Heads to roll and rumours

At Kapiti SeniorNet as at all circles interested in computing and technology much has been talked about the second coming or rather Microsoft’s next iteration of their Windows 8 operating system, the when and the what.

It is by now well known that their new boss Satya Nadella is talking about big changes for the Microsoft organization which could mean anything from introducing a new business model to cutting their cloth to fit a slimmed down model.

Actually both seem to be on the cards, they are starting to reduce the number of employees by some 18,000 next year, rather a big chop compared to earlier cut backs [5800 in 2009].

I am guessing that a lot of the cut back will be the result of their take-over of Nokia, the Finnish phone maker, so some 12,500 employees could be from that area, but to put into perspective Microsoft employ about 127,000 worldwide so 10-15% of the workforce sounds a little less bad. At the same time such reconstruction does not come cheap and I have seen quoted a figure of 1.1 to 1.6 billion US dollars to carry it out.

Make no mistake though, Microsoft is still a giant enterprise and they still hold the leadership in the market for operating systems even if the competitors have grown significantly when it comes to smartphones and tablets.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s next Worldwide Partner Conference will he held about now and we confidently expect that a new upgrade to Windows 8.1 – Windows 8.2 – will be introduced. It is a fair guess that this will be the last upgrade before Windows 9 is unveiled and brought to market in the latter part of 2015.

Rumours have it that Microsoft will implement a socalled activation system for Windows 9 which will require the buyer to have the software activated in the computer at the place of purchase after which it is tied to that computer. If later one wishes to install a copy on another computer then the first installation must be deactivated. If that is not done then Windows will cease functioning after 3 days.

As a side issue those of you who has an Xbox unit 720 which required an ‘Always On’ internet connection which caused a great deal of disquiet just may see such a requirement introduced with the Windows 9 operating system on your computer for it to function. We’ll find out in due course.

Lastly, while we are on the subject of Microsoft, you may be aware that they together with Qualcomm have worked on the ‘Surface’ tablet for the past year to come up with a new version, however, it appears that it has come to an end perhaps because the result was not sufficiently different to that of competitors, so instead SurfacePro 3, an upgraded version using Intel chips and with a 12” screen, has been revealed in the hope of improving on their 1.4% market share.