A no-win for Microsoft
Microsoft painted itself into a corner by releasing its ill-conceived and bloated Windows 8. So it had to recover some credibility with end-users via its free, albeit imperfect, Windows 10 upgrades. Had it not done so, there might well have been mass defections from Windows to OS X and Linux. Microsoft sweetened the Windows 10 pot by finally finally finally trimming down the bloat and finally finally finally implementing the fast startup that has been technically feasible since XP days. (Windows 10 post-install hard drive footprint after the mandatory updates is around 20GB, instead of the 40-ish GB of 7 or 8.) Microsoft seems to have also crippled the Windows 7 update process so that the 215-or-so important updates take a long long time to install.
The net result of all this is that people are upgrading computers to Windows 10 that have no business being upgraded. Add to that the fact that the Moore's Law dictum of doubling CPU capacity every two years has slowed down, and you have a perfect recipe for a slowdown in sales of new equipment.
So computer manufacturers are blaming Microsoft? Well, somebody has to, because Microsoft has always looked out for itself, never considered the best interests of those with whom it deals. Satya, the bloom is off. It has been for years.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
