Re: [vox] FWD: How Linux helps Microsoft

[Ken Bloom <MAPSkabloom@ucdavis.edu>]

On Wed, Sep 01, 2004 at 09:58:58AM -0700, R. Douglas Barbieri wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> I was sent this link by someone I know who is decidely anti-Linux.
> 
> http://www.forbes.com/2004/08/31/cz_dl_0831msft.html
> 
> I'd like to know what vox-ites would say to this article. It appears 
> pretty slanted, but the one point I like is that Microsoft (and it's 
> customers!) will benefit from competition. Linux is the only OS to give 
> them a run for their money.
> 
> Here is an excerpt:
> 
> "Microsofties say they were more worried about Linux a few years ago, 
> when it was a truly free program, spreading on its own, from user to 
> user, like a virus. Now that Linux costs real money, and is sold by 
> buttoned-down blue suits from IBM and Novell, Microsoft feels more 
> confident. Microsoft has beaten these guys, badly, in operating system 
> wars before."
> 

They mention a cost study, and we all know how effective those are.
(They don't even mention whose study it was, or what it compared)

They complain about device driver support, which is a direct result
Microsoft's unfair influence in the hardware market. They don't
mention all of the devices and hardware that linux runs better on
(like SMP, 64bit processors, etc...)

Furthermore, if Micrsoft beats IBM and Novell, then Linux will still
be around supported by guys like Debian and the OSS community, and it
will be free again. (It's kind of like the Matrix scene, where
Neo (Microsoft) reaches the architect (figuratively destroying all of
the corporate support behind Linux), so the Matrix (Linux) just
reboots.) And besides, anyone who's smart enough and experienced
enough can do Linux for free even right now.
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