back to article Fujitsu guru: Win 8 will triumph. And we'll have brain plugs in 2027

Fujitsu's CTO made a series of fantastical projections on Tuesday, including ditching Google Goggles for direct brain implants and the end-to-end success of Windows 8 in the enterprise. Joseph Reger, in a session dubbed “What’s on the CTO’s Mind” at Fujitsu's user forum in Munich, said that while Microsoft had initially …

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  1. Ragarath
    Trollface

    2032 OS?

    That'll be the year of Linux of course.

    1. dotdavid
      Thumb Up

      Re: 2032 OS?

      You mean Linux On The Desktop.

      And mainly because there'll be just four desktops left, perhaps.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And this from a company

    That bet on the Sparc chip.

    I'll take my crystal ball gazing tips from Mystic Meg thanks.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Apples and Oranges

    "However, one cannot assume Windows 8 on client devices will ultimately succeed, said the CTO. As the fate of OS2 demonstrated, he said, technical superiority isn’t enough on its own."

    Actually the fate of OS/2 didn't show that at all. OS/2 certainly had some major advantages over Windows 3.1 and 3.11 (for workgroups), but the main problem was that the common crowd didn't even know of its existence. IBM wasn't trying very hard to make it better known because the product got hardly advertised, at least not here in Holland.

    Being a very interested in the product myself I once even applied for a preview release of OS/2 server; that was (IMO) quite impressive. Looking back it was years ahead of its time; like we have now with Window servers they basically took the core foundation and put server components on top to make it act like a server. But basically you were running OS/2 underneath with a different "layer" on top. You see the same, to a certain extend, with Window servers today.

    But the thing is... I was even invited to an OS/2 conference, held by IBM in Holland, where they'd promote their server line more and where they would talk about the upcoming OS/2 version (my story involves around the OS/2 3 Warp era).

    Guess what I saw when I exited the bus near the IBM building ? Absolutely nothing. No signs, no banners, no posters, no nothing. You had to search for the right entrance (at first I took the main entrance, but I was supposed to go to a totally unmarked side entrance) because nothing was advertised. As if IBM didn't want anyone to know about this event.

    Sorry but that's really not the right way to promote a product. THAT eventually caused OS/2's undoing IMO; it never got promoted, it never got advertised, people simply didn't know it existed and such it never got the attention it IMO deserved. And without the Internet like we have now, news on the matter didn't exactly spread quickly either.

    Its been years since I used OS/2 (First OS/2 3 Warp then I upgraded to OS/2 4 Merlin) and its a time I really fondly remember. Especially the Win/OS2 part, that was awesome. Especially when I had some friends or colleagues over who wanted to show some stuff.... "You run Windows inside that ?!"

    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Re: Apples and Oranges

      The man in the street back then didn't know what an operating system was, but anybody following enterprise or personal computing news knew about OS/2. But for various reasons, some of them short-sighted or unprofessional, the world bought Microsoft Windows instead. It was technically poorer in many ways, but it came with the Solitaire desktop card game, with Reversi, with Minesweeper - in whichever order.

      OS/2 had a painful text mode and probably would have locked us into a relationship with IBM sooner and harder than we did get tied to Microsoft, so maybe it was for the our ownlgood in the end. A shame about Lotus 1-2-3 though - great spreadsheet product, got diverted into developing mainly an OS/2 version because professional customers were supposed to be using OS/2, consequently Microsoft Excel won although it wasn't as good.

      And if we were all running OS/2 now instead of Windows then IBM probably wouldn't have gotten interested in Linux, and then Linux would be a lot poorer than it is.

      On the other hand, an OS/2 universe might have been frIendlier to UNIX users. IBM had reasons to make that happen. Microsoft didn't, particularly - although Microsoft very grudgingly tacked something called POSIX onto Windows NT, because they had to, because of the government I think.

      And what else? Oh, I think there was speech recognition as standard sooner in OS/2 than in Windows; you got a version of it with Microsoft Office, if you were running XP and you got it if you bought the Wind XP "Tablet Edition" (i.e. bought a tablet), otherwise mostly no. It became standard provision in Windows Vista/7/8 but ironically they don't like to talk about it, seemingly.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apples and Oranges

        @Robert: OS/2 Warp was released just a couple of months before Windows 95, there was an advertising campaign, including a couple of TV adverts, but it paled into insignificance against the MS marketing campaign, there was no "buzz" around OS/2 in the same way that there was around Win95. Win95 was one of the first products that I heard about people queuing up to purchase at midnight. I would tend to agree with the assertion that OS/2 failed because it wasn't promoted anything like enough.

  4. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Where's my...

    Ono Sendai deck?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Brain plugs

    Perhaps... but will I have to format my memories to make room for storage - will uploading more than 160GB cause intense pain and risk 'synaptic leakage' - will I be able to encrypt my data by looking at random images - will my journeys through 'cyberspace' be visualized as flying through Windows 95 era screensavers?

    Damn it Reg... I NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS!

    :P

  6. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Business doesn't need Windows 8...

    If we have to give up using Windows XP, then later versions are sufficiently different, Win 8 especially, that you may as well seriously consider using Linux for your business desktop as well as servers. If a stupid start screen appeals to you then try out the latest Ubuntu :-)

  7. Stevie

    Aiee!

    Aiee! Brain Plugs! Aiee!

    Aiee! Windows 8! Aiee!

    Aiee! Brain plugs *running* windows 8! Aiee!

    PS.: Aiee!

    1. Euripides Pants

      Re: Aiee!

      Hey, at least it ain't butt plugs.

  8. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    " in the long term, he said, "backwards compatibility is just not sustainable""

    You what? So someone who spends thousands on apps but paid only twenty quid for an OEM licence to their OS should ditch the former investment because it just isn't "sustainable" for the vendor of the latter to avoid breaking stuff?

    Jeez, I hope my pension fund doesn't have Fujitsu shares.

    To anyone with a clue, the success of OS/2 and Linux-on-the-desktop proves beyond doubt that backwards compatibility (or cross-compatibility in the case of anyone wanting to break into the market) is not just sustainable, but is in fact the only game in town. It's certainly the only reason MS are still in business.

    1. Richard Plinston

      " in the long term, he said, "backwards compatibility is just not sustainable"

      Translation: MS will keep changing network protocols and Office formats until XP and Win7 no longer work.

      Business as usual for MS.

  9. Dana W
    Trollface

    Human integrated Windows? Noooooo

    "Your heart has performed and illegal operation and will be shut down, please upgrade to Microsoft Heart 2.0"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Human integrated Windows? Noooooo

      Brings new meaning to Blue Screen OF DEATH doesn't it?

      1. Thorne

        Re: Human integrated Windows? Noooooo

        Blue face of death

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