Serenity595
Active Member
If any of you are reading this on a computer, chances are you have a Windows OS installed. Windows has a market share of over 90% right now, making it the most well-known brand of operating systems in the world. Based on statistical data from a variety of sources, around 60 - 70% of all computer users in the world use a Windows OS. So it brings up an interesting question: what's next? What will the next few Windows operating systems be like? Is it even possible for us to predict? Actually, it is. I'll explain.
Let's start back when Windows really gained momentum. The date was August 24, 1995. Microsoft had just released their brand new operating system known as Windows 95. It was a huge success and started pushing other computer companies out of business. Then three years later, Windows 98 was released and made many improvements over its predecessor. Then, in the year 2000, both Windows 2000 and Windows Me were released. They were regarded as economic failures and were soon replaced by the extremely popular Windows XP the following year. It took a surprising six years until Microsoft released their next OS in 2007 known as the Windows Vista. It received mostly negative critical reception and was followed two years later by Windows 7. This OS had very positive reception and Microsoft was doing well. Then in 2012, they released Windows 8. It was widely regarded as a failure due to its clunky interface and was only mildly improved in the Windows 8.1 upgrade.
So the question still remains: what's next? In order to get our answer, let's take a look at an overview of what we just read:
In terms of critical reception:
Windows 95 - Success (released in 1995)
Windows 98 - Success (released in 1998)
Windows 2000 - Failure (released in 2000)
Windows Me - Failure (released in 2000)
Windows XP - Success (released in 2001)
Windows Vista - Failure (released in 2007)
Windows 7 - Success (released in 2009)
Windows 8 - Failure (released in 2012)
Are you starting to notice a pattern here? Every "failure" was essentially an experiment by Microsoft, whereas every "success" was the polished product. So if we continue this pattern, it is safe for us to assume that the following may occur in the future based on what happened in the past:
Windows 9 - Success (released in 2015)
Windows 10 - Failure (released in 2018)
Windows 11 - Success (released in 2020)
Windows 12 - Failure (released in 2023)
And so on.
What do you think? Does this theory have any merit? Will the next Windows OS be a success, whereas the one after that be nothing more than a failed experiment? Or is it possible that the future of Windows will be more like how it was in the earlier days, where each individual OS had several numerical versions?
Discuss!
(cue jokes from Mac users here)
Let's start back when Windows really gained momentum. The date was August 24, 1995. Microsoft had just released their brand new operating system known as Windows 95. It was a huge success and started pushing other computer companies out of business. Then three years later, Windows 98 was released and made many improvements over its predecessor. Then, in the year 2000, both Windows 2000 and Windows Me were released. They were regarded as economic failures and were soon replaced by the extremely popular Windows XP the following year. It took a surprising six years until Microsoft released their next OS in 2007 known as the Windows Vista. It received mostly negative critical reception and was followed two years later by Windows 7. This OS had very positive reception and Microsoft was doing well. Then in 2012, they released Windows 8. It was widely regarded as a failure due to its clunky interface and was only mildly improved in the Windows 8.1 upgrade.
So the question still remains: what's next? In order to get our answer, let's take a look at an overview of what we just read:
In terms of critical reception:
Windows 95 - Success (released in 1995)
Windows 98 - Success (released in 1998)
Windows 2000 - Failure (released in 2000)
Windows Me - Failure (released in 2000)
Windows XP - Success (released in 2001)
Windows Vista - Failure (released in 2007)
Windows 7 - Success (released in 2009)
Windows 8 - Failure (released in 2012)
Are you starting to notice a pattern here? Every "failure" was essentially an experiment by Microsoft, whereas every "success" was the polished product. So if we continue this pattern, it is safe for us to assume that the following may occur in the future based on what happened in the past:
Windows 9 - Success (released in 2015)
Windows 10 - Failure (released in 2018)
Windows 11 - Success (released in 2020)
Windows 12 - Failure (released in 2023)
And so on.
What do you think? Does this theory have any merit? Will the next Windows OS be a success, whereas the one after that be nothing more than a failed experiment? Or is it possible that the future of Windows will be more like how it was in the earlier days, where each individual OS had several numerical versions?
Discuss!
(cue jokes from Mac users here)