Microsoft's Windows XP Conundrum
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| With ASUS preparing its second generation Eee PC and a number of pretenders
| to the low-cost throne gearing up for production with Linux-based solutions,
| Microsoft needs an OS to complement these machines. The only feasible option
| right now is, of course, Windows XP.
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http://www.dailytech.com/Microsofts+Windows+XP+Conundrum/article11320c.htm
The low-cost laptop offer Microsoft can't refuse
,----[ Quote ]
| That leaves Microsoft executives with a choice: Do they extend the
| availability of Windows XP for low-cost laptops, or possibly concede this
| nascent market to Linux?
|
| The poster child for the low-cost laptop is Asustek Computer's US$249 Eee PC,
| which hit the market in October last year and runs the Xandros distribution
| of Linux. Consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere embraced the laptop, which uses
| a version of Intel's Celeron M processor, for its small size and ability to
| perform basic tasks like Web surfing and e-mail. It became something of an
| overnight sensation, and that success caught the attention of other hardware
| makers, including top-tier PC vendors.
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http://www.itworld.com/Comp/1290/low-cost-laptop-080331/
This is major because GNU/Linux will carry on flying ahead (KDE 4, KDE 5,
Compiz-fusion) while Microsoft stays stuck in 2001 (XP).
Related:
XP gets reprieve as Vista is too big and clanky
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| That and the fact that Linux seems to be getting quite a nice foothold in the
| budget end of the market and Vole doesn't like to share its burrow.
|
| Microsoft has been caught with its pants round its furry ankles in the belief
| that system specs would rise year on year.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/01/xp-deadline-extended
Feeling the heat at Microsoft
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| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that.
`----
http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458.html?tag=ne.fd.mnbc
Microsoft's SEC filing
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| A prominent example of open source software is the Linux operating system...
| To the extent open source software gains increasing market acceptance, sales
| of our products may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for
| our products, and revenue and operating margins may consequently decline.
`----
http://www. microsoft.com/msft/SEC/default.mspx
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071023002351958
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