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

[Bryan J. Smith]

"Justin M. Keyes" <m9u35g at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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).

In some aspects, this is true -- the initial price is what
Microsoft is trying to address.  They do it at the superstore
and OEM too, although it's more hidden.

But it's not why Freedomware is solely adopted, and a
significant number of adoptions is clearly because of
capability.

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

Exactly!  Even when they throw out 90%, they still can't.

At the same time, by embracing the Internet and open
standards, Google switches people on-a-dime.

> All joking aside, Microsoft's products are pretty weak at
> this point.

Yep.  When Lucovski left MS, you know he left because every
single innovation he introduced was being dropped.  I
honestly think he would have left a half-decade ago had
Google been moving into the OS/application space back then.

Make _no_ mistake, there is _no_ .NET adoption in NT 6.0,
other than for Indigo -- i.e., Internet services-only.  No
LAN network or anything else -- total reuse of the ultimate
power.

> 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.

I just don't see Microsoft keeping up -- other than what they
can perceive in marketing.

> 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...

Exactomundo.
It wasn't the app (Netscape), it was the provider.
Microsoft heavily mis-calculated.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                | Sent from Yahoo Mail
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org     |  (please excuse any
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/ |   missing headers)