And so it comes
May. 14th, 2007 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lprovenSo, it's finally happened. MS, giant that it is, is embattled.
I have recently been working on some Vista machines, and much as I expected and counter to what the apologists have been saying, it's a complete dog. It's a sprawling sluggish mess, horrifically slow and sluggish and unresponsive, no smoother, more intuitive, easier or anything than XP, even less modular and really much less flexible and customisable. It has no real new technology benefits of significance. And it really is not that pretty, not if you have actually seen the competition, which, of course, most people using Windows have not.
It's a pile of crap and MS knows it. The competition - OS X and Linux - is better. Shout at me if you like, I'll ignore it. Reason with me, persuade me, if you can, please. But a quick hint before we go: the fact that there are lots of Windows apps and lots of Windows experience is not a trump card, OK? People can learn to change given an incentive, and the incentives are there. The inertia of Windows is a factor, but it is not a game-winning one; you will need more than that.
So, as MS can no longer beat the competition by being better, which, to be fair, it has done a lot in the past (Word for Windows, Excel, in some ways Outlook+Exchange, VB, IE at one point). So, as it always does, it's going to play dirty and cheat. (This is not apologist-bait. Don't start flaming. MS is a cheat, a liar and a thief, proven and convicted. Doesn't matter if everyone else is too, that's not what's under discussion.)
So, MS has declared that a complete Linux desktop with OpenOffice infringes 235 MS patents. It won't say which ones, so the FOSS folk can't just whip those bits out.
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39584
This is going to be messy, slow and expensive. Common sense says FOSS will win but the law is, of course, an ass & no respecter of common sense. What it ultimately respects is who has the most cash.
And MS has the most cash.
What do you here think?
I think there will be blood on the floor before long. Some may die. I fear that if MS plays it smart - and it is a smart company, just hidebound - then the FOSS OS world may live, but castrated and about as potent and powerful as it was in 1991-1992, before the Web.
I'm worried. Concerned. A bit scared, even.
I have recently been working on some Vista machines, and much as I expected and counter to what the apologists have been saying, it's a complete dog. It's a sprawling sluggish mess, horrifically slow and sluggish and unresponsive, no smoother, more intuitive, easier or anything than XP, even less modular and really much less flexible and customisable. It has no real new technology benefits of significance. And it really is not that pretty, not if you have actually seen the competition, which, of course, most people using Windows have not.
It's a pile of crap and MS knows it. The competition - OS X and Linux - is better. Shout at me if you like, I'll ignore it. Reason with me, persuade me, if you can, please. But a quick hint before we go: the fact that there are lots of Windows apps and lots of Windows experience is not a trump card, OK? People can learn to change given an incentive, and the incentives are there. The inertia of Windows is a factor, but it is not a game-winning one; you will need more than that.
So, as MS can no longer beat the competition by being better, which, to be fair, it has done a lot in the past (Word for Windows, Excel, in some ways Outlook+Exchange, VB, IE at one point). So, as it always does, it's going to play dirty and cheat. (This is not apologist-bait. Don't start flaming. MS is a cheat, a liar and a thief, proven and convicted. Doesn't matter if everyone else is too, that's not what's under discussion.)
So, MS has declared that a complete Linux desktop with OpenOffice infringes 235 MS patents. It won't say which ones, so the FOSS folk can't just whip those bits out.
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39584
This is going to be messy, slow and expensive. Common sense says FOSS will win but the law is, of course, an ass & no respecter of common sense. What it ultimately respects is who has the most cash.
And MS has the most cash.
What do you here think?
I think there will be blood on the floor before long. Some may die. I fear that if MS plays it smart - and it is a smart company, just hidebound - then the FOSS OS world may live, but castrated and about as potent and powerful as it was in 1991-1992, before the Web.
I'm worried. Concerned. A bit scared, even.
