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Re: The price of Windows

__/ [ [H]omer ] on Sunday 17 September 2006 23:38 \__

> An extremely good, well balanced, and comprehensive article on Linux
> deployment in business:
> 
> .----
> | The days are over when Microsoft could rely on being the only
> | software platform in town. John Dwyer reports
> |
> | Microsoft has a case to answer. When Quocirca sifted through 8000 IT
> | professionals' responses to an online questionnaire last year, the UK
> | consultancy discovered deep unease with Microsoft's Windows operating
> | system.


They have an operating system? Operating seems like an active work, not a
passive one.


> | In some respondents Microsoft inspired a near-psychotic depth of
> | loathing. Others merely recorded strong reservations about,
> | respectively, the cost and performance penalties of Windows'
> | insecurity, its squandering of hardware power, its instability and
> | unreliability, and the cost of Microsoft's licences.


This reminds me of a message I've just read in a Web-related newsgroup. See
the part about spending 20% of your time 'maintaining' the computer.

,----[ Quote ]
| > If you have ever taken any MS certified classes, you are familiar with
| > the phrase "the microsoft way".  MS was founded on the theft and
| > reverse engineering of a Macintosh.  MS has to steal and deceive in
| > order to survive; that is their "way".  If you work for MS, they will
| > teach you in the training how to lie, cheat, and steal in order to
| > survive as an inferior product.  They were fined by the US Supreme
| > court for using their w95 monopoly power to rip-off their customers;
| > when w98 released with the same issues they were stating that they
| > don't care if it is illegal because they can make more money by
| > screwing their clients than it will cost them in fines.  MS was ordered
| > to compensate my state's university something like $75 million dollars
| > for overcharging them for products.
| > 
| > Microsoft products are anti-productive and barely work with their
| > sixty-billion bug complex.  I've seen some of the new improvements for
| > this vista crap that they say is coming soon - the new vista features
| > are the same tools that I have been using for years on my Mac (only
| > reverse engineered in a code that they don't want you to see because it
| > is bug-ridden).
| > 
| > Although I have been using ms word for grammar checking, excel for
| > spreadsheets, and IE to check browser compatability - these are the
| > only three programs that can actually crash my system (not a
| > coincidence that they are all inferior microcrap products).
| > 
| > How long will it take before windows users realize that maintenance
| > isn't supposed to consume 20% of your work day?  How long before they
| > realize that there is an easier to use and more powerful parallel
| > universe on Macs that hasn't been infected by millions of viruses and
| > spyware?  How long until they realize that MS is spyware that has been
| > spread like a virus?
| > 
| > The solution is simple: don't use windows, don't use microsoft
| > crapware.
| > 
| > Eventually the process of natural selection will devour their entire
| > company as people realize that MS is actually just a group of cheating
| > thieves, that MS products aren't worth the time that it takes to
| > maintain them, and that there are other products available that are
| > more stable, have more features, and are open-sourced so you can be
| > assured that you don't have a can of worms co-existing with your
| > precious files.
| > 
| > Microsoft knows they are looking at the "blue screen of death" and they
| > are scared like a rat in a cage.
`----


> | No wonder, then, that the Linux Open Source Software (OSS) operating
> | system is gaining ground at Windows? expense. No reliable figures
> | exist for the number of organisations using Linux because there is no
> | licence revenue to record.
> |
> | ...
> |
> | Tarpey mentions Google, whose banks of PCs run Linux, and internet
> | service providers Wannadoo and BT. Linux runs equipment from Netgear,
> | Tivo PVR, and in TV set-top boxes. It can be found in personal
> | digital assistants (PDAs) from Sharp, IBM, Intermec, Nokia and
> | others, and in mobile phones from Ericsson, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic,
> | Samsung and Siemens.
> |
> | ...
> |
> | Blowers says there are strengths as well as constraints in Microsoft
> | software. Microsoft applications integrate freely with one another
> | and have already been tested: "You get support and there are a lot of
> | applications available."
> |
> | But the support comes at a price. Latham says some K3 sites moved to
> | Linux when Microsoft increased its licence fees and introduced
> | subscription charges. Some companies suddenly faced a huge increase -
> | £10,000 to £15,000 a year - that they hadn't bargained for just to
> | continue using their SQL databases, Exchange email software and other
> | Microsoft code. And if they consulted a Microsoft help line, that
> | cost extra.


So how come there was never an announcement? Let me guess. There is no
wealthy company behind 'products' such as Debian Linux.


> | There is a widespread belief, even among well-informed IT
> | professionals, that hackers and virus writers target Microsoft solely
> | because its market share makes it a bigger target. A year or so ago
> | respected IT site The Register debunked this myth. If that were true,
> | said its report, why do most attacks on website software concentrate
> | on the 21 per cent of sites supported by Microsoft?s IIS rather than
> | the 68 per cent run on Apache, the web server equivalent of Linux?
> | The truth available from published data, said the site, is that
> | Windows is easier to hack.
> `----


FWIW:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/security_report_windows_vs_linux/


>
http://www.themanufacturer.com/britishindustry/content_page.html?article_id=559

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