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Re: [Rival] Poor Vista Adoption, Regretful Vista Promises

On Jun 21, 9:26 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Cooper on Business Adoption of Windows Vista
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | I'm of the opinion that neither is going to happen.
> | My bet is that we're waiting for either
> | licensing changes from Microsoft over Select customers,

This is a big problem for Microsoft.  Many corporate legal
departments have pretty much told the CEO that the current
licenses expose the company to too much shareholder liability.
With Microsoft able to completely disable all of the PCs,
without warning, without permission or physical access, and
without legal recourse, the loss of the PCs for even a few
hours could mean the difference between a 10% profit or a 20% loss
for a quarter.  This would trigger a 20-30% slide in the stock price,
and that could trigger credit restrictions.

The CFO and Legal department are pretty much telling the CIO
that if he allows Vista, his career will be ending very suddenly.

> | or some new killer application that is
> | only available on Vista (and which has no
> | existing Windows XP customers).

I think Microsoft was hoping that Office 2007 would be
the "Killer App" for business.  The problem is that most
businesses absolutely hate it.  It seems that documents
generated by Office 2007 can't be read by earlier versions
of office (even when you use the "save as" mode).  As
a result, many individuals who have tried to upgrade to
Office 2007 are being told to either downgrade their software,
or use Open Office instead.

Many corporations are setting a very "hard line" against
any type of "forced upgrade", threatening to not renew support
contracts, even remove MS-Office from corporate desktops if
Microsoft can't "Play Nice" with Open Office.

> | The licensing changes are extremely unlikely,
> | given the back-peddling Microsoft has already
> | done with OEMs.

Microsoft's deals with the other Linux vendors may be an
attempt to appease both OEMs and Corporate customers.
Unfortunately, there are still major issues in the
standard EULA that are just unacceptable to corporate
lawyers.

> | So can you imagine a killer business
> | application that won't be made available for
> | Windows XP users? Neither can I.

The big Killer App for Vista seems to be Direct X-10 3D graphics.
The problem is that these are only relevant on video game
applications.

Most Business customers don't use 3D graphics much at all, and most of
the business-oriented 3D graphics applications are based on OpenGL
because they are ports of Linux/Unix applications.

> | [...]
> |
> | I can almost guarantee that businesses'
> | adoption of Windows XP Professional
> | was considerably faster than adoption
> | of Vista has been, or is ever likely to be.

Remember, when XP was released in September of 2001, Microsoft
sent letters to all of their corporate customers telling them
that if they didn't upgrade their support plans to XP and take
delivery of paper licenses (even if not installed) within 30 days,
they would be "on their own".  In addition, Microsoft attempted
to triple the price of the support packages.  In some cases,
the price for the premium support package jumped to $150/user/month
for an "All Applications" premium support package (commercial
equivalent
to MSDN).

The tactic irritated CFOs, COO, and CEOs so badly that they ordered
the CIO or CTO to come up with a plan to migrate to Linux on 30 days
notice.  The plan had to be implemented - usually within 18 to 24
months.  All PCs being purchased had to be "Linux Ready", and had to
be tested with the desired Linux distribution before quantities could
be ordered.

Vista openly defies this order.  To get the AeroGlass 3D effects, you
have to have a DirectX-10 video card, and because of agreements with
Microsoft, there are no Linux drivers for any of these cards.  It's
direct defiance of the DOJ antitrust settlement, but at this point, no
one is looking to the courts for relief.  Businesses are simply
refusing to even consider vista

> | But then, making that comparison wouldn't send the message that
> | Microsoft's PR machines would like sent about Vista, would it?

Microsoft loves to make "first 30 day" announcements.  They typically
include pre-sold inventory, financed by Microsoft.  In some cases, the
inventory is for an entire year.  It can include OEM sales, sales to
Retailers, and "sales" to corporate subscribers to the support
programs.

With XP, the loophole was that licensees could accept the terms of the
XP license and "downgrade" to previous versions of Windows, such as
Windows 2000, or Windows NT.  This was part of the court order.  When
OEMs ordered Vista, their preview experiences were negative, so
Microsoft offered them an option to ship "Vista Capable" machines with
XP instead of Vista, even though they had purchased a Vista license.
Ironically, the OEMs had to pay EXTRA for that option.

The good news for Microsoft was that they could claim machines shipped
with XP as "Vista" sales.

> `----
>
> http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=1801
>
> Would You put Your Life in Vista's Hands?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | While on a visit in Romania, where Bill Gates participated in the
> | celebration of 10 years since the Microsoft branch has been running
> | there, and the launch of Vista, declared that, with the right amount
> | of administration, the new Vista could run life support systems in
> | hospitals.
> `----

Do they offer a "duration of stay" life insurance program, like the
airlines?  If I were staying at that hospital, and couldn't leave, I
would definitely want to pay $100 for the $1 million dollar policy.
If I'm going to die, at least my wife and kids can get rich.

The irony is that in some countries, such as the United States, it is
illegal to insure against a statistical certainty.  If you were
staying in a hospital where your life support depended on Windows,
they would legally have no choice but to cancel or suspend coverage on
the policy for the duration of your stay.

> http://www.techdo.com/would-you-put-your-life-in-windows-vistas-hands/
>
> Watch the video. Also this one:
>
> http://www.flixya.com/video/79487/Oh_Noooooo_Blue_Screen_of_Death_on_...



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