Linonut wrote:
> After takin' a swig o' grog, Rex Ballard belched out this bit o' wisdom:
>
> > Just a hunch, but I am thinking that if Microsoft absolutely insists on
> > their "Windows Guaranteed Agreession" WGA plan, that Crossover and
> > Win4Lin are going to get VERY POPULAR, and if OEMs insist on installing
> > a completely useless version of Windows, that WHITE BOX machines will
> > expand their market to about 50% of the market, cutting DEEPLY into the
> > desktop and laptop market.
>
> Microsoft is banking on consumer ignorance, Rex.
Like I said before, this is a really huge gamble. Microsoft is betting
everything they are as a company that they can maintain exclusive
control of the PC by pissing off possibly tens of millions of customers
who want to use Linux AND Windows, by shutting off their access to
Windows Vista completely. They are betting that these Linux users
will just "roll over and play dead".
They are assuming that none of them will have any influence over
corporate purchasing, that corporations will not care that tens of
millions of employees, customers, and suppliers now have a "zero
tolarance" policy for documents delivered in any thing other than "Open
Office" compatible formats, and may even refuse to accept anything
other than Open Document Format and Portable Document Format documents.
Many corporations refuse to do business with organizations whose sites
do not support FireFox, and are cancelling or not renewing contracts
with online services such as travel agencies who refuse to produce
FireFox compatible web sites by the end of 2006. Many corporations who
still allow their employees to use Internet Explorer don't allow them
to enable ActiveX, Signed java applets that call "Native Mode"
services, and intercept all activation signature requests to assure
that only approved applications such as Acrobat Reader, get through.
Microsoft is betting that the 370 million people who now have FireFox
installed are just "experimenting", and that the 200 million
installations of "Open Office" are just "evaluation copies", and that
the 100 million installations of VMWare Player, VirtualPC, and Virtual
Server, are "nice ways to run Windows" instead of "satisfied Linux
users making the transition away from Windows".
If Microsoft is right, and Linux is really not sufficiently supported
by corporate, OEM, and End-User communities, and it tries to lock out
Linux users, then they have to worry about yet another round of states
filing class action, and possibly even criminal charges against
Microsoft executives, backlashes and further restrictions from the EU,
accelerated lockouts and terriffs from South America and Asia, and
further "False Advertizing" restrictions in India, Germany, and France.
If Microsoft is WRONG, they have to worry about mass defections to
Apple, "White Box" makers and smaller companies like Acer, and NASCAR,
and even divisional defections within HP, Dell, and other large OEMs,
who may follow IBM's lead and divest the "Linux Friendly" portion of
their business, to allow the OEMs to sell back to them as VARs,
eliminating Microsoft's control over their activities as VARs and
Corporate users..
Sam Palmisano has stated that IBM will be using Linux on the desktop as
their primary platform by 2007. By January of 2006, nearly all
applications were available for Linux on Intel, and ran under VMWare
Linux Client images, Only 2 vendors had not made their sites "firefox
friendly" and when their contracts expire, they will be cut. One of
them was cut last month, replaced by another vendor who was "Firefox
Friendly" and Linux neutral (works with Linux with Firefox"..
Other companies like Prudential, MetLife, and Gannett Publishing are
likely to follow suit, and are likely to take similar "Pro Linux"
positions in a very public way. Will Microsoft be willing to gamble
all of that good-will away, in the hopes of possibly "locking out" a
few Linux users who still want to use Windows occaisionally?
It looks like Microsoft is committing suicide, but it's truly a
life-or-death gamble.
> --
> "Get the business! Get the business! Get the business!"
> -- Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft
If you need to point a gun at their head, get the business
Figuratavily speaking of course - you can't actually point a gun at
their heads, but you can threaten to revoke all Microsoft licenses
immediately for failure to submit to a complete audit of all licenses
and configurations. You can threaten to have the CIO charged with
felony copyright violation for allowing his employees to use WinZip
without paying the registration fees within the specified tiem periods,
and you can threaten to leave them exposed to a virus that makes Nimda
seem like a nice friendly piece of spyware.
Interesting that VISTA security measures include NO anti-spyware
measures. It seems that Microsoft is perfectly willing to pass any
virus for which the distributor has payed the appropriate amount of
money for a Verisign or subsidiary signature, or has paid Microsoft for
a signature.
I'm looking forward to the day when I can pop my Windows drive out, put
my Linux drive in, and never look at Windows XP or Vista again.
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