[H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>> Asus Says Eee PC is Most Successful Product Ever
>
> Cool!
>
This is a particularly interesting snippet of news, which might not
appear to be very important, but in fact, shows that another major
hurdle for linux adoption has been overcome. Asus is a hardware vendor
which has shown that supplying a linux-based machine in direct
competition with Microsoft-based machines can not only be successful,
but can, in fact, lead the company into greater success than ever
before.
Products like TomTom, Nokia N800, Motorola A680 etc., Gamepark GP2X, Tivo
and many others entered markets which were *not* Microsoft dominated,
and all have had respectable success.
Asus Eee entered a market in direct competition with Microsoft's
offering, indeed, in a market segment which Microsoft has monopolised
for more than a decade, the laptop/portable computer.
In just a few months, Asus' Eee has become their most successful ever
product, demonstrating that Microsoft's hold on the laptop market is
over. With competition from Apple from the top-end of the market, and
Asus, OLPC and more from the bottom end of the market, Microsoft lack
any clear direction. They cannot compete on hardware quality and user
interface with Apple, and they cannot remotely compete on price with
Linux-based machines. Indeed, as Microsoft's market share continues to
fall, they will need a *greater* margin per sale than ever before in
order to keep their group margin positive, in an environment where they
can charge less and less, and an equivalent and/or superior offering,
Linux with OO.org is free.
This does indicate that the desktop computer market, that last bastion
of Microsoft's monopoly, will not be long in being conquered. That the
relevance of the desktop is waning fast is also not missed by many
observers, so again, the twin impact of a dwindling desktop market
coupled with a free, equivalent and/or superior offering of linux plus
oo.org, indicates that Microsoft have only a few years, or perhaps even
months, during which they can squeeze that market before it is no longer
able to support Microsoft's voracious needs for cash.
Microsoft's attempts to impose a new Microsoft tax on Linux through
companies such as Novell, Linspire and Turbo-Linux as well as by tying
up major institutions such as the BBC, The National Archives, The
British Library, the US Library of Congress and others have not proven
to be particularly successful, indeed, the experience with the BBC has
led to the BBC DG being questioned in parliament about the massive costs
and abject failures of the programmes with Microsoft. No doubt the same
questions will soon be asked of the National Archives and the British
Library.
Perhaps, one day, it will be possible to view Magna Carta in all its
glory, with the best possible eXPerience, using any standards-compliant
system stack, rather than having to choose one from Microsoft. And
perhaps that day is not so far away.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
