Can't. Resist.

Story: Windows 7 vs. Linux, Microsoft Trashes Open Source OSTotal Replies: 16
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bigg

Sep 09, 2009
1:42 PM EDT
How is this headline material? "Microsoft Trashes Open Source OS"

What a shock, a company trashing its rival. I wonder if they'll cut in on the soap operas for that breaking news segment.
vainrveenr

Sep 09, 2009
3:07 PM EDT
Quoting:What a shock, a company trashing its rival. I wonder if they'll cut in on the soap operas for that breaking news segment.
Quite a good point! And what may be most relevant here is that the Microsoft Windows 7 Sales juggernaut is indeed so actively and publicly even MENTIONING its rival.

As the widespread and historic Mahatma Gandhi quote on passive resistance went “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” --- see http://thinkexist.com/quotation/first_they_ignore_you-then_t... among other fine sites. So Microsoft Sales' attempts to so forthrightly trash Linux could very well signify a transition to Microsoft attempting to "fight" head-on potential Linux users.

End-users, as opposed to vendors and other partners.

LXer readers are already all too well aware of Microsoft's continued Legal and Product Development attacks on F/OSS through IP Patent Threats, hidden court-settlement conditions (see PJ's http://www.groklaw.com), questionable past SW-EULA clauses, NDAs for HW manufacturers, claims for code "interoperability", Embrace Extend Extinguish, .... the list goes on and on. Probably best to note here as materially relevant for this piece, that these L and D attacks are MUCH less aimed at the public, that is, unless any useful FUD somehow leaked out to consumers/governments (the infamous Novell Patent Deal ?? the ODF vs. OpenXML standards fiasco??) leads to increasing interest in MIcrosoft products.

--

Again, the indication of a more widespread and public attack on Linux is the key point of this piece, apropos of Gandhi's historic Satyagraha "fighting call" above..

--
hkwint

Sep 09, 2009
3:11 PM EDT
Quoting:And what may be most relevant here is that the Microsoft Windows 7 Sales juggernaut is indeed so actively and publicly even MENTIONING its rival.


Indeed, especially true given the adagio "never mention the competition" somewhere in the Power Evangelism documents.
bigg

Sep 09, 2009
3:50 PM EDT
> And what may be most relevant here is that the Microsoft Windows 7 Sales juggernaut is indeed so actively and publicly even MENTIONING its rival.

That's exactly what I was thinking. If you have 96% market share, you don't start a campaign against a competitor with 0.76% market share (or whatever numbers the dart landed on this week). Even the company that gave us Vista isn't run that poorly.
tracyanne

Sep 09, 2009
5:08 PM EDT
But Microsoft doesn't have 96% sales share. If Steve Balmers' little chart, that he presented to Shareholders earlier this years is to be believed, Microsoft has more like 70%. with the rest more or less evenly divided between Mac and Linux.

But remember this, Microsoft are not mentioning Apple and MacOSX.
bigg

Sep 09, 2009
6:12 PM EDT
> Microsoft doesn't have 96% sales share

That's why I included "(or whatever numbers the dart landed on this week)". Those stories belong in the same section with Bigfoot sightings.
helios

Sep 09, 2009
7:14 PM EDT
Let's make a bet...Let's make a bet that we cannot get 3 dozen Linux Users/advocates to get permits to stand on public street entrances to these places with signs that proclaim...whatever. MS Lies...told store to tell falsehoods...

"Do or do not do...there is no try"

h
tracyanne

Sep 09, 2009
8:00 PM EDT
Microsoft make no mention of Apple and Mac OSX, that coukd be decause Apple are perceived by MS as the real threat, and Microsoft want to direct people's attention away from Apple and Mac, and at the same time, by association (that if it's not Windows then it's no good), sully people's perception of Apple and Mac OSX.
hkwint

Sep 10, 2009
6:59 AM EDT
If we only knew who joined the mentioned 'Microsoft Expert training' we could tell them Microsoft didn't represent the facts. How could we find out?
jacog

Sep 10, 2009
10:14 AM EDT
Well, the next Linux netbook that makes it onto BB shelves should also offer some employee training, and casually present the real facts, which would then, of course, conflict with the The Facts (TM), possibly forcing these employees to actually find out for themselves.
gus3

Sep 10, 2009
11:11 AM EDT
Quoting:the next Linux netbook that makes it onto BB shelves
Shortly after the next sub-zero forecast in Hades.
mrider

Sep 10, 2009
11:38 AM EDT
Quoting:Shortly after the next sub-zero forecast in Hades.


No kidding. I had to laugh when I read the following quote in this story http://www.daniweb.com/news/story221775.html#post981734

Quoting:One of the reasons they were so successful in the 90s was because of well-publicizied anti-trust activities around Windows sales, which the US Government forced them to stop doing.


"which the US Government forced them to stop". ROTFLMAO. Yeah, they stopped their illegal activities all right.
flufferbeer

Sep 10, 2009
9:41 PM EDT
U.S. Government attempts to thwart the M$ boat?? Hah!! Hasn't happened recently, probably won't in the near future Guess that Micro$uck$ is just too d&*$#d big to come close to failing.
jdixon

Sep 10, 2009
9:58 PM EDT
> Guess that Micro$uck$ is just too d&*$#d big to come close to failing.

But they have failed, at least in their goals, if not financially.

Bill Gates wanted a computer in every home and a server in every office, all running Windows. Linux has absolutely destroyed any chance they had of monopolizing the server market and is well on it's way (with Apple) to doing the same in the home market. And FOSS is also eating away at their other software markets.

And now the combination of the economic downturn and higher sales of Linux and Apple computers have finally impacted their income stream. Microsoft isn't going away anytime soon, but they are well and truly wounded. And unless they change and start making innovative products worth what they charge for them again, the outcome is inevitable. They will become a niche OS/product provider, specializing in heavily integrated solutions for businesses, somewhat like Oracle and SAP. They will probably still be profitable, but they will be a shadow of they hoped to be.
theboomboomcars

Sep 10, 2009
11:47 PM EDT
The school I work at got 2 new computer labs this year and both of them are linux labs. We are also using many FOSS applications, and OO and the GIMP are on all the computers.

Good times, good times.
flufferbeer

Sep 11, 2009
12:21 AM EDT
@jdixon, Yes, I think you're mostly right! I was just thinking of the large banks and car companies in the U.S. declaring that they were all too big to fail so they could get bailout money at the beginning of this year. Now I almost see Micro$uck as similarly trying to play the big victim too large to fail in the attention the European Union has been giving them. M$ has already effectively lobbied representatives to prevent any SERIOUS scrutiny from the U.S. Govt. That's my 2c, though YMMV.

gus3

Sep 11, 2009
12:21 AM EDT
@TBBC:

What school *might* that be? (Keep it speculative; after all, we don't want to traffic in facts here!)

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