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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: upanddown who wrote (54702)	4/5/1999 5:43:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

John, MSFT has been on my radar screen for awhile, but, so far, I have not bought puts in any of my "serious money" portfolios. I have bought them from time to time in my pizzazz/long shot trifecta stash, and have watched them disappear with regularity. I not only think they are vulnerable, I think they know it. Not only is Linux a problem, but Java doesn't necessarily need MSFT on board, though most have opted that way. They have mangled their MSN operation and it is horrible. Novell is not dead and neither is Netscape. Even Apple is making a comeback. But, the number one reason to hate MSFT is the cheap pc. Nothing is going to stop the continued march to lower priced pcs. By this time next year, I expect the corporate pc to be going for less than $1000. That is tough for high priced product cos. like Intel, Dell and mostly Microsoft. MSFT bulls will say that low priced pcs are great for the co. as they all have op systems. But will they in the future at MSFT's ripoff prices. How many folks just want to get on the net? And, as you have mentioned, Linux gets you there for free? Those who want a "full service" computer, and I am one of them, may become a niche player like Mac buyers. MSFT can avoid this by lowering prices and keeping old OSs in production. I have Win 98 because there was no Win 95 alternative when I bought the box. If there was and it was cheaper, even by $10, I would have bought it. 98 is a big nothing. But MSFT likes its price gouging on new "upgrades," so they make the old stuff scarce. My guess is that within a year or two, that doesn't fly and MSFT either has to get cheap or out of the way. I hope so, as they are one of the great impediments to making tech work. MB