[Pc_Support] Windows Vista for free? Three pronged attack on open source

[Justin M. Keyes]

On 9/19/05, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> I think Microsoft is playing a game right now.  Can they
> force _all_ consumers -- corporate and superstore -- to adopt
> the 2 year upgrade cycle.  So far, they seem to be doing well
> at the superstore.  But the corporate dollar is still 80% of
> the software market.

Then, as I said, giving away some crumbs in the form of a crippled
Vista or Visual Studio isn't going to change their image or attract
customers who are considering less expensive alternatives. Damien
seems worried that Microsoft is trying to compete with open source by
meeting the price point (at a significant decrease in value).

> If they succeed, I don't see how Open Source breaks into
> majority.  If they fail, I don't see Microsoft staying in the
> software marketing as their profit model.

Difficult to enforce a 2-year upgrade cycle when they can't ship a
product in under 4 years ;)

All joking aside, Microsoft's products are pretty weak at this point.
In the next year or two, they'll be launching an OS that is catching
up with yesterday's technology, while Apple enters the x86 arena and
Linux is rapidly gaining mindshare with an amazing set of offerings in
KDE and GNOME and an exponentially growing pool of extremely talented
and enthusiastic programmers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has lost much of its talent to Google recruiters,
and is trying to compete with Google/Yahoo remote services at the 11th
hour...

-- 
Justin Keyes