PC Line Broken

Windows Vista was the last straw that has brought the first Mac ever into my office. A Vista driven machine actually arrived, but after a week using it, it was returned. I'm not in the market for a new computer myself yet, but like watching the drama play out.

As of August 2008:

"[N]early 35 percent of all current-model PCs (that is those that normally ship with Vista installed) in the repository to be running a different OS.

In other words, more than a third of customers chose to dump Vista from their new PCs -- typically in favor of XP, but sometimes also one of the Server variants.

The rise of netbooks (cheap mini-laptops) has also hurt Vista:

Microsoft has invited manufacturers to put Vista on netbooks, but only a few - notably HP's new 2133 Mini-PC - run the operating system, because Vista's hardware requirements are usually too high.

That means Microsoft earns less revenue per PC sold - because the company sells XP licenses at a fraction of the price of Vista licenses, according to IDC's O'Donnell.

As many as 25 percent of netbooks don't use Windows at all and instead run the Linux operating system.

Microsoft, though, has promised that its next operating system, Windows 7, will work as well on netbooks as on high-end gaming PCs.

It is hard to imagine Microsoft making a more stunningly bad business move. It is hard to know what has gone wrong in the company that caused this to happen, although the departure of Bill Gates from active management of the company may be an important factor.