There's plenty of evidence that Windows 8 isn't the rousing success that Microsoft might have hoped for, but a Samsung executive has taken his criticism a step further than that. "I think the Windows 8 system is no better than the previous Windows Vista platform," Dong-Soo Jun, head of Samsung's memory business, told The Korea Times today. While Fujitsu had previously blamed Windows 8 for its own declining PC sales, this may be the first time a Microsoft partner has dared to compare Windows 8 to Vista — well known as one of Microsoft's failures.

However, if you take Dong-Soo's statement in context, the memory executive may not be speaking out of turn. The quote recorded by The Korea Times came as part of a conversation about the general decline in traditional PC sales, and how Samsung's memory division will cut production of PC memory chips in favor of ones designed to be used in smartphones. Samsung's executive is likely simply saying what we've already heard before: that — not unlike Windows Vista — the new Windows 8 operating system isn't helping the industry to sell more computers. From the perspective of a memory chip vendor, Windows 8 isn't doing much good for the bottom line. Still, his comment may inspire others to more closely consider how Windows 8 compares to previous versions of the operating system.