Robert Pogson

“Worldwide PC shipments totaled 87.5 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a decline of 8.3 percent compared with the third quarter of 2011, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.”

see Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Declined 8 Percent in Third Quarter of 2012 as the Market Prepares for the Launch of Windows 8.

M$ is probably laughing all the way to the bank as OEMs pay them for licences that will never be used by consumers for “8″ RTM. OEMs will be wailing and gnashing teeth in a couple of months when they realize they have been conned by M$ into investing in new hardware running “8″. OEMs will have to install “7″ or GNU/Linux on all those units sooner or later eating up all their margin for months.

Such is the decline of Wintel, members of the gang killing each other off in the struggle for the remaining revenue.

Lest some pronounce that such was the case when “7″ was introduced, the corresponding report then was “STAMFORD, Conn., October 13, 2010—  
Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 88.3 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 7.6 percent increase from the third quarter of 2009, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. These third quarter results were below Gartner’s earlier market outlook. Gartner had expected third quarter PC shipments to grow 12.7 percent.”

Then sales were five percent off predictions. Today they are not just growing less than expected but seriously declining. Combine that with web stats five times lower than “7″ had pre-release (0.19%)… The only question is will the train-wreck be worse than Lose ME or Vista? Sean Gallagher thinks it could cause divorce, violence or worse…“If even a tenth of a percent of new Windows 8 users respond with the level of dismay and distress my wife did, Microsoft and those unlucky enough to be in frontline tech support are going to be at the business end of a volcanic eruption of hate.”

So, I won’t be alone at Hallowe’en, hating M$. 2013 could be a great year for adoption of GNU/Linux. Tens of millions of M$’s slaves/sheeple could be angry enough to switch to an OS that works for them, not against them. I recommend the angry try Debian GNU/Linux. They may find it runs well enough on their old PC that they won’t want to buy a new one.

“Federal Circuit is inviting the parties and amici to address the following questions:

a. What test should the court adopt to determine whether a computer-implemented invention is a patent ineligible "abstract idea”; and when, if ever, does the presence of a computer in a claim lend patent eligibility to an otherwise patent-ineligible idea?

“

see Groklaw – Federal Circuit to Consider the Patentable Subject Matter of Software ~ mw.

It’s about time. Too bad it’s not SCOTUS yet.