In last week's column, I requested your opinions as to what Microsoft should do to maintain and augment Windows momentum, given the fact that we are going into somewhat of a "dry spell," in terms of major new releases.

Read Last Week's "What's Up With Windows" Column

After all, as I mentioned last week, it looks like Microsoft won't be releasing Service Pack 2 for Windows XP until mid-year. An update of Windows XP for the Tablet PC and another for Media Center PCs are on tap for the same time. But will that be enough to keep users satisfied with (let alone excited about) Windows until Longhorn client ships in the 2005+ timeframe (and Longhorn Server in the 2006+ one)?

Some Windows users have been vociferously advocating that Microsoft provide at the very least a service pack with the hundreds of security fixes issued since Windows XP shipped in 2001. But quite a few of you took the opposite view, advocating that Microsoft put a temporary halt on new releases - including anything like the rumored, interim "Shorthorn" - and instead focus on fixing Windows XP before rolling out a single line of new code.

Without further ado, here is a sampling of your advice to Microsoft about Windows:

With all of the cash that MS has lying around maybe they should think about a huge price reduction for those who would like to convert to the XP platform.

They would have a lot less headache over the old 9x code in terms of vulnerability and support issues. (Not to mention all of the mandatory registrations) Once people were on XP they might be inclined to invest in a newer office suite. It might also get people to think MS isn't
so bad after all and could slow the migration to Linix. Like most people I talk to they think MS is all about greed and maintaining their monopoly, so this could be some of the greatest advertising dollars they ever spend.

After all, how much does it cost them to burn copies of an OS?

John Higgins, IT Mgr.

Laube Technology

When you have a monopoly in a saturated market, there's very little you can legitimately do to increase revenue. Microsoft has to contend with the fact that most people simply don't need a new operating system. In fact, most people want their desktop to stay just the way it is.

Even many of the Microsoft faithful finally decided they'd had enough when Windows XP was released. With its toy user interface that insults your intelligence, it persuaded many users to stick with Windows 2000. "Longhorn" might be more appropriately named "Shoehorn" because of the ridiculous goal of cramming more and more features into a product that people want simplified.

Microsoft has a market share in the high 90's. Desktop installations of Linux (in the mainstream, rather than in niches) are just beginning to become visible over the horizon. The PC itself is beginning to become less ubiquitous. There's really nowhere to go but down.

Art Cancro

Senior System Administrator, Xand Corporation

As a Linux and Mac fan, I hope Shorthorn is as stable and lovable as Windows ME :)

Paul Miller

"What's Up With Windows?" Letters, Page 2

I wish Microsoft would own up to the fact that the 9x operating systems crashed a lot and are even costing the company a lot to maintain (re security patches). Why not GIVE away an XP lite version to legacy users, with all the new wizz bang features grayed out (and not installed)? Thus, people could see what they are missing on the full version and would possibly capture some upgraders. Much like Roxio does with their newer CD Creator.

The Lite version would be less of a hard drive hog, and would be absent the multimedia, CD writing features, fast user switching, networking services (except what was available in legacy equipment). Thus, it would not have even some features even NT has, and would not be an NT upgrade.

If they gave this away, then maybe Microsoft (and the rest of the software industry) could announce the end of life for the legacy operating system support.

If giving this away is totally business-case silly, then I still yearn for an win2k / XP version that would be light enough to install on older computers.

Jamie Murdock

Electrical Engineer

I do not agree with the argument that an OS has to be constantly renewed. It's giving IT-pro's a headache. OK for serious bugs, and security issues. But for the toys... leave something for the competition!

It's "normal" that a platform like Windows is constantly under fire by hackers. It's probably the most studied OS ever, because of its popularity. If you had as many linux or unix users/machines, you would encounter the same problems.

And it's better not to bring something in between. Remember Windows Me. Worthless. Always problems with drivers, or a corrupted registry. Windows 98SE was fine, in those days for the average home user.

And no, I do not agree with some of Microsoft's policies (licensing, privacy of homeusers,...)

Dirk Niemegeers

Anyone who is running Win98 now will likely never "upgrade" to XP because they realize that sinking the upgrade cost into an old machine is futile. For many PC owners they bought computers when Win98 was near its end of life.. But millions of those users were novelty users and probably only use their PC's on an infrequent basis. The ones that are getting upgraded are done so by the kids.. because of Kazaa and multimedia.

Businesses face much the same dilemma. For example, I have 100 workstations at my place of business (I am an IT Manager for a larger size law firm) running Win98. These are OEM-licensed machines…. The license dies with the hardware. Because of Microsoft's new licensing scheme on server and office for small and large businesses, the money slated for upgrades to hardware was diverted to the new licensing scheme for software. Now that we have upgraded to Win2000 server and Office XP we are faced with what to do with the Win98 machines that can barely manage to run and work with Server 2000 and Office XP and all the other software upgrades of late. It is only about $300 per machine more to buy new ones over upgrading the existing when you factor labour, RAM and the age of the existing machines (most about 2 years old) so the obvious choice is to upgrade to XP Pro when you replace your hardware.

The key to this is that I believe that there will be many, if not most, companies that are waiting to 2004 to make the big desktop upgrade. This fits in to the Microsoft timeline. In 2004 they will get the big run on XP Pro via OEM (and XP Home as more of those novelty users get the itch again) and then most businesses and users will be satisfied well into 2006. This is just about the time that Longhorn will be primetime and hardware in the server arena will be needing replacement.

Don't forget, Microsoft is getting a nice cash flow off that new licensing scheme. That should certainly offset sales on the O/S side of the business. I think that Microsoft will eventually GIVE AWAY the O/S anyway or make it close to open license and then live off the server and office licensing by businesses.

Scott Johnston

Manager, Information Technology

"What's Up With Windows?" Letters, Page 3

I would love to upgrade to XP from 98SE except for one huge problem: HARDWARE ACTIVATION. If Microsoft removed it, they would get my money. I refuse to own software that potentially shuts down and is useless if it can't phone home.

Furthermore, MS should either tolerate and expect some license sharing
AND make it easy and cheap to purchase additional licenses online. Windows98SE sold and stills sells for about $90-100 with media. Additional licenses without
media typically sell for $50-60. This is what I am looking for in XP. If MS continues with hardware activation and 98SE ever fails to meet my needs, I'm off to Linux regardless of the hassles.

The Intuit Turbotax experience is interesting. Difference is presence of competing products vs near monopoly status. Also maddening was the news that MS
dramatically cut its price AND removed hardware activation for Thailand when faced with wholesale Linux switchovers and requests from the Thai government.

Microsoft deserves much credit for the personal computing revolution. That is past. Today MS is an arrogant monopoly.

Thomas N. Robeson

Yorktown, VA

Hmm.. Short, like the consumer taking it the "shorts".. again…. Just what we need , another M$ product coming out in two to three years that we can add more to their coffers.

What should they (M$) do… Produce software that works even it involves a longer product cycle. I have been a MCSE, MCT, CCNA etc for many years and I am sick of M$, their inferior software, inattention to everything except how much they can control, cajole and cash in on.. I'm tired of patch after patch after patch.

What should they do.. As Bill promised, give away most of his money to charity and get out of the software business. Oh, and take Steve and the rest of the "boys" with him..

Paul Akin

aNet-Works

Small Business, Home Office, Training

Middletown, CA.

Perhaps Microsoft is doing what I always thought software developers should do; stop setting release date predictions and just release it when it is actually ready. Not ready enough and 'we'll just release a patch next month to fix this and as soon as we can for the rest'. Personally I'd appreciate that.

If timing has anything to do with it, then do as the movies do. Finish the movie and then target the best release date - using the lag time to market it. Of course there are lots of prying eyes - people who just can't wait who'll take to spying and prying to try to get a date out of them. I say who cares? We aren't planning any migrations any time real soon because we just migrated from 95 to XP on our desktops and Novell to 2K on our servers. We're just starting to get AD working right in our global environment. I'm pretty sure most companies are in similar situations.

In the question of ShortHorn vs. LongHorn... perhaps that's the answer to get companies like ours to actually deploy Longhorn because we're not moving to the very next OS. Just isn't happening. But if there was something to skip... hmmm.... just maybe. Of course there'd also have to be a compelling reason to upgrade as well. At home? Sure, I always get the latest greatest, its part my my geek nature and my IT job function to "test" in a non-production environment so that I can make better decisions in the production environment. But I'm not holding my breath. Heck, I'm still finding out hidden features in XP!

Shawn Sato-Veillon

thegoodgeek.com

I suggest that MS exercise code optimization to improve speed of the OS, with out sacrificing any security.

There are several Knowledge Base articles, for example 815411, where MS acknowledges that SP1 has caused performance issues in exchange for security fixes.

Besides, all the information I have seen on SP2 lately, indicates it will be of no benefit to anyone that regularly uses Windows Update.

Thomas L. Frey, CCC, PMP

Project Controls Specialist

Make it reliable for once!!!!!!

John Marble

President

Inquarry

"What's Up With Windows?" Letters, Page 4

It's a good thing that Microsoft is leaving well enough alone. Windows XP is a wonderful and stable operating system, it still has some problems, but nothing like 3.1 and 9x series.

Their strategy (laundry list) makes a whole of sense, work with what you have and improve it even more. That's the problem with this industry, they never leave well enough alone...let it ride, you don't have to keep up with the Joneses!

Patrick Charles Boyer

Santa Ana, CA

The most important thing that Microsoft could do is optimize Windows XP. It's a good operating system; anything that could be done to make it run faster would be great. Why try to invent a whole new version of Windows like Longhorn? We've got a great OS now.

Jeff Fox

Windows XP User, Kentucky

I am not jumping on the XP bandwagon - - - Appears I am not alone. Most home consumers just accept the fact that they will get whatever Dell, HP or Gateway put on the system.

From a business standpoint, I can't afford it. Yes I have old systems, and most run 98SE. They work – why fix what isn't broke. All things said, I am kinda happy I have 98SE's and an old / ancient Novell server network. 'Blaster' had no affect on our networks while other divisions appear to have been affected. This alone is reason to consider the alternatives in lieu of Microsoft.

There are a lot of things going on in the standards world that have a definite impact on the future of Microsoft. Web services are still of questionable value to a large portion of the industries. Broadband is not a viable option for a lot of consumers (I get happy on a 26.4 dialup connection – Why buy a new system when my pipe is so small) The RIAA and other DRM episodes are causing home users to question the importance of a home system. Users I am familiar with are not likely to pay additional dollars for fee-based access to web sites and services. Most folks I know want a cheaper/reliable ISP. I hear more and more people who are thinking about Walmart.com as an ISP because of the price, and that they can pay for it when they actually go to Walmart.

Rock solid reliability is a requirement in the business world - - - - So why do my Novell 4.11 servers still outperform MS in the old file/print world in my little network. Why does having a Pentium 166 PC converted to a Novell server IDE drives, and 32mg RAM stay up and running over 300 days, and my new Compaq with W2K back office and Exchange need a restart at least once a month.

Jim Lambright

Roth Manufacturing Corp.

New London, Ohio

"What's Up With Windows?" Letters, Page 5

Look! All we want is something that works. And something in one package. I am even willing to pay a modest annual fee (such as $100 - forget the rebates) to be kept up to date.

1. Give us control of our systems so software being installed can't take charge and change system settings, which might affect operation of other programs or overall system stability.

2. Take responsibility for all the antivirus, firewalls and other utilities we need. If this stuff is so important, it should be built into the OS.

If they don't fix it soon, instead of more PC's per household, they are going to see interest in PC's go the way of interest in CB radio! Hey maybe someone will invent something like the printed book . (GREAT graphics too!). If everyone spent as much on their local library as they spend on their PC's, what an amazing place it could be.

Philip J. Alley

General Manager

RAMP Industries Inc.

Why is it that you treat Microsoft's lack of a version upgrade for its client OS as some type of shortfall? This is almost the opposite of the truth.

For those of us both developing and using advanced applications, Microsoft has changed its OS technology so often over the past three and a half years that many have had to spend time and money rewriting code just to be platform compliant for cutting-edge functionality. With the Windows XP OS remaining mostly unchanged for three years, my guess is that we'll see the functionality of Windows apps take on a truly "amazing" and "intuitive" character, and maybe help Microsoft with their development foci, rather than being forced to follow big "M".

Rodger Pfingsten

President/CEO

Pfingsten Technology Group, Inc.

As a consumer, I don't really care what MS does these days. If they are trying to repair - or, better yet - develop software that is NOT buggy and full of holes (for worms, viruses, trojans, etc.), then I will be satisfied to wait.

In the meantime, I will keep running Win98 at home and 2000 at work. Until just a few months ago I couldn't run XP at work, since it was so full of holes my security people wouldn't allow us to use it. That said, it doesn't mean we are going to upgrade to XP. We have over 3000 PC's at work that are networked; the cost is somewhat considerable. Plus all the laptops.

Harry Palmer

Management Analyst, DoD