[Redcloak]

I just love it when someone puts a skir into Microsoft. Unlike their competition, they go off and get more competative rather than get "lawyered up". The end result is that they, and their better competitors, turn out better products. Personally, they've lost me. W98 will be our last Microsoft OS. Linux will be its replacement, not XP. But, if they get their knickers into a sufficient twist, they'll inadvertantly prompt Linux software developers to produce better products for me.

The consumer wins again thanks to competition, not the courts.

[Die Zaubertuba]

Unlike their competition, they go off and get more competative rather than get "lawyered up". The end result is that they, and their better competitors, turn out better products...

By the comments made in the posted article, and through my experience as a consumer, I have yet to see this cause-effect relationship take place on Microsoft's part.

The "Marketing Concept" has to do with giving your customers what they want, at a profit (textbook definition). IMHO, Microsoft is forging ahead with the "big guy's" vision of what HE thinks people will want (or need) in the future. This smells more like the "sales era" of marketing tactics used in the 30's and 40's, where the focus was on "selling what you could make" as opposed to "making what you could sell." Remember the movie "Tin Men?" Compare that with the comments made in the posted article. Same sales approach.

I just installed Linux-Mandrake on my computer. I'm was happy to pay my hard-earned cash for it, and I'll be happy to put the extra effort in to learning it (won't take much) because Linux gives me far more choices with regards to how the OS works and interacts with me on a day-to-day basis. Better products will get my money in the long run. Pity Microsoft chooses the "hard-sell" route, as opposed to truly improving their products.