[E. Pluribus Unum]

Ping.

[sinkspur]

Well, I'll believe it when I see it. This article reads like a lot of wishful thinking, to me.

[zeugma]

WooHoo! Let the flame wars begin!

100% microsoft free and loving it!

[Cicero]

Everybody loves to hate Microsoft. Poor old Bill Gates. He gives hundreds of millions of dollars to liberal causes, and the liberals still hate him. Conservatives too. Just can't win.

But I like my Windows XP.

[monkeyshine]

When I went to buy MS Office 97 many moons ago, I was upgrading from Mac Word 4.0, which of course meant I couldn't upgrade because I was switching platforms. But Office was like $500. So I bought a used version of MS Works for $5, and then the office upgrade for $149. Saved a bundle.

[Hunble]

Once upon a time, there were so many operating systems, that it was difficult to write generic software. Each and every computer hardware manufacturer had it's own operating system and their was chaos.

Along came IBM with Microsoft and an operating system standard emerged for software development.

Today, over 85% of all computers around the world are compatible with the Microsoft software standard.

Companies today, are able maximize their profits by creating software that is compatible with the vast majority of computers. No longer do they need to spend valuable man-years in adapting their software toward the lowest common denominator.

No matter how hard you try, the lowest common denominator will always produce software that is unable to exploit new capabilities. The result is poor software for everyone.

How many of you remember why almost all of the early software was text based only? Graphics interfaces were not standardized and ASCII was the only common interface between the multiple operating systems and languages available. Even ASCII was not universal, since companies like IBM continued to insist upon EBCDIC as their binary representation of text.

Love it or hate it, Microsoft created a standard. Today, we see software at very low costs, which would simply be impossible to do without a common software environment.

Instead of creating software chaos once again, we must focus upon fixing the problems within the Microsoft operating system.

[trek]

This is the same kind of hubris that the Apple people used to display. Linux may be different, but I doubt it. The analysis in the article underestimates greatly the power of inertia.

A great example of this principle is the layout of the keys on a keyboard. Have you ever wondered why the keys are where they are? It goes all the way back to manual strike typewriters. The keys were layed out to optimize how the metal arms struck the paper. It had nothing to do with the convenience of the typer. This reason for laying out the keys on the keyboard was lost when the electric typewriter was invented (hello IBM) and this was decades before the personal computer.

Even though there have been no metal arms for decades, the keys are still layed out in the same place. Attempts to "rationalize" the keyboard, e.g. DVORAK instead of QWERTY failed miserably. Apple in fact offered this as an option for a while.

ESPERANTO is another example of the failure of the "rational" solution. This was the intellectual's attempt to rationalize the language people speek. Seriously! I bet Howard Dean knows how to speak it. If he becomes the Rat nominee he may even give a speech in it. The elites would go ga ga over this.

But nobody in the real world wants to switch to the 'better product' if the current product works well enough. For those old enough to remember, Technocracy Inc. is another failed effort to replace market choice with a more 'rational' solution. It never works.

Microsoft will not rule forever. They will one day be dethroned by the market place. The economic arguments the author makes have some validity. But only a fool buys the 'Linux is free' argument. It may be free for the geek working at home but not for a serious enterprise. Large corporations may one day pay IBM to support Linux for them rather than pay Microsoft to support Windows. But I don't see this in the near future.

In fact, I bet if we dug deep enough we would find that the author has ties to IBM. IBM is still pissed that they gave 100s of billions of dollars away to Microsoft. Linux is their current attempt to retake the field.

FWIW

[boris]

My company's IT dept (a BIG aerospace co) is dumping all of its Sun machines for Linux compute clusters.

Which everyone accesses on Windows boxes.

Linux has not penetrated the vast bulk of one of the largest companies on the planet...except to displace Sun with PCs running Linux.

However. I visited Fry's yesterday and they still want $200 for a "full version" of XP, and $90 for an "upgrade version". Outrageous.

--Boris

[Lazamataz]

Our brand-new product is written to a Microsoft API, in Visual Fox 8.0, and requires MS Outlook and MS Mappoint at a minimum. Our related web site will be written in C#.NET, which is the easiest web-development platform to emerge yet.

So, MS won't be dying anytime too soon. Too many people like me code to it.

[Quix]

WHAT AN ENCOURAGING [sadly] DOCUMENT!

Thanks.

Every time I click on my programs button, I have an error message saying there are too many items to show all of them etc. that I should delete some . . .

I've deleted all I can bear to delete!

Also, there's this anoying problem of MSN updates or some such typically cause more than 2-3 windows open or minimized to hang. Forcefully ending the one problem window causes all the IE windows to close. I have 1.X Gigabyte RAM; more than 150 GIGABYTES HD; DUAL AMD 1.XGIGHZ CPU ASUS MOTHERBOARD etc. I shouldn't have any problem having a dozen windows open.

Is there a good efficient place on the MS site to get help from? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Is there any workable way to get email help? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

They get tons of automated error reports from my machine and that does me all of 0.00000000000% good.

I tried to go to the UPDATE page at MS recently and that was a bust, too. I don't think I could get it to function much at all.

THEY HAD A REPUTATION IN TAIPEI OF BEING ABSOLUTELY BLOOD THIRSTY RUTHLESS AFTER A CORRUPT FASHION.

Regardless, they are grossly insensitive to customers and their products are a mess.

I have a Linux box I've hesitated to fire up because I hate the learning curve and have to interface everything with a college addicted to Microsoft.

But I look forward to the day when I can kiss the monsters goodbye and rejoice only.

[jdege]

http://www.tipatat.com/gallery_display.php?art_id=13

[avenir]

THANKS! to the Freepers who turned me on to OPERA.

I love it and haven't touched Internet Explorer since. But I am still on XP (which I like).

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Just because some companies are moving to Linux doesn't mean there is a big shift from MS going on. In my position, in the last 6 months, I've seen far more implementations of MS server, client and enterprise wide platforms than any other OS.
In direct response to customer demand, our Engineering department is doing more work on certifying MS products than any others. Do we support Redhat Enterprise Linux v3.0? You'll have to wait until Q2 '04 to find out.
On the other hand, all MS 2003 and XP platforms are now certified and supported.

[Varmint Al]

From a pretty good sample size, here is a breakdown of the viewers to my web page. It sure looks like Microsoft Internet Explorer is the hands down favorite. If one loses compatible with MSIE, you are lost in the wilderness, IMHO.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

Browsers

Versions		Grabber	Hits	Percent
MSIE			387122	91 %
	Msie 6.0	No	320054	75.2 %
	Msie 5.50	No	31	0 %
	Msie 5.5	No	38414	9 %
	Msie 5.23	No	292	0 %
	Msie 5.22	No	1168	0.2 %
	Msie 5.21	No	466	0.1 %
	Msie 5.17	No	421	0 %
	Msie 5.16	No	342	0 %
	Msie 5.15	No	12	0 %
	Msie 5.14	No	172	0 %
	Msie 5.13	No	22	0 %
	Msie 5.12	No	43	0 %
	Msie 5.01	No	11370	2.6 %
	Msie 5.00	No	96	0 %
	Msie 5.0	No	12914	3 %
	Msie 4.5	No	16	0 %
	Msie 4.01	No	1087	0.2 %
	Msie 4.0	No	25	0 %
	Msie 3.02	No	56	0 %
	Msie 3.01	No	6	0 %
	Msie 3.0	No	115	0 %
NETSCAPE			12273	2.8 %
	Netscape 7.1	No	3820	0.8 %
	Netscape 7.02	No	1501	0.3 %
	Netscape 7.01	No	987	0.2 %
	Netscape 7.0	No	1087	0.2 %
	Netscape 6.2.3	No	75	0 %
	Netscape 6.2.2	No	3	0 %
	Netscape 6.2.1	No	412	0 %
	Netscape 6.2	No	33	0 %
	Netscape 6.1	No	20	0 %
	Netscape 6.01	No	1	0 %
	Netscape 5.0	No	6	0 %
	Netscape 4.8	No	29	0 %
	Netscape 4.79	No	809	0.1 %
	Netscape 4.78	No	406	0 %
	Netscape 4.77	No	73	0 %
	Netscape 4.76	No	659	0.1 %
	Netscape 4.75	No	64	0 %
	Netscape 4.74	No	55	0 %
	Netscape 4.73	No	144	0 %
	Netscape 4.72	No	107	0 %
	Netscape 4.7	No	759	0.1 %
	Netscape 4.61	No	13	0 %
	Netscape 4.6	No	106	0 %
	Netscape 4.51	No	3	0 %
	Netscape 4.5	No	406	0 %
	Netscape 4.08	No	1	0 %
	Netscape 4.06	No	112	0 %
	Netscape 4.05	No	157	0 %
	Netscape 4.04	No	269	0 %
	Netscape 4.01	No	66	0 %
	Netscape 4.0	No	64	0 %
	Netscape 3.0	No	22	0 %
	Netscape 3.	No	3	0 %
	Netscape ?	No	1	0 %
OTHERS
	Mozilla	No	12912	3 %
	Windows Media Player (media player)	No	6227	1.4 %
	Unknown	?	2819	0.6 %
	Opera	No	1123	0.2 %
	WebTV browser	No	788	0.1 %
	Safari	No	727	0.1 %
	firebird	No	455	0.1 %
	Konqueror	No	365	0 %
	Galeon	No	124	0 %
	RealAudio or compatible (media player)	No	59	0 %
	IBrowse	No	16	0 %
	Phoenix	No	11	0 %
	OmniWeb	No	10	0 %
	K-Meleon	No	9	0 %
	NetShow Player (media player)	No	7	0 %
	WebCollage (PDA/Phone browser)	No	6	0 %
	LibWWW	No	5	0 %
	WinAmp (media player)	No	3	0 %
	Lotus Notes web client	No	3	0 %
	iCab	No	3	0 %
	Lynx	No	1	0 %
	UP.Browser (PDA/Phone browser)	No	1	0 %

[Snuffington]

bumping to read later

[Varmint Al]

Operating Systems

Versions		Hits	Percent
WIN		398943	93.8 %
	Windows XP	192773	45.3 %
	Windows NT	10371	2.4 %
	Windows Me	33765	7.9 %
	Windows CE	46	0 %
	Windows 98	89218	20.9 %
	Windows 95	6658	1.5 %
	Windows 2003	88	0 %
	Windows 2000	66024	15.5 %
MAC		5473	1.2 %
	Mac OS X	849	0.1 %
	Mac OS	4624	1 %
OTHERS
	Unknown	19136	4.5 %
	WebTV	788	0.1 %
	Linux	591	0.1 %
	FreeBSD	58	0 %
	Irix	38	0 %
	Dreamcast	18	0 %
	AmigaOS	16	0 %
	Sun Solaris	4	0 %
	HP Unix	2	0 %
	OS/2	1	0 %
	Unknown Unix system	1	0 %

Here is the breakdown on operating systems for about 400,000 hits and should be a good indicator of what people are using out there. You MAC and Linux users, tell me about all of the good features.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[Petronski]

Microsoft is acting predictably, pretending it is not happening, and putting on a smiley face when asked about prospects.

Then it started reacting with the usual FUD, the Halloween memos, various white papers and clumsily purchased studies.

Microsoft cannot fix the 'bugs' that lead to security problems because they are not bugs, they are design choices.

Wow, reminds me of the Microsoft-lackey talking points.

[Fresh Wind]

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

Last I checked everyone and everything is running Windows. Sure, about 5% of the power servers will be running alternatives. But it sure isn't "shifting" away from Microsoft. They've had and still have one of the best business plans and models ever "legally" allowed to exist. =)

[JudgemAll]

Sorry, but Linux is expensive to maintain and quirky to set up on the various PC laptops out there. Maybe on Mac machines things are more streamlined for linux.

That said, I had to get linux on my machine and I had to end up paying $100 worth of tech to finaly make it work with the sound driiver and all that I could not find.

I can get College student priced Windows and Word for 5 bucks each.