Why Moore's Law, not mobility, is killing the PC

Have a few old XP builds here now hitting the 10yr. mark showing a lot depends on how well a system is treated and maintained. If you beat them up and oc them constantly the hardwares are stressed for the obvious. If you never keep an eye on temps simmer away goes the pc one day.(sooner that is!)

As for email there's a vast difference between junk mail and useless chatter and things like requests sent to a tech support dept. or notification even invoice for something purchased online when compared to voice chat by one of the messenger services or some social networking. Texting is the instant messaging you see on a phone for spontanious chatter when comparing that to emails.

BUT! Texts disappear much faster in order to make room for more! At least on a messenging service like Skype now being used to replace WLMessenger you can have a history as well as saving incoming emails into folders you create for each type if not for each contact or set of contacts.

The largest annoyance with any email client despite what you can do is spam and just plain junk mail coming in. Unfortunately the cure for spam and junk mail isn't what most would prefer namely doing without any email inbox! "Gee how will cousin Roy get ahold of me next summer?"

A simple thought on how much email can be involved in your personal life as well as for any work situation. Is your cousin planning a wedding? Things like that are one reason email addresses won't be dead any time soon!

Hum sounds a bit like my collection - almost museum pieces now and I just really like playing on them when I get chance.

Emails well I am lucky my AV sorts it out for the best apart and most are from SF and relatives and good mates. I don't necessarily think it is important to see someone when you are communication but would do for us all top be the same eh?
For the most part I use email more than the phone its cheaper and more entertaining than listen to someone that prattles on for hours on end. Maybe I am a recluse of some sort?

The work email I guess is a different ball game as I said a while ago full of crap and being government usually in triplicate.

The problem with Windows 8 for PC's is simple. Windows 8 has a lot of good things built into it that Microsoft decided to cover up with a bunch of junk.

Windows 8 sales are down because Windows 8 doesn't meet the need and desires of the masses.

You got people trying out Windows 8 to see if they like it and you got people trying to get out of Windows 8 and back to Windows 7. Then you got the poor souls that buy a PC or Laptop that comes with Windows 8 because they don't know any better. Microsoft is depending on the poor souls that don't know any better. Sales indicate the poor souls that don't know any better aren't buying enough.

Windows 8 on a Mphone or Mpad or what ever they will call them just might meet the needs of the users of such products. Now Microsoft needs to make a system that will do the same (meet the needs) for 2 billion that also use PC's and Laptops.
Give us 2 billion loyal customers a choice other than take it or leave it. We will leave it and stay with Windows 7 on our PC's and Laptops.

Most people everywhere, except the relatively small number of enthusiasts, buy from the big OEMs (HP, ACER.....) and are stuck with Windows 8 and MS know it. Even if Windows 8 was the best thing out since sliced bread most existing owners would probably just stick with Windows 7 because it's not bad. The hardware is also generally junk IMO but like the theme of the discussion it probably meets the "needs" of many.

You're right, sales were probably the same. I'm not sure about "selling pretty well then" though... the economy has had a drag on all sales. I get your point though.

It would be interesting to see how a new Windows affects PC sales. Was there a "slump" when Win7, XP, 98, 95... were released? Did business wait an additional year or more before encuring the cost of re-training?

The difference with Win8 might be that it is a big difference from preceeding Windows... a new paradigm, a shift from the past. The advantages in the OS aren't enough to offset the cost of training. Wait unitl old codgers like me die off - those who remember the unfilled promises (outside of Scientific communities) of previous centralized computing models. Either technology has advanced far enough to fully support that model or the market will return once again to distributed computing.

As an acedemic exercize, it would be worth noting the sales after each release. There was an obvious need for previous versions that doesn't seem to be appearant in Win8. There's no "we can't use the OS without XYZ". Much of the improvements in the past were tied to hardware, many improved meory alocation and utuilization, and many other changes were cosmetic or for usability (user friendly / intuative).

XP was the most secure, except it was full of security holes. Vista tightened down those security holes but made the OS hard to use and maintain. Win7 balanced the two - Win8 definitely provides a perfomance boost, but as the thread alludes.... is it necessary?

Anyway.... XP will fall off the support list, Vista never quite made it big time, Win7 will live for a long time. Win8 will have to make changes and will evenutally be adopted by business, where folks will learn it and then they will adopt it at home. This is a major transition - going from what is known to where MS thinks the next market will be.

SIW2 said:

But that was the case last and the year before - and possibly the year before that, wasn't it ?

pc's were selling pretty well then, weren't they?

Why is it suddenly responsible for poor 8 sales?

Bill I ma just curious to what you mean by performance boost with Win 8? as all this leaves me wondering what are we actually aiming at?

Perhaps some machine that knows when we want to switch it on - I mean that is being extreme but you get my drift cos my 7 is as fast as I would want a machine to be unless you mean the sheer breadth of what it can do??

Dunno perhaps I am getting a bit silly(er) in my old age.

"XP was the most secure, except it was full of security holes." Was? 2000 saw far less malware and was a bit more stable then the buggy OS XP proved to be prior to SP3. At the end of Februrary someone summed up XP and even what people thought was so secure for a browser when casting hard looks at IE, FireFox got a tasteful as well. Windows XP and Firefox take 25-year lead in security flaws

Besides XP itself the av programs in years past were also another problem of not being able to detect malwares effectively as well as lacking in web filtering options which can curtail malwares to the greatest extent except for when users interact with a boggy found at some site that looks and deceives.

Vista and 7 actually brought in security improvement as well as one other thing XP sadly lacked. Crash Control! When an app freezes in XP it's hard boot time! "BSOD Special served daily!"

Yeah, I should have said "perceived" and qualified SP3. Regardless of my ommisions and your clarification, I think we're in agreement.

Night Hawk said:

"XP was the most secure, except it was full of security holes." Was? 2000 saw far less malware and was a bit more stable then the buggy OS XP proved to be prior to SP3. At the end of Februrary someone summed up XP and even what people thought was so secure for a browser when casting hard looks at IE, FireFox got a tasteful as well. Windows XP and Firefox take 25-year lead in security flaws

... Vista and 7 actually brought in security improvement as well as one other thing XP sadly lacked. Crash Control! When an app freezes in XP it's hard boot time! "BSOD Special served daily!"

The bulk of actual problems seen with the older version there and why many opted to use FF over IE was 6.0 was a frightmare full of holes to begin with and exploited heavily by malware writers. You know I was glad when IE 7 first arrived and then jumped on Vista only seeing XP become a secondary OS right off the bat for security and stability reasons.

MS finally and I mean "finally" got around to fixing all those bugs that needed fixing for a long time right when 7 was first being brought in?! SP3 contains over 1,000 fixes but simply too little too late! Yet it was during those years while XP was the main Windows that you also saw a vast progression of hardwares. faster cpus, better video and sound cards, larger faster hard drives, and even better boards at times! (some brands started going downhill faster however)

The one misgivings that people thought when looking back on the browser wars is that people always thought FF was the most secure until it got popular! Even with the other OSs you would be surprised to learn they are not so invulnerable to malwares either as people would like to think. The bug makers like to target what becomes popular the most and somehow still haven't been laid off or fired yet!