On Friday 11 January 2008 14:38:51 Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> To be honest, to me, business is business, I do not see why Microsoft is
> any worse than any other big public listed companies. And to me
> many negative comments about Windows/Bill Gates are unjustified.

Yea, that's why it's not just Microsoft that gets called negative things: big 
pharma, oil & gas companies....

Negative technical comments about Windows/any other OS are usually justifiable 
from a technical standpoint. Calling something a "toy OS" is definitely not 
justified. Microsoft isn't the only company that gets called names.

> > What I hate is what we collectively have let Microsoft get away with.
>
> Why? That is the market reality. Those fit will win.

Precisely! Microsoft did not win due to "fitness". They won because the market 
was irregular. The OS market became a monopoly. Hopefully, things like Linux 
will balance it back into a free market with open competition.

> > Despite having products that have serious flaws, products that cost most
> > of us a lot of time and money fixing, we continue to buy these products.
>
> That is simply because the alternatives are just not good enough.

"Good enough" is a fairly subjective measure. It would totally depend on what 
you need the tool for. Windows seems to be focusing on multi-media. So, it 
may not be as good in other areas. To do geeky work, Linux is much easier to 
use than Windows.

Right tools for the right job and all that.

> You can also assembly your own PC. Nobody will stop you from doing
> that. You can also buy PCs with Linux pre-installed. Whether it is
> worth the money is another thing. But you do have the choice.

True, you have the choice, if you have the requisite knowledge. Not everyone 
is capable of doing it. At my present university, we've held workshops to 
teach the engineers here how to build their own PC. If engineering students 
have to be taught how to assemble their own PC, I guess most normal people 
don't know how to do it. So, effectively, most people don't have this choice.

> As I said, you have the choices. You always have the choice. It is
> just typically you do not save much money without Windows installed.
> But situation is now changing. Companies like Dell/Acer/etc all starts
> to offer low cost laptops with Linux installed. Eee PC and OLPC will
> also get more and more popular.

Another alternative, that may be often overlooked in the laptop market, is 
buying a whitebook directly from the ODM. Compal and Asus seem to engage this 
market. There are companies that will even do the assembly for you.

> > In the end I feel the blame is our own. Our society let Microsoft become
> > the monopoly it is. Our society has allowed Microsoft to remain the
> > monopoly it is.
>
> I think we do not need the blame us or Microsoft. Let the market decide
> the direction. I feel what EU or the justice department have done do
> not help Linux. Technical merits are the one which will win the end
> user and not philosphical thoughts. Many anti-Microsoft comments
> are just silly IMHO.

I totally agree. Technical products should be judged on technical merit. But 
then, Microsoft became a monopoly, not on technical merit but through 
questionable business tactics. As we are beginning to see, more and more 
organisations are starting to embrace open source.

Cheers.

-- 
with metta,
Shawn Tan

Aeste Works (M) Sdn Bhd - Engineering Elegance
http://www.aeste.net
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist