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____/ bbgruff on Saturday 19 Nov 2011 23:46 : \____
> On Saturday 19 November 2011 23:15 JeffM wrote:
>
>>>JeffM wrote:
>>>>This announcement seems like a ripple on the edge of a big wave.
>>>>Versions of the Eee running Linux
>>>>have already been a big success worldwide.
>>>>
>> Sinister Midget wrote:
>>>I think the news is that Eee is coming back with it
>>>after MICROS~1 tried to kill it.
>>>
>> Redmond figured out that a price point of $0 for software
>> is really really hard to beat.
>> Having to "donate" their OS to ASUS to get them to use it
>> was a radical shift for The Borg.
>> After zero income coming back to M$ from each unit sold
>> even though it had Windoze installed on it
>> was what it required to knife the baby,
>> it seems that MSFT's stockholders are thoroughly pissed.
>
> Yes - and if you can just sit back over the months and observe what happens
> without getting annoyed about any of it, it's quite fascinating.
>
> As you say, they "donated" XP to quell the Linux uptake, but they also
> caused a shift in the concept.
> They pushed for bigger disks, and pushed the "this can run your MS Office
> suite" mantra. Gone were those comparatively small (and tough!) SSDs, and
> along with them went the highly portable netclient concept. They made them
> into ultra-cheap laptops, in fact.
>
> What now?
> The cost of keeping Linux out was to give away XP. Unfortunately, that
> meant that some (half?) of the netbook sales were then replacing laptop
> sales - with no profit for MS, and very little for the manufacturer.
>
> Now MS is being challenged on other fronts.
> There are now tablets, phones, and "transformers" (dockable devices), and
> most/all of them are using ARM chips.
> I appreciate that they claim that Windows 8 will run on ARM, but will all
> the applications (e.g. MS Office) run on ARM?
>
> Note also that traditional desktop/laptop sales to the consumer are down 20%
> in Europe.
>
> Interesting times ahead for Microsoft? :-)
This is also pointed out in the B&N complaint. The whole "Linux on the desktop"
thing was foreseen to be chasing the wrong goal even 5 years ago (by some in
this newsgroup).
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Dr. Roy S. Schestowitz, Research Fellow
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux administration | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Editor @ http://techrights.org & Broadcaster @ http://bytesmedia.co.uk/
Managing partner @ http://scifitness.co.uk & http://iuron.com
GPL-licensed 3-D Othello @ http://othellomaster.com
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