There are two Borgs in the software industry
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Teron Sep 11, 2006 9:53 AM EDT |
The other is Microsoft. The other is the FOSS movement. Both are here for the long haul. Now we'll just have to see which one lasts longer... |
| dcparris Sep 11, 2006 10:05 AM EDT |
I already know which one will last longer. Have fun watching. :-D |
| henke54 Sep 11, 2006 10:40 AM EDT |
Quoting:Linux Always a Bridesmaid?http://www.idm.net.au/story.asp?id=7468 |
| dthacker Sep 11, 2006 10:48 AM EDT |
I recognize a scorpion when I see one. I don't expect it to change its behavior. I would not apologize for being competitive, and I don't expect an apology from Microsoft, unless it's driven by the needs of their business. |
| Sander_Marechal Sep 11, 2006 2:56 PM EDT |
> competitive Windows pricing would effectively give Microsoft the power to control Linux’s market share. Perhaps they are right. Tiny problem: They can't afford it. Microsoft needs massive year-over-year profits to keep the stockholders happy. They have been accustomed to it. Anything less and they'll run, tanking the stock and the company in the mean time. Microsoft greatest threat comes not from Linux but from it's complacent stockholders. |
| dinotrac Sep 11, 2006 5:29 PM EDT |
>They can't afford it. Microsoft needs massive year-over-year profits to keep the stockholders happy. What percentage does Bill Gates hold? I don't know if he has a majority of the shares, but I'll bet he has a controlling interest. |
| jimf Sep 11, 2006 6:08 PM EDT |
Bill Gates is behond just software now, I doubt any of it bothers him. |
| Sander_Marechal Sep 11, 2006 9:56 PM EDT |
> What percentage does Bill Gates hold? I don't know if he has a majority of the shares, but I'll bet he has a controlling interest. Perhaps, but with MS's stock option plan, a lot of stock went to other employees as well. Just one more reason the whole of MS will tank when the stock takes a nose-dive: their employees will start running, dumping their stock in the process (causing a bigger nose dive, etcetera) :-) |
| dinotrac Sep 12, 2006 2:46 AM EDT |
sander - The stock could tank, but employees running (which has already started, at least in key positions) is much more dangerous. I thought I had read somewhere a few years back that Microsoft had radically changed to degree to which it granted employees stock options...but I can't recall for the life of me. At any rate... Stock prices affect a company's ability to raise money and affect the happiness of stockholders. They also affect the ability to compensate executives, thanks to 1993 changes in the tax law that limit the tax deductability of salaries to the first million dollars (has that gone up?). Beyond that, they really don't have much impact on actually running the business. If Bill Gates and friends control the Board of Directors, Microsoft doesn't need to worry about stock prices. It is cash rich and can operate for years without raising capital. Bill and friends, of course, do not want to see the stock tank. Bill himself has a billion shares or so. Every dollar dropped hits him where it hurts. |
| tuxchick2 Sep 12, 2006 7:16 AM EDT |
Yeah, every time Microsoft stock drops a point Bill has to mow lawns for food money. :P Which just proves his total lack of imagination. He could make more money putting a funny little hat on Steve Ballmer and making him dance to a hurdy-gurdy. Here's an interesting item in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_grinder "the disappearance of organ grinders from European streets was in large part due to the early application of national and international Copyright laws. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century European publishers of sheet music and the holders of copyrights to the most popular operatic tunes of the day often banded together in order to enforce collection of performance duties from any musician playing their property in any venue." Nothing new under the sun, is there. |
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