Re: Microsoft needs a help strategy

[ZnU]

In article <EXNel.102870$626.48501@newsfe09.ams2>,
 The Lost Packet <jmthelostpacket@googlemail.com> wrote:

> Rjack wrote:
> > Rjack wrote:
> > 
> >  From the findings of fact in US v. Microsoft (1998)
> > 
> > http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm
> > 
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > Open-Source Applications Development
> > 
> > 51. Since application developers working under an open-source model are 
> > not looking to recoup their investment and make a profit by selling 
> > copies of their finished products, they are free from the imperative 
> > that compels proprietary developers to concentrate their efforts on 
> > Windows. In theory, then, open-source developers are at least as likely 
> > to develop applications for a non-Microsoft operating system as they are 
> > to write Windows-compatible applications. In fact, they may be disposed 
> > ideologically to focus their efforts on open-source platforms like 
> > Linux. Fortunately for Microsoft, however, there are only so many 
> > developers in the world willing to devote their talents to writing, 
> > testing, and debugging software pro bono publico. A small corps may be 
> > willing to concentrate its efforts on popular applications, such as 
> > browsers and office productivity applications, that are of value to most 
> > users. It is unlikely, though, that a sufficient number of open-source 
> > developers will commit to developing and continually updating the large 
> > variety of applications that an operating system would need to attract 
> > in order to present a significant number of users with a viable 
> > alternative to Windows. In practice, then, the open- source model of 
> > applications development may increase the base of applications that run 
> > on non- Microsoft PC operating systems, but it cannot dissolve the 
> > barrier that prevents such operating systems from challenging Windows.
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > Note the prophetic finding of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson:
> > 
> > "In practice, then, the open- source model of applications development 
> > may increase the base of applications that run on non- Microsoft PC 
> > operating systems, but it cannot dissolve the barrier that prevents such 
> > operating systems from challenging Windows."
> > 
> > So what has changed? A gain of maybe 2% (exclude proprietary Apple) in 
> > market share of non-MS operating systems in the past ten years?
> > 
> > Seems to me that the open source business models are an abject failure 
> > compared to proprietary models.
> > 
> > Sincerely,
> > Rjack :)
> > 
> 
> if they were an abject failure then /nobody/ would be using them.
> 
> I suggest you look at the Linux installed base for such things as:
> 
> PDAs
> cellphones
> digital satellite/cable receivers & DVRs
> GPS systems
> mp3 players
> routers
> network attached storage systems
> web servers
> supercomputers
> 
> ...and then compare that with proprietery installed base for same.
> 
> Get back to us with some real numbers, or I say you are full of shit.

Why is it that in so many COLA discussions, people who are very 
obviously discussing the *desktop market* have to constantly remind 
Linux advocates of that fact?

-- 
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them
‹ that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer
apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too
small, but whether it works [...]"        -- Barack Obama, January 20th, 2008