Amyj, Linux will advance far faster as time goes by. More apps will run, a better gui will emerge and this will give it a real market to compete in rather than the geek heaven we have now.
MSFT will have a very hard time with point 1, note that OS costs as a % of running machine costs have increased dramatically. In the early 80's DSo was $10-15 OEM and machines were $5000+. Then gates began to wield his power since he had ratholes down which to pour $, like his internet strategy and killing Netscape. Now Win98 costs 10-40% of the system costs, depending on OEM level and what you get, they all get win98.
They say MS is waiting for the appeal, the loss of this stage being a foregone conclusion in the trials.
Theapps do creat a barrier, but the big on is the GUI. With a good GUI there are many apps out there that would enable good suites to be assembled. Once the GUI is there people will write to it. The Intel money will help in this area as Intel sees the barrier in machine costs falling is now shifting to the OS which is omong the most expensive components now.
Will we get a linux CE?, with a GUI? small single floppy linux compile exist, but the gui?....that will bend GAtes' nose if linux gets into the CE market.
So far MS does not charge a fee for people to write to win98. if they did it would shift the scene. imagine what a $1 fee to MSFT for use of RTLs would do to the MSFT bottom line. This is doable and it would only cost the writers $1. This could dwarf the amount MSFT makees from the OS sale. That way they would have a link, pay $1 and get on board. Now it is free.
With linux, no fee will emerge, but until a good gui emerges and has all the diverse linux apps done to use it the writers willl be writing throw away code, in effect, the emergence of a gui will increase the value of their product by making it a viable competitor. Since the two are linked a common effort is called for. I od not know what the Intel effort is doing for all?, is it just aiding Red Hat? or making gains on common graounds for all linux users?
Crash Lotus? That saying has so much inertia that belies it's truth. One wonders why the major apps did indeed crash, one would think that MSFT would test those first??? dirty rattery. Esp when that secret code was found with the recent multimedia crash case that has been publicised. cannot find ref right now, later.
There are indeed strange people roaming the halls MSFTville, but seretaries are there none, Gates has eaten everyone...
Bill
Bill |
