Windows 8: Can this OS be saved?

Windows 8 isn’t static code in a shrink-wrapped box, like Windows XP or Vista. It’s a living organism, made partly from familiar bits that have evolved over the last two decades, with several new strands of DNA tossed in.

It’s part of a much larger hardware-apps-services ecosystem with roots that also go back decades.

Windows 8 lays the groundwork for some huge long-term changes: big shifts in the user interface, a brand-new app model, and deep connections to online services like SkyDrive, Outlook.com, and Office.com.

Those services have evolved significantly since Windows 8 launched six months ago. Windows itself will make another big set of changes this summer with Windows 8.1 (Blue), which is much more than a service pack. New Office apps for Windows 8 will arrive this year as well.

Those are big changes. But the Windows 8 system you use today will include all of them by the end of the year.

Windows 8 doesn’t need to be saved. It just needs to evolve.

This is not a debate. This is an autopsy.

The formal question may be, "Can this OS be saved?" But, we already know the answer. It's a dead OS walking.

This isn't a matter of opinion. The numbers don't lie.

Windows 8's market numbers are even lower than Vista's pathetic ranking at a similar point in their sales cycle. Even if you buy the most optimistic reading of NetMarketShare's numbers, Windows 8, after being in the market for
six months, has just 3.31% of the desktop marketplace—that's just over what Vista had with 3.02% in
three months.

You can—and we will—argue why this has happened. The cold hard sales numbers mattermore than any arguments we can make. Looking ahead, IDC and Gartner ) are going to overwhelm Windows-based PCs in the next few years. But, there's nothing new there. Goldman Sachs and KPCB already have Windows far behind Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

You can think all you want that Windows 8 can be saved,  but unless you start buying Windows 8 PCs, it doesn't matter. This is capitalism, not democracy. It's your dollars that count, not clicking a like button.

Now, onto Windows 8's causes of death. First, we cut into Metro with Stryker saw...