DFS wrote:
High Plains Thumper wrote:
Linux is good, Linux expresses the best of mankind,
creativity, resourcefulness, usefulness, productivity, etc.
Spare us the pious proclamations. It's all about cost (cue
[H]omer the [H]ypocrite counting his money while whining about
'money obsessed DFS'). Even at $0 hardly anyone adopts Linux
and open source systems; slap a reasonable price tag on them
and they would basically disappear.
I speak to advocate Linux, not Windows, so tough bricks, ace.
The only reason why Windows dominates is anticompetitive
practises by the monopoly. Best way is OEM produces white boxes
and allows the customer to choose operating systems. Currently
except in a few instances, they are only offered one. Allowing
customer choice helps to restore the balance in competition.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/speccyverse//comp/reboot/
best summarises the problem with Microsoft's monopolisation:
[quote]
From this position Microsoft and Intel have used
anti-competitive practices to gain and keep and even strengthen
their monopolies. Over time the other computer companies have
gone bust or left the PC market. Microsoft market share is above
85%, and Intel is even bigger. Anti-competitive practices are
about using a monopoly position to destroy the competition. In
other words good products loose to bad ones. Obviously this is
bad for the consumer, because of the lack of choice and
overpricing that the monopoly can do once there is no longer any
effective competition left. Also innovation will suffer as the
monopolies are not being pushed.
[/quote]
Prior to monopolisation, there was a thriving desktop software
market with many office automation suites to choose from. Now,
if one goes to sites like newegg.com, cdw.com, etc. The only
office automation suite offered is Microsoft Office.
Those other companies are gone. Microsoft charges top quid for
its products due to the lack of competition. This must be "all
about cost" argument that you freely toss around.
By the way, the commercial PC software industry has thrived
under Windows as no other industry ever, and has displayed
creativity, resourcefulness, usefulness and productivity that
far, far surpasses the mediocre results delivered by open
source fanatics.
You must mean creative resourcefulness, usefulness and
productivity as such:
Attempting to break a competitor's web browser function:
[quote]
Microsoft behind $12 million payment to Opera
A confidential settlement ends a litigation threat in a simmering
dispute over interoperability problems affecting Opera Software's
browser, CNET News.com has learned.
By Evan Hansen and Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 24, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT
Microsoft agreed to pay Norway's Opera Software $12.75 million to
head off a threatened lawsuit over code that made some Web pages
on MSN look bad in certain versions of Opera's Web browser, CNET
News.com has learned.
Opera disclosed the payment last week in a terse press release
that omitted other details, including the name of the settling
party and the nature of the dispute.
But a source indicated that the payment came from Microsoft in
order to close the books on a clash over obscure interoperability
problems. On at least three separate occasions, Opera has accused
Microsoft of deliberately breaking interoperability between its
MSN Web portal and various versions of the Opera browser--charges
that the software giant has repeatedly denied.
[/quote]
This is resourcefulness of a criminal nature.
It is the same resourcefulness that earned Microsoft a
hefty fine by the EU. Here is a Voice of America transcript
available in MP3 or Real Audio. I know it will do no good, as
you are hard of hearing, but here is the link:
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-14-voa1.cfm
You can freely listen to it whilst you type your gobshite, here.
--
HPT
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