Scoble Proves My Point

Adrian Sutton

Not so long ago, I said that people tend to use Windows because of Microsoft’s monopoly more than because they actually like Microsoft.  Apparently, when Scoble asks them why they run Windows, these are the common responses:

Have you ever gone up to people and asked them why? I have. And the reasons people give are quite varied. Yes, “my boss gave me this” +is+ a common answer, but it’s only one I hear maybe one out of four times.

Other common answers I’ve heard: 1) I already own the software that runs on Windows, switching to new platform would be very expensive. 2) I needed a feature that only Windows has (there are more than a million Tablet PC users, for instance, and more than a million Windows Media Center users). 3) My friends have Windows and I know I can get support and software from them. 4) You get more machine for the dollar. 5) There’s a lot more choice of machines and configurations. 6) More of the software I want to run is on Windows. 7) It’s easier to use my machine for both home and work tasks on Windows. 8) It’s what I’ve used for years and don’t see any reason to switch.

So lets, see:

  1. Lock-in
  2. actually preferred Windows
  3. Monopoly
  4. Short term cost focus (and benefits of Monopoly scale) plus it’s a hardware issue not a software issue
  5. Hardware not software
  6. Monopoly
  7. Monopoly
  8. Why did they originally choose Windows – most likely one of the reasons above.

None of them said, “I love my Windows”.  None of them say, it’s just so much easier to use or I can get so much more done.  None of those answers have any love.  Only one of those reasons is actually both related to Windows (as opposed to running Linux on a PC) and an actual preference for Windows instead of just a side effect of the Windows monopoly.

In fact, the three examples of bad reasons I gave for people using Windows cover nearly all of those reasons:

Maybe it had the cheapest initial outlay (but is it cheaper in the long run?). Maybe it was the perception that you have to run Windows to be compatible (remember that whole anti-trust thing?) Most likely it’s because everyone else was using Windows.

That covers 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and depending on the original reason for choosing Windows, 8.   5 has nothing to do with Microsoft.

Oh and from that same post Scoble says:

But here’s the rub. Apple’s OSX doesn’t run as administrator by default.

Actually, it does.  The first user you create on OS X is an Administrator and can do anything.  It just has a better design for administrator privileges so that you can still be secure while not giving up the ease of use of installing software and getting access to anything on your computer if you need it.  I’ve talked about this before (credit goes to whoever thought of sudo, I suspect the BSD folk and to Apple for using it throughout the system).  Microsoft need to remove the Administrator user (like Apple effectively removed the root user, it exists but is disabled) and make a sudo system work so reliably that no one ever suspects they aren’t the real root user.  If they don’t, then making a non-privileged account the default will just add another step to the Windows installation process, create an Administrator account so you can actually use your computer without all kinds of weird permissions problems.