My Opinion on Why Windows is the Market Leader

[mamamia88]

This is just an opinion so please don't flame me. Windows just seems to be the perfect median between linux and mac. Linux is free and can be difficult to get setup and running properly(not necessarily but a lot of times is). Macs are expensive and you don't have to setup jack squat. With Linux you are very lucky if every piece of hardware works out of the box. With a mac your hardware is guaranteed to work, because you have to buy it from apple. So does anyone else see it? Windows is not more popular because it is necessarily better, but it is exactly in between 2 extremes.

[NoaHall]

No.

[SmittyJensen]

No.
Yes.

[koleoptero]

So why doesn't everyone buy macs since they're so perfect?

[NoaHall]

Yes.

No. It might be the "median" in some vague senses, but that is not why it's the market leader.

[mizukiov]

kinda. it walks the middle ground. but its more complex than that.

[leveled]

If you can see it for what it is Mac is more likely to be in between.;)

And recurring/ Win fan boy thread.

[pwnst*r]

Recurring in 3..2..

[Revolutionary101]

So why doesn't everyone buy macs since they're so perfect?

Please note the fact that they are expensive.

[SmittyJensen]

no. It might be the "median" in some vague senses, but that is not why it's the market leader.
yes?!

[Marlonsm]

I don't think so. You're basically saying: Macs = Good but expensive, Linux = Bad but free, Windows = Not bad and reasonably priced.

Actually, Windows is the leader because people got used to it. It's not as bad as many people say, it does many things well, and that's why people don't have a need to change.

[NoaHall]

yes?!

No. Please stop saying yes.

[blur xc]

This is just an opinion so please don't flame me. Windows just seems to be the perfect median between linux and mac. Linux is free and can be difficult to get setup and running properly(not necessarily but a lot of times is). Macs are expensive and you don't have to setup jack squat. With Linux you are very lucky if every piece of hardware works out of the box. With a mac your hardware is guaranteed to work, because you have to buy it from apple. So does anyone else see it? Windows is not more popular because it is necessarily better, but it is exactly in between 2 extremes.


Your opinion completely disregards simple historic facts. Do a Google search on the history of Microsoft and DOS and how the home personal computer evolved. Microsoft's majority hold on the market has nothing to do with the product or how user friendly it is, but everything to do with smart (ethics notwithstanding) business decisions.

edit- and other peoples' idiotic business decisions...(**cough cough- IBM**)

BM

[mamamia88]

i know business decisions have something to do with it. and marlosm where did i say linux was bad? just saying initial setup could be a pain in the ***

[blur xc]

i know business decisions have something to do with it.

Not something- everything.

BM

[Revolutionary101]

I personally think that Microsoft uses unfair business practices and that is why it is so "popular". Then people get use to the bad OS and get a so called "dependency" on it. That makes it hard for people to want to switch to other OSs.

[Groucho Marxist]

Please note the fact that they are expensive.

Not to mention the fact that the technical specifications of said computers are hilariously out of proportion to said cost.

[NoaHall]

Not to mention the fact that the technical specifications of said computers are hilariously out of proportion to said cost.

And you can't build your own computers.

[blur xc]

I personally think that Microsoft uses unfair business practices and that is why it is so "popular". Then people get use to the bad OS and get a so called "dependency" on it. That makes it hard for people to want to switch to other OSs.

Lol- MS is like crack cocaine...and 90% of the world is an addict and in denial.

We need a new spin-off of the A&E series Intervention...

BM

[Regenweald]

This is just an opinion so please don't flame me. Windows just seems to be the perfect median between linux and mac. Linux is free and can be difficult to get setup and running properly(not necessarily but a lot of times is). Macs are expensive and you don't have to setup jack squat. With Linux you are very lucky if every piece of hardware works out of the box. With a mac your hardware is guaranteed to work, because you have to buy it from apple. So does anyone else see it? Windows is not more popular because it is necessarily better, but it is exactly in between 2 extremes.

Very engaging read. I've never before come across a thread like this in ubuntuforums before. Not in recurring discussions or anything.

[Marlonsm]

and marlonsm where did i say linux was bad? just saying initial setup could be a pain in the ***

Sorry, I got it wrong, I summarised too much in my post.

[leveled]

Linux= Work/Theming

Mac= Work/Music

Windows= Porn/Gaming


;)

[NoaHall]

Linux= Work/Theming

Mac= Work/Music

Windows= Porn/Gaming


;)

Porn on Windows? Yeah, nice way to get infected real easy.

[J V]

This is just an opinion so please don't flame me. Windows just seems to be the perfect median between linux and mac. Linux is free and can be difficult to get setup and running properly(not necessarily but a lot of times is). Macs are expensive and you don't have to setup jack squat. With Linux you are very lucky if every piece of hardware works out of the box. With a mac your hardware is guaranteed to work, because you have to buy it from apple. So does anyone else see it? Windows is not more popular because it is necessarily better, but it is exactly in between 2 extremes.Actually because of the price of the OS, macs are now comparatively cheaper than windows...

Windows leads because back before there were competition laws it sold OSes at 20 dollars each and let IBM (the biggest hw manufacturer of the time) install 95 by default on every PC it sold. Thats why we have anti-competition laws now...

Now that windows has the market share they've been steadily increasing prices, and adding anti-upgrades to get people to buy the even more expensive ones...

Can't wait until someone publishes a TCO of mac/windows... and someone else counters with a linux TCO?

[HappyFeet]

Recurring. And no, I don't feel the same way you do.

[3rdalbum]

This is just an opinion so please don't flame me. Windows just seems to be the perfect median between linux and mac. Linux is free and can be difficult to get setup and running properly(not necessarily but a lot of times is). Macs are expensive and you don't have to setup jack squat. With Linux you are very lucky if every piece of hardware works out of the box. With a mac your hardware is guaranteed to work, because you have to buy it from apple. So does anyone else see it? Windows is not more popular because it is necessarily better, but it is exactly in between 2 extremes.

This post is... well, what's the name of those things that keep the oars in on a rowboat?

Linux is not more difficult to set up than Windows. It's different, that's all.

And you're assuming that Windows is not an extreme of its own.

[Warpnow]

Windows and Mac would also be difficult to setup if it weren't done for you...

Its an issue with OEM support both hardware and sales wise that makes the difference in my opinion.

[staf0048]

Microsoft is on top because of many solid business decisions. One MAJOR one I can think of was to focus on software development as it's business and let hardware companies install it on their machines. I know this sounds simplistic, but prior to this decision by Bill Gates, Apple was the major computer name - in the then relatively small PC market anyway.

Business flocked to Windows as the market grew because Apple had too strong of a hold on the final product. As markets grow, many people want to enter, Apple restricted this and Windows welcomed it. Soon, several manufacturers had competing products, which helped drive the cost down, which drove sales and the market higher.

To this day, the story is much the same. Apple is still restrictive and as such expensive. Windows is still popular because its more or less a household name. They've built a strong brand and that, more than anything else in my opinion, keeps their business going.

Are they a monopoly? Maybe. The case could certainly be made, but then again there are competitors (namely Apple) who could have done something about it a long time ago.

I agree though, that the situation just described is bug #1.

[chessnerd]

I can see this as to why Windows will probably keep its dominant market share into the next few decades (I don't see it dropping below 50% before 2030, maybe even 2040).

Let’s do a quick history lesson of what happened to these three computing powers in the 25 years between 1981 and 1996. Here are some profiles and a "brief" history of computing...

Microsoft, by their nature, is a software company. They build programs and were around at a time when people needed a simple to use, inexpensive OS. And so, they made MS-DOS.

Apple, by their nature, is a hardware company. They build computers and were around at a time when there was no decent GUI-based OSs available. So, they made their own OS.

Linux, by its nature, is an open source project. It was built in someone's spare time and didn't come into its own until well into the 90s, long after Windows already had a foothold.

And now, a trip through time...

It's 1981. A company named Microsoft is doing pretty well. Having gotten a contract to collaborate with IBM in the creation of a DOS system, they have ended up making two similar versions of their OS - PC DOS, which was only for IBM computers, and MS-DOS, which was for all x86 based systems. In the end, MS-DOS, because of its more open nature, would become the industry standard.

At the same time, a company named Apple Computer Inc. was working on two projects: the Lisa, a high end, GUI-based system, and the Macintosh, a lower-cost alternative. In 1983, the Lisa will be released and will fail because of its incredible price. In 1984, however, the Macintosh would meet with limited success and keep the company alive.

And finally, in 1981, a 12 year old boy named Linus Torvalds was attending middle school in Finland.

Fast forward...

It's 1991. Microsoft has now entered the GUI market. Their Windows GUI, an extension for MS-DOS has begun to do very well, with Windows 3.0 selling over 100,000 copies in its first two weeks in May of 1990. OS/2, an OS they had been working on with IBM, was struggling. Windows generated far more profit for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided to focus more on Windows. A recent success, also, was their office suite, Microsoft Office, which contained a powerful text editor and spreadsheet program for both Windows and the Mac OS.

As for Apple, they introduced the PowerBook in 91, which sold hundreds of thousands of units in the first year and would become the base for the future of all laptops. It weighed in at 7 pounds and had 3 hours of battery life. They also released System 7, which would be in production until 1997 and offered many improvements over previous operating systems, including being “32-bit clean.”

Linus Torvalds, now a student at the University of Helsinki, has written a terminal emulator for the UNIX computers at his university. Later, he would realize that his work could become a fully-fledged OS. He posts a now very famous post on Usenet which states:
“Hello everybody out there using minix -
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).”

Forward to 1996…

Microsoft has seen massive success with their Windows 95 operating system, which has begun to be used on almost every computer in the world.

Apple, who has moved to the PPC architecture, is still releasing powerful computers with a powerful OS at premium prices. They had moved to System 7.5, and released the last version of their Performa computer, a lower-end consumer alternative to the professional Power Mac. Overall, the Performa had been a failure and Apple’s market share fell as consumers began to use PCs running Windows.

Linux, the name of the “hobby” started by Linus Torvalds in 1991, had begun to be developed by people from all around the world and Linus had released kernel version 1.0 in 1994. The Debian and Slackware projects had recently started to create freely available versions of Linux and the companies Red Hat and SuSE publish commercial editions of the now matured OS.

Now, let's look at what happened when people would walk into a computer store in 1996...
Consumer: "Hey, I'd like a computer."
Clerk: "Alright, we have this Dell PC running Windows 95 for $1200 Gateway PC running Windows 95 for $1100 and we have an Apple Power Mac running System 7 for $2000."
Consumer: "Why's the Macintosh more?"
Clerk: "Well, the Macintosh has better hardware and a more advanced interface."
Consumer: "But twice the price?"
Clerk: "Yeah, most people go with a PC."
Consumer: "And these are the only alternatives?"
Clerk: "That's all I know of."
Consumer: "Well, I guess I'll take a PC."

This was the beginning of Microsoft’s dominance in the personal computing market. This is why they have the market share they have today. Apple’s prices were too high, Linux was unknown, and everyone selling PCs sold them with Windows. Consumers had little choice and they decided with their pocketbooks.

Today, people have a choice, but I think you may have gotten the idea as to why Windows will remain popular. It’s the median, the middle ground. That will keep it alive.

[chessnerd]

Microsoft is on top because of many solid business decisions. One MAJOR one I can think of was to focus on software development as it's business and let hardware companies install it on their machines. I know this sounds simplistic, but prior to this decision by Bill Gates, Apple was the major computer name - in the then relatively small PC market anyway.

Business flocked to Windows as the market grew because Apple had too strong of a hold on the final product. As markets grow, many people want to enter, Apple restricted this and Windows welcomed it. Soon, several manufacturers had competing products, which helped drive the cost down, which drove sales and the market higher.

To this day, the story is much the same. Apple is still restrictive and as such expensive. Windows is still popular because its more or less a household name. They've built a strong brand and that, more than anything else in my opinion, keeps their business going.

Are they a monopoly? Maybe. The case could certainly be made, but then again their are competitors (namely Apple) who could have done something about it a long time ago.

I agree though, that the situation just described is bug #1.

Well, this basically explained my post in way less words. I feel kinda stupid that I took a half hour to collect all that info when I could have just said this.

Yeah, that's why Windows is #1 without having to go into 25 years of history.

[judge jankum]

Well, this basically explained my post in way less words. I feel kinda stupid that I took a half hour to collect all that info when I could have just said this.

Yeah, that's why Windows is #1 without having to go into 25 years of history.

But I enjoyed reading the history!!!!

[staf0048]

But I enjoyed reading the history!!!!

Me too! Well put together man!

[chessnerd]

But I enjoyed reading the history!!!!
Me too! Well put together man!

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. It's good to know it wasn't a waste of my time. :D

[samh785]

This is just an opinion so please don't flame me. Windows just seems to be the perfect median between linux and mac. Linux is free and can be difficult to get setup and running properly(not necessarily but a lot of times is). Macs are expensive and you don't have to setup jack squat. With Linux you are very lucky if every piece of hardware works out of the box. With a mac your hardware is guaranteed to work, because you have to buy it from apple. So does anyone else see it? Windows is not more popular because it is necessarily better, but it is exactly in between 2 extremes.
oversimplification of a very complex issue.

[jayze]

Cos they got a lot of clout (ie dosh)...and cos they use it to bully people to buy more of their stuff so they get even more clout...:popcorn:

[murderslastcrow]

In my experience, hardware always works very well with Linux.

I have the feeling you are talking about Windows as it comes from an OEM, preinstalled on the machine. Windows doesn't handle drivers nearly as well, and you need specific versions of Windows for specific machines, unfortunately.

I would say Windows is below Linux on this, and Mac OS X is lower unless it comes preinstalled as well.

The main reason so many people use Windows is because they feel it is their only option. It comes on their computer if they buy it from a store in most places, and they don't know what to look for since Linux has no advertising. DELL is making this better, and I'm sure we'll see things change in stores more and more often, but for now the reason people use Windows, not Linux, is because 1. It came with the computer, and 2. It's what they're used to.

The modern capitalist is too lazy to figure out there is a free alternative. Normal people just don't hear about Linux, and don't wanna' learn how to get it. It's that simple.

[shuttleworthwannabe]

It is all about manufacturers getting on the deal--if there are incentives, they will go with that OS--Windows marketing is a prime example. Watch this year will be different for Linux with Google getting in on with Android and Chrome OS. It will revolutionarise computing forever (my guess). The signs are already there. Like the other I was looking for Linux drivers for an oldish printer (Minolta commercial printer), and guess what they had a driver for Linux (debian nogal!). So manufacturers are getting into the mode of providing for 3 main OS out there (Linux, MacOS, Windows). When heavy weight of the industry (like Google, Dell, IBM, etc) get involved in Linux, then it is just a question of time to see Linux in the main stream.

Getting back to the OP, well, i tend to agree somewhat. but my order would be, from more complex to least complex: Linux, MacOS, Windows. rather than Windows in the middle.

[Artificial Intelligence]

Moved to recurring Forum.

[blur xc]

Microsoft, by their nature, is a software company. They build programs and were around at a time when people needed a simple to use, inexpensive OS. And so, they made MS-DOS.


And now, a trip through time...

It's 1981. A company named Microsoft is doing pretty well. Having gotten a contract to collaborate with IBM in the creation of a DOS system, they have ended up making two similar versions of their OS - PC DOS, which was only for IBM computers, and MS-DOS, which was for all x86 based systems. In the end, MS-DOS, because of its more open nature, would become the industry standard.


One minor error- Bill Gates did not "make" ms-dos. They in fact purchased it from some guy (don't recall his name) for a ridiculously small amount of money AFTER they already licensed it to IBM. That's right, they sold IBM a product which they did not yet own. Then, knowing the ridiculous amount of money they would be making, went and bought DOS from to guy who made it. MS was founded from the beginning by screwing someone over...

BM

Edit- Tim Patterson for $75k.

[oldos2er]

Windows dominates the market because of its preinstalls; for good or ill, monopolistic or not.