest software company globally — has been losing market share to its competitors, which subsequently pushed them to enter into the hardware market. The billion dollar question is, can Microsoft beat its competitors at their own game? Microsoft's lightweight Surface Pro 4 tablet was powerful enough to be use as a full desktop workstation, even though it was based on older technology when it was first released in 2015. However, it is due to be replaced by the even more powerful Surface Pro 5 driven by Intel’s much-awaited Kaby Lake chips in 2017, running Windows 10 Redstone 2.
Since the Surface Pro 4 suffered some serious battery drain problems it is would be a treat to see how Microsoft is going to handle the stronger and more power hungry chipset of the Surface Pro 5. When the Samsung launch the S6, it also had battery drain problems but when it launched the Samsung S7, battery drain problems escalated to overheating batteries, exploding batteries and fires. Microsoft also entered the mobile phone market and their new Surface Phone is also expected to debut with the Intel Kaby Lake chips. Should Microsoft launch both these devices simultaniously, it will more likely than not dominate technical news for some time because Microsoft would have beat Apple hands down in both the tablet and phone areas.
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| Google Home (left) and Amazon Echo (right) smart speakers / controllers |
Be that as it may, Apple plans to hitting back with a vengeance as it prepares to unveil its iPad 2 Pro early in 2017 before Microsoft’s Surface Pro 5 is launch since Microsoft is waiting for delivery of the Intel Kaby Lake chips.
Meanwhile Google — a late comer to mobile hardware — is due to debut their (Nexus) Pixel 7 tablet device early in 2017 which essentially runs Android 7.1 Nougat with the sole objective to showcase the outstanding power of the Android OS on tablets. Android is based on Linux and their is a range of linux distros for your Android device, for those tinkers who could improve on mobile apps for the common good of man. Thanks Linus! High five to Linus and a middle finger to Bill.
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Hail Free Open source, hail Linux, hail Linus Travalds!
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On the Smart Speaker front, Siri the iPhone voice control has lead the market. With the success of the Amazon Echo — a smart speaker / smart home controller like Siri — it was inevitable that the competition would soon originate their own versions. Google produced Google Home which is backed by its ubiquitous search engine, leaving Amazon Echo's in jeopardy.
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| The anatomy of the Amazon Smart Speaker. |
Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant - Cortana - featured on Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10. Cortana is an improvement of its older voice technology called TellMe which they bought in 2009. Microsoft artificial Intelligence ambitiously aims to crush both the Google Home and the Amazon Echo with their software based Home Hub.
On another level Sony's PlayStation 4 has consistently outsold Microsoft's Xbox One because there are at least 6 things the PS4 can do that the Xbox One just can't.
A BIT OF HISTORY
Opportunistic Bill initially got a contract from IBM to supply a PC operating system, whilst he was still running traf-o-data. Bill then bought the PC Dos operating system in question from one of his university mates, called it his own and flogged it to IBM for megabucks because he himself couldn't come up with an operating system. Personally I don't think he was savvy enough. But with cash now in hand employing real programmers was a breeze. MS DOS quickly metamorphased from version 3.to version DOS 6 and after spying on Apple Mackintosh with their GUI, widows 3 was born which was soon replaced by Windows 3.11 which in my opinion was a fairly solid OS although it was just a GUI running on top of DOS 6. Computer CRC errors, computer lock-up, unexpected resets, etc ... plagued the software and since it was easier to replace Windows 3.11 with Windows 95 than to try and fix it, Microsoft took the easy route. The same happened to Windows 95, which was superceded by Windows 98. The service packs updates were more bloated than the operating systems themselves. Troublesome Windows XP eventually made its debut but was short lived and replaced by Windows Vista which gave way to Windows 7 then Windows 8 then Windows 10. Microsoft sold software but the software as a whole was so unpredictable and troublesome that any amount of updates just could't fix it, hence it was known as crippleware.
Clients were demanding that the software perform as expected or at least as advertised, or they wanted their money back from MS. That's when Microsoft legal came up with the brilliant plan of leasing the software -in condition as is - supported by an EULA (legal disclaimer) for a once off fee or an annual fee. Coyright, trademarks and an End User Licence Agreement mean that when you install the software before you can even try it or test it, you had to accept the leasing condition, the as-is conditions, the limited right, the restrictions, etc. In fact you had to click on a check-box as acceptance which roughly said that you agree to be bound by all the terms and conditions.
That really sucked, especially if reverse engineering was your forte. That meant you couldn't decompile or disassemble or or decrypt to derive the source code of any of its application. That was the greatest damper Microsoft has placed on education. The would be electronics engineer, software programmer, tinker was stopped in their tracks from getting an education at the expense of Microsoft and making possible improvements, modifications, enhancements. Hail Free Open source, hail Linux, hail Linus Travalds! Years later when the threat of free free opensource loomed over commercial Microsoft software, Bill started an educational drive, forming collaborations with Help K-12 school leaders, and charging schools 50% off software purchases. Then there is also the Microsoft office student discount, and finally the Office free Office 365 download, - free to those who qualify.
Licensed Propriety software aka crippleware has always been Microsoft's business model which constantly needed to be replaced by newer software because it's just too difficult and too time consuming to debug and fix previous versions. Case in point, look at their track record and their latest Windows 10 is due to be replaced by its newest incarnation Windows 10 Redstone 2. Regardless, it is this cripple ware that made Bill the richest man in he world. Earning him top spot of the 1,810 Billionaires who made the 2016 List of the World’s Richest People amongst which are Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Charles Koch (Koch Industries), Carlos Slim, Mark Zuckerberg (FaceBook), Larry Ellison and Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA).
