To be absolutely honest I have already started looking into NSCP's position to see what their best vantage point was. I already have an idea. But back to you false point. In the litttle exchange between Dan and I, where do you see anything about MSFT "is excellent", "any MSFT competitor is hopelessly disadvantaged." all I was trying to get Dan to see is that the rest of the industry attempts the same basic strategies that MSFT does. The problem is that not everybody can win, there must be losers. Has anybody answered my posts regarding Sun's proprietary gestures. NO. The problem some may have with my attitude is that I am not emotionally attached to this topic. Monopolization may be bad, competition may be good, but let's recognized each entity's actions for what they are, please.
As for taking NSCP's position, I have already alluded (twice) to NSCP's best tact. MSFT will considerably weaken NSCP by commoditizing their strength (the browser) through manipulation of the monopolistic stranglehold they have on the desktop. NSCP should hurry to reciprocate in a very similar fashion. NSCP currently has the monopolistic position in browser share which is quite popular and ubiquitous. What they need to do is strike MSFT where it would do the most damage, and that is to commoditize the OS. Dan suggested it with Linux and BSD, but it would not be as competitive with the popular Win apps. Would the techinical aspects of the new MIT OS ( pdos.lcs.mit.edu ) run win apps reliably? Who knows, but that is the right direction. It would be good to have a technically superior OS, but that should not necesarily be the goal. Both O/S2 and Apple lost out with a better OS. One cannot win in a pissing match with MSFT. What the goal should be is to lower the value of the OS itself through commodization (again, can't stress it enough). If the OS is bundled as freeware, you cripple MSFT in the OS department, relegating thier strength to primarily applications best case scenario, worst case scenario you weaken demand, therfore narrow profit margins and market share/dispersion. Personally, I think NSCP will lose trying to challenge MSFT directly on the Win 32 paltform without somehow crippling that platform, MSFT simply has too many resources and too much developer equity.
OS/2 is practically worthless right now, and that ran Win apps farily well. Both NSCP and IBM would fair better by taking the loss by bundling OS/2 (fully supported) as freeware with all Domino, Lotus and NSCP client/server products. The clietn server products caould carry a slight premium to cover servicing costs, which would still give them an extreme price/performacne advantage over MSFT. Flood the market, remain Win 32 compaitble, and commoditize the OS. What do you think will happen if they succeed in doing this. Software prices will drop exponentially and REAL competition will begin where MSFT will truly fight for thier lives. You will see significant improvements in the Windows OS, reciproations in the O/S2 bundle and a real fight for productivity app market share. As a consumer, you should enjoy that.
Comments Bill? - you name calling trick pony you! |
