Microsoft is working hard to incorporate rights management into Office that would make it perhaps impossible to read some documents with alternatives. Then by giving away the software (virtually) to colleges and high schools, you create resistance to using an alternative. For example, have you ever used a free office package?
The way they can fight the downward pressure is to reduce the annual cost of the running a Windows system -- i.e. more built in stuff, and more overall security (a shamefully high percentage of units are spam-bots and/or spyware infested). You can kinda play DVDs on WMPlayer now, whereas I used to buy an app for that. It at least has a minimally effective firewall now. If they built a really good virus scanner into it and provided, say, 3-years' free updates, then that would sure help consumers.
Thing is, the majority of people just want a few things -- digital photography, web browsing, e-mailing, write a letter or two, view PDF files plus Quicken/TurboTax. Quicken/Turbo is the only one I can't do under Linux, and I haven't explored dig. photo yet either.
Downward pressure will come when somebody puts the right wrappers into Linux for a home user, and certain essential apps come out like Quicken (I've written them about a Linux version and they're "monitoring" the situation lol).
Microsoft will do anything and everything to make sure an alternative doesn't hit critical mass, because that's when everybody starts coming up with Linux versions and the computer from Best Buy that costs $500 less but does nearly everything better suddenly starts to make a lot of sense.
I still see that day as a ways off. And I think that the next OS will cost more than XP (mostly more crap piled in).
There is some chance that MS Office sales will start to level off, if they can't "bind" users to their suite. OpenOffice 2.0 is terrific, and free. |
