By Jonathan Mathias
Well, the answer is no, but Windows XP, which you are most likely using as you read this, more or less will be. Yes, Microsoft, like some ruthless mother hen, has decided that 30 June is the day when all new chicks must migrate to Vista.
Having gone through the transition from XP to Vista at Johnson King, I can say that, though the road was unsurprisingly bumpy, we got there in the end and it’s not that bad.
Although I miss the simplicity of XP, I’ve become quite accustomed to the face of Vista – much of the apparently pointless superficial gloss actually does make for a more pleasant user experience, even though it’s a pain having to make allowances for the fact that the grand majority of people won’t be able to open the spanking new Word document you’ve just sent them.
But with the Vista kerfuffle barely subsided, we’re hearing more rumblings from Microsoft about the imaginatively titled ‘Windows 7’ – anyone would be forgiven for thinking that Vista wasn’t quite ready when it came out. Of course this is nothing new for Microsoft, as the same thing happened with Windows98.
But perhaps a bigger question is will people keep buying Windows when Linux is free?
Though it’s not always been plain sailing, it’s relatively easy to get programs and devices working with Windows. However, while open source software has historically not been for the faint of heart, that’s starting to change. There are now open source operating systems and applications that are equally as well documented as their commercial alternatives, and the bugbear of compatibility is being tackled head-on.
Almost a hundred years ago, Henry Ford supposedly said, “a customer can have a car in any colour, as long as it’s black”. Back then, a Model T was pretty much your only option, but as we all know, things change. Windows may have only just turned twenty, but I wonder if it’s time we started to see some big changes on the desktop?
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