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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Niels Larsen who wrote (54178)	12/14/2000 12:06:48 AM
From: Charles Tutt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

... and alternatives are available for free? Charles Tutt (TM)

To: Niels Larsen who wrote (54178)	12/14/2000 3:16:52 AM
From: Dave	Respond to of 74651

What can Microsoft do when the price of hardware good enough for most users comes down to where the software is the main cost of for example an office PC? They're way ahead of you. Microsoft software will be free when you buy the machine; but you'll have to sign up for their Internet service (.net) or it will won't run. So they'll get a monthly fee for you to run your computer. And they'll probably give you a discount on that if you sign up for a subscription to their MSN ISP. But they're not an illegal monopolist, oh no. Those pesky rules about leveraging an existing monopoly to monopolize a new market don't apply to them. Dave

To: Niels Larsen who wrote (54178)	12/14/2000 8:48:18 AM
From: Harvey Allen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Walt Mossberg on the current state of PC's. PC Designers Have Yet To Achieve Right Balance The PC itself didn't get better. If anything, it actually became more aggravating. The huge flaws in Microsoft 's Windows 98 operating system became increasingly apparent with age, and the company responded with a cosmetic makeover called Windows Me that not only didn't solve the old problems, but introduced some new ones. I remain convinced that a corporation as rich as Microsoft, one so ready to proclaim its own brilliance, should be deeply embarrassed by this state of affairs. public.wsj.com

To: Niels Larsen who wrote (54178)	12/14/2000 1:17:27 PM
From: Rusty Johnson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Prudential Downgrade Microsoft (MSFT) 57 1/4 -1 1/8: Prudential downgraded to HOLD from ACCUMULATE due to an increasingly cloudy PC demand outlook. Price target is $55... Lowered its secular EPS growth estimate to 16% from 20%... Concerns stem from news regarding PC demand resulting from a Prudential Securities Asia Technology Tour and also from the possibility that Intel (INTC) may freeze, and even reduce, its capital expenditures next year. Thanks to briefing.com Eric Raymond Interview lwn.net CL: We saw the big advancement of both GNOME and KDE this year as software and as organizations. But in practice, Linux has not yet been the most popular desktop. Do you see any obstacle to it or is it like it just takes a little more time? ESR: I think Linux will become dominant before it is really ready technically for the end users. And the reason I believe that is because I now think that Microsoft monopoly is going to collapse for other reasons in the near future. One of the reasons is that prices for hardware is steadily dropping. This is a problem for Microsoft because their business model depends on charging a fixed price for pre-installed Windows on a machine. As hardware prices drop, that fixed price represents a larger portion of the margins of the desktop OEMs. The desktop OEMs are going to reach the point when prices drop to a certain level where they simply can't make any money paying the Microsoft tax. And it is at that point, that the Microsoft monopoly will collapse, because they will then unbundle Windows from their machines, and offer something that's inexpensive (like, say, Linux), in an effort to get some of their margin. I believe that will happen probably within five to six month from now, and that's probably before Linux will become polished and be ready for the end user. Thanks to slashdot.org Hotmail: You Get What You Pay For by Elisa Batista wired.com Haisty is part of a cluster of users plagued with Hotmail's latest headaches. Since Sunday, an undisclosed number of users have not been able to get to their Hotmail home pages or log onto their accounts. Users who successfully log in must wait 30 seconds to a minute for any task to be completed. Hotmail representatives didn't have a novel reason for the email meltdown. Once again, the servers hosting the e-mail accounts are being repaired. Thanks to wired.com Cheers.