Windows 8 may fail to woo consumers: Linux Foundation

Microsoft may be going gaga over its latest Windows 8 operating system, especially designed to function on traditional desktops as well as on touch devices. But the Linux Foundation feels that this strategy of Microsoft may not work as the consumers are used to Linuxbased software. Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, feels that consumers use Windows 8 with a keyboard and mouse instead of a touch screen. “Microsoft is stuck in the space between the desktop-driven, cost per software licence world they dominated and the era we are just now entering: a world driven Ey RSHQ VRXUFH VRIWZDUH DQG VHUYLFHV,” VDLG ZHPOLQ, LQ KLV RIfiFLDO EORJ SRVWLQJ. Zemlin further explained that the computers are slowly becoming synchronous with portability and Microsoft's hybrid operating system approach for Windows 8 is a good move but “…perhaps bad to apply a ‘Jack of all trades’ approach that may not work so well for their existing bread and butter desktop users.”

In another instance, Microsoft said that it has disabled USB charging in its recently launched Surface tablets as it wants people to carry either a laptop or a Surface, or even better, only a Surface to meet all their computing requirements. But a Gartner analyst has something different to say. “I like Windows 8 on a Tablet, but not on a desktop, which is unfortunately where I will use it.”