Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

Is the Wintel upgrade cycle broken?  In my view it is.  One of the major factors is the performance of Windows XP.   Benchmark tests of XP show that it substantially reduces the need to upgrade older PC hardware.  For example, here is what ZDNet has to say:

After days of testing at ZDNet Labs using several different versions of Windows on identical desktop systems, we can summarize the performance of XP with this simple statement: If you've been using Windows 2000, the performance you'll get with XP is virtually identical; if you've been using Windows Me, 98 or 98 SE, or 95, your system is going to feel like it has a whole new lease on life.

This means that Microsoft and Intel are now decoupled at the OS level.  This will certainly mean that fewer individuals and organizations will upgrade their PCs over the next two years.  What happened? 

A couple of things.  Microsoft probably made a calculation that estimated that a new OS would sell more upgrades if it ran on less powerful software (XP runs on everything but a Pentium 133 MHz system) -- more than off-setting the loss in sales due to deferred hardware upgrades.  It also wanted to move a larger percentage of users to its new OS subscription service (and capture data on their customers during registration). 

However, I think this was a mistake.  It is possible that they may actually seriously damage the upgrade cycle that has served them so well over the years by hurting Intel.  Anything that could derail the investment necessary to keep Moore's Law chugging along should be avoided.  To correct things, Microsoft needs to refocus its efforts.  It needs to build and/or promote apps from ISVs (independent software vendors) that take advantage of excess cycles and storage (like web apps that run on the desktop and connect to data via Web Services and content via P2P).  This way, it can keep the upgrade cycle intact without killing the golden goose. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

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According to the Times, NYC mayor Bloomberg wanted to march in the Columbus Day parade with two actors from The Sopranos, Uncle Junior and Tony's psychiatrist. The sponsors of the parade said no, and filed suit against the mayor (only in NY). The mayor withdrew, instead he's going to have a nice Italian dinner with the two in the Bronx. [Scripting News]
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Water found in Mars north polar regions. Planetary scientists have confirmed that the north polar regions of Mars have similar deposits of... [spacetoday.net]
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