It’s the end of the world….or something….

It’s been a long couple of weeks. The first week of September, the spousal unit and I decided to go claim our house in northern WI. Given that it was a busy week, we still managed to enjoy a bit of the outdoors, stars, and a Packers game. However, a few days after our arrival my mother called to tell me my Dad had a mild heart attack and he was going to have bypass surgery. So….off to Colorado we went. To make this trip more interesting, I still had 2 weeks left in school.

On a happy note, I managed to keep my grades up. I only missed one assignment but I was late on several. Thank god for understanding instructors….

Still the running around cost me a letter grade….I’ll have to settle for a B in my Architectural Implementation course.

So now that I’m back in my own house, and I have had a chance to decompress….I came across an article about Windows 8. It’s been rumored for awhile that Win8 was going to be the operating system that bridged the gap….or in other words, the OS that ran on a phone, tablet, and PC’s. Ya OK, that’s really a huge surprise, it would be the smart thing to do. God knows, from both a development and IT perspective, it makes sense to have one OS for multiple platforms. But that’s not what got my attention.

What got me paying attention to the article was the similarities between Apple and Windows. Win8 is going to have an App Store. Win8 isn’t going to support Flash. Win8 is going to across tablets, phones, and Laptops/Desktops (yes I know, I repeated that). Really? After 30 years….Microsoft is going to emulate Apple AGAIN?

Microsoft owes it’s success to Apple. It borrowed the GUI from Apple….it borrowed the mouse interface from Apple. I have often said, Win3.1 was the Intel version of a Mac. However, MS went on to do their thing…they refined Windows to be a pretty decent OS, or at least XP and Win7 were/have been. After all that success, why would you go emulate Apple again?

Actually, I understand why…..it’s because PC’s are dying. Tablets and smartphones are the future. The modern computing environment is evolving…again. Within 5 years…95% of all computing will be done on smartphones that dock to a monitor and keyboard (or some input device), while the remaining 5% will be reserved for IT people and developers using laptops/desktops for serious power functions. The average user may use their old desktops as home servers. Regardless, but the future of computing is mobile.

M stands for Mobile – Frank Burns MASH 4077

All that being said, I still don’t understand why Microsoft would go out of their way to once again emulate Apple. Ok…granted, Apple is currently the leader in the Mobile arena with Google chomping at their heels with Droid. Microsoft missed the boat on this one, they were sleeping when the world decided to become untethered to their desks. Regardless though, Microsoft should have known this was coming. I mean I’ve seen this coming for years.

Maybe my co-worker is right….Apple is becoming the dominant player and they are taking over the world. Or maybe it no longer matters what OS you use, so long as you can connect to the Internet and use an online app. Whatever the future holds, I don’t think it’s going to be good for Microsoft. I don’t think Microsoft has thought out the tablet > pc > phone thing to well.

Microsoft has never been good at shifting gears. When they shift their gears on the OS platform, it takes until the next OS upgrade to get something right. For instance, 2000 was ok but 2003 was better, Vista sucked while Win7 rocked the house, Win95 was horrible and it wasn’t until 98 SE that things got better. I honestly think Win8 will be a worse OS release than Vista. It might even make ME look good. In such a case, I don’t think Microsoft can bounce back. In a sense of irony, Microsoft might be purchased by Oracle or Google.