Replies

Make sure it's supported well and they've got a shot.

I'd like to see Microsoft become a lot less dominant,

I agree, on both points, I never felt that strongly about Microsoft, but I guess the day is coming where we just get sick of them. Railroading so many companies out of business (with "Embrace, Extend, and Exterminate") then flooding our IT business sector with foreign workers from India (use Americans!!), then the never ending buggy, security train wreck that is their software, and perhaps most insulting of all, the "forced" upgrades where they just tell us what we'll be buying and in what combinations (older stuff no longer supported, buy the new, and screw you).

Yes I'm running a little rebuild computer now from our local tech-rebels, it has all this free open source software on it that is very serviceable like Open Office (same functionality as Microsoft Office, spread sheet, word processor, presentation, etc.), an open source virus shield (which has already caught a couple viruses), and an open source Spybot program that removes spy ware (it too has caught intruders). And all of the packages check for new updates everyday.

I think we don't need Microsoft anymore.

At the risk of going totally off topic, whenever I see an article about Microsoft now, I think about the scene in Excalibur where Merlin confronts Uther:

Merlin: It's not for you, Uther......hearth and home, wife and child.
Uther: To kill and be king, is that all?
Merlin: Perhaps not even that.
Uther: You strike me with words hard as steel.
Merlin: You betrayed the Duke, you stole his wife......you took his castle, now no one trusts you.

MS used it's power to threaten computer manufacturers that carried other OS systems. They ran many software companies out of business. They just backstabbed the companies that signed on for the "Microsoft Plays for Sure" partnership by making the Zune incompatible with "Plays for Sure." One of the reasons MS is having so much trouble penetrating other markets is because companies know what MS does once it gets dominance in a market. Sony and Nintendo compete against each other, but they both hate MS. Michael Dell has been writing articles and almost begging Jobs to let Dell release an OSX machine.

I'll stick with Apple, but Linux may be the OS to give the other manufacturers a choice in computer manufacturing. FWIW, a lot of the Linux guys are going to look back fondly on the days of being obscure and tweaking the OS, and speaking their own language that no one else understood. I don't say that because of the canard about virus attacks. I say that because there's something cool about being a pioneer. I suspect when Linux hits it big, some of the current Linux afficianados will look at another OS, or continue to create niche OS interfaces. Not because they're snobs or elitists, but because they're pioneers, and once a path gets a little too worn, they want to head for the wild country.