What the Hell is microsoft doing?

Level1Techs INBOX.deb
1

For the past 5 years microsoft has been inflicting a serious case of defficiency on everything they've touched, starting with windows phone and moving up to windows 8. 


While I do recognize that 8 is a good usable OS ( and my daily driver ) I cannot explain why they're doing what they're doing.


1. Their mobile operating system is just bad. they've removed features from 6.5 and earlier in the name of being more like apple, except not being apple. On top of that their device pricing is a far cry from the OS' capabilities.

 

2. Their move towards an apple-esque marketplace on windows geared toward all the consumers that do not actually exist. People dont want windows for apps. they want it mainly for office and general usage. Why try shoehorn your crappy implementation of a "modern UI app store" when people generally dont care about that? 

 

3. They move of destroying the essence of windows - windows is about windows - the metro interface is not about windows - its' about having a single frame in which to display content and not much more, Not really being able to see multiple things while multitasking, it can be passed off as a tablet mode, but even as a tablet mode, it's not a good design. (especially if we consider the color schemes)



 

What makes it really painful though is that microsoft doesnt know who to appeal to. Everything they touch turns into "Like apple, maybe better, but missing the core concept". And one would guess that microsoft is not this dumb.


At this point they're only afloat because they're microsoft, and their profits are melting away.  
My question is: Why are they making stupid decisions and not profiting from what they've always done? 
Is this some kind of a corporate mid-life crysis making them want to be hip? What the hell is going on in there?

2

I use Windows 8 for compatibility. If I could install all my current PC software on Linux then I would switch my PC OS to Linux immediately. 

Microsoft wants money.

3

yet they're posting a quarterly loss. Honestly linux is a few compatibility layers away from full windows compatibility, and drivers are getting progressively better,(I do use #! on my Laptop) but microsoft can refine the OS to a great degree, yet they have not, in favor of experimental consumer-orientated business practices, no less. 
 

4

I might be wrong, but am convinced that they decided on a gambit to create an ecosystem of their own with Windows Store (whose precise name I have to look up constantly because I never go in there), and thus their insisting on pushing users towards it any way they can. Now with new leadership on the horizon they might change their minds eventually, but it won't happen any time soon like this or even next year. With Windows 9 perhaps, they could reconsider bringing the Metro interface together with the desktop in a meaningful fashion. Like say allowing "apps" to run in a window on the desktop for instance. But as they fear that doing so might distract users from the Windows Store ecosystem they choose not to try that from the start. It must have been a choice they made after consideration. Desktop experience, hell. What matters is the promise of a new ecosystem.

5

Here's an idea Microsoft convert the metro gui into a widget/transparent layer on the desktop.

Or are you just doing an Apple and reinventing the wheel and selling these copies for ridiculous prices.

6

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/08/28/216432137/microsoft-vs-medium-a-tale-of-two-office-cultures

7

This is the most likely scenario. It also means that microsoft as a company has no integrity and will bend over for their investors. That isnt surprising though.