Random geek linkage for a stormy Friday morning in Houston . . . • Dell's growth drops below that of the PC market, and at least one analyst blames its failure to use AMD chips. Dell's purchase of Alienware notwithstanding,...

*sigh*.

1.  Complete your train of thought.  If Linux has a lower perceived TCO, so what?  What would Microsoft be able to do. and why do you think it would work?

2. This won't work.  Why?  How many times would I, an average user, go to Dell for anything?  Maybe once every five years.  Considering Microsoft hasn't released an operating system on such a timely schedule, (say every 5 years?) I won't have an opportunity or a need (if Windows XP is working just fine like thousands of Windows 98 are still doing) to purchase it.

3.  I don't think this will work either.  For $50-100 extra, I'll fork out the money for the full edition thank you (and keep it for a lot longer than usual to get my value and use out of it for the next 5-8 years).

4.  If this would involve using Windows Media Center, somehow with updated software for editing video etc, perhaps this might fly for people who like using Microsoft products.  But, for an outlay of $3-4000, I can buy a desktop ready PC with a great operating system plus the software I need to edit videos.  And it's top of the line, and easy to use.  I shouldn't need a special version of any operating system unless it has more gain than another (which if you view the MS knowledgebase, user groups, or the Internet in general, you will see that people have a lot of usability issues with Media Center)

5.  This isn't a reason, it's an opinion which is more in line with your previous point.  So why make another bullet point?  English aside, the only reason they are making Virtual Server free is to get it out there to the masses.  Microsoft has reached a critical point wherein software exists out that does the majority of tasks users need, but these packages are completely free.  Visual Studio?  Well, if you're willing, you can use Bloodshed Dev-CPP, or or heaven forbid notepad.exe.  Microsoft's compiler is already near free to use - it's the licensing under which you can use it (and also distribute your finished application) that is restrictive.

6.  What world do you live in?  A corporation exists to *make money*, not to sit idly by and spend it.  "Carry it through the loss", huh?  Where does it stop?  How does it stop?  Extrapolate your thoughts.  I would say unless Microsoft realizes that there are people out there who enjoy making software and want a lot of other people to use it and therefore make it free to use, modify, distribute, and even turn a profit on, there business will fail regardless of how much money they can throw at their problems.

7.  Yeah, watch how fast I block this with my 3rd party hardware or broadband router.  Oh, I can't even use the new version of Windows without allowing the operating system to go out on the Internet and download new ads to make more money?  I'll find another operating system, learn it, and learn to live without Microsoft (like I already do in the majority of my work).  Also, you forget a lot of individuals and companies have policies AGAINST Internet access at all, and advertising content sites are one of the many blocked categories of sites in filtering software.

8.  Spybot is free, and if not, I'll gladly pay a $20-50 a year for updates (just like people do with Symantec products).  Not only that, in my opinion, tlhey could be in store for another anti-trust battle (remember the whole Netscape/IE/bundling fiasco?) if they don't do this carefully.  

I already depend on Microsoft for Windows Updates, and I might argue that had Microsoft been proactive with their security/OS model etc, we wouldn't even have a need for software like AntiSpyware (which was NOT their creation, but an application they acquired from GIANT in hopes that people could finally get some piece of mind while surfing the Internet).

If they were to innovate with their software (Windows is nothing but a carbon copy of the Apple OSs), and start looking at where their current cashflow lies, they may be able to figure out how to win this war.

9.  Let me fix this up for you: Microsoft has done this before on a lesser scale with Netscape and did so successfully, until of course they were convicted of anti-trust practices, fined, and forced to fix the problem.  Let me say this again: Bundling software in a certain manner, may be anticompetitve and illegal in some cases (like in Microsoft's).  This also is a continuation of the previous point and should not be included in your list of ten points.


If you're going to argue, make it good.  There are too many people on the Internet with an opinion (like me) who actually give a *** about the world around them.  Make your points clearly defined, and back your statements up.  No one wants to read a stupid post about your opinions (which haven't been thought out completely); all this does (in my case anyway) is serve to tell the public at large that you want visitors to your site.  Right witty comments, write useful information and hope it gets linked.

No one likes Internet whores!

What If I gave you a broken car free?

Once upon a time one of my stories took off on Digg. It was entitled, "What if Microsoft gave Vista away?"