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

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (63296)	11/24/2001 5:05:20 PM
From: alydar	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74651

<<Can Linux really compete on those terms?>> my man bill, how are ya? you still don't get it. the internet is so underhyped right now i cannot believe it. the so called add ons to your computer will not be located on the os or anywhere near a pc, they will be at some central location run by big, secure servers. your argument about putting the added applications does not hold up. the pc is really going to disappear but it will take a long time. so, a isp/asp can offer these add ons and collect royalties over the internet. nothing is going to have to be bundled with a operating system. all you need is a bare bones (i.e., linux os FREE) and a browser (i.e., many are FREE) and we are off. i do not know how msft is going to make any money in ten years. rocky.

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (63296)	11/24/2001 6:41:18 PM
From: dybdahl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

No. The economic argument for Linux is not because it's cost-free, but because it is hassle-free. It just works and can do what you need it to do. The main costs with a PC is not the OS itself. The main costs are education, handling and application licenses. Myself, I switched to Linux when I started to use features that Windows cannot provide. And as far as I see around me, this is also the main reason why other people change. It's not the costs of the OS. The OS costs may matter in massdeployment solutions, and here the whole scenario is very different. The "buy one CD set, copy it as you like" may very well apply to the voice recognition solution, too, because that piece of software may be distributed via the internet or some other network stuff. Maybe even included, but needs activation by some kind of micropayment. And included for free if you have it preinstalled on some hardware. If you buy a lot of Microsoft software, you would also go for the Select solution, where you have all the software, even the software you don't use. Linux easily competes on those terms. In a few years, the open-source world can provide you with a system, that has 90% of the features of Microsoft Windows, but includes software comparable to the entire Microsoft suite of desktop software and a lot of extra desktop software, with no license fees. If you want extra functionality, you can get that by paying, but most will do fine with standard functionality. KDE 2.2.2, ext3 and the amount of applications appearing on Linux is a very, very tough combination, something that really makes Linux the king of the desktop. We will see how it starts to take off in 2002.