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Re: Suse linux more popluar than ever - Thanks to Microsoft!

On Jan 11, 4:14 pm, "Cletus Spencer" <cspen...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> "Rex Ballard" <rex.ball...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
> news:d6edc4b1-bce8-46f9-a2ad-ea020eb4aee3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > On Jan 11, 8:56 am, "amicus_curious" <A...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> "Cletus Spencer" <cspen...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >>news:47876390$0$25989$88260bb3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > On the flip side, Linux may turn into a "Vista Killer", since Vista is
> > so "Linux Hostile".  Microsoft tried to make sure that Vista hardware
> > was "Linux Hostile", and it backfired.  Today, PC buyers, especially
> > corporate and institutional customers, are buying "Linux Ready"
> > hardware with Windows XP (which Microsoft counts as Vista Business
> > Edition).
>
> - "Today, PC buyers, especially corporate and institutional customers, are
> buying "Linux Ready" hardware with Windows XP (which Microsoft counts as
> Vista Business Edition)."
>
> Really. You have "inside knowledge" of how Microsoft accounts for things. Do
> show some proof that Microsoft counts sales of XP machines as sales of
> "Vista Biz Edition"

Nope, Roy Schestowitz posted the link about 3 weeks ago, which quoted
Microsoft's official policy.  The OEMs purchased a minimum commitment
of Vista Home Edition licenses, but if they wanted to ship a machine
as an XP Professional machine, they had to upgrade the Vista License
to Vista Business Edition, which could then legally be downgraded to
XP Professional.

I believe that it was Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer being quoted.

There are probably three reasons for this.  If the OEM follows this
path, Microsoft can then offer the buyer a "free upgrade to Vista
Business Edition" (which is what the OEM paid for) to try and wean the
end user off of XP.  Second, Microsoft wanted to be able to count all
licenses sold to the OEMS as Vista licenses, and NOT have a separate
bucket of XP licenses.  Third, the DOJ settlement requires that
Microsoft allow OEMs and End Users to downgrade to previous versions
of Windows.

This allows Microsoft to legally say that they have sold 100 million
Vista licenses, even if not all of the machines were deployed with
Vista installed.  It's also quite possible that Microsoft has told the
OEMS NOT to tell them how many machines are being shipped with XP.
This gives them plausible deniability.  Microsoft can legally state
that they have sold a certain number of Vista licenses, make no
mention of XP licenses, and cannot make any accurate statement as to
how many machines are shipped with XP instead of Vista (since all they
are seeing is revenue for Vista licenses.

> because I will claim right here and now that you are
> full of shit and simply making stuff up as you go along.

I could have a faulty memory.  I responded to Roy's reference when it
came out, and made roughly the same statement.  At the moment, I don't
have the reference, but it was in an earlier thread on this COLA
newsgroup.

> The exact same way
> you made up lies about how Microsoft signing with Novell seriously hurt
> sales of SuSE when in fact the deal actually INCREASED usage of SuSE more
> than any other distro.

I didn't have the two survey charts side by side, and the reports and
graphs did not make a direct comparison.  Still, there were some
indicators that Ubuntu had grown substantially, while Novell had grown
more modestly.  This particular survey was based on self-selected
respondents responding to a web based survey.  Note that double the
number of respondents replied this year than last.

Novell is hardly suffering.  Their Linux related revenues have gone up
60% from last year.  Despite what the Debian purists have been saying,
I think that many corporate customers like the the "insurance policy"
of being protected from ANY claims Microsoft might assert against
Linux.

Remember that SCO was able to squeeze some substantial sums of money
from several major companies before a few companies fought back and
forced an injunction on any judgements related to customers, until the
IBM case was decided.

> So prove that MS counts Windows XP sales as Vista Biz Edition. I say you are
> full of shit.

Roy S.  Do you still have that link?  I remember that you posted it
earlier, but I don't remember when or what the reference was.

> > Microsoft appears to be looking for new alternatives to desktop
> > software license revenue.

This makes good business sense for Microsoft.  If they can diversify
their revenue stream, they can at least hedge against a surge in
acceptance of OSS such as Open Office or ODF standard software.  If
there is no sudden shift to OSS, then Microsoft can simply increase
it's revenues.

> >  According to CNBC yesterday, Microsoft was
> > looking at Yahoo as an aquisition target.  Even though Yahoo is based
> > heavily on UNIX and Linux servers, it does have a pretty solid revenue
> > stream and could offset some of the shortfall in Vista and Office 2007
> > revenues.
>
> > This is probably be biggest indicator that Microsoft is worried about
> > what Linux and OSS ARE doing to the desktop market.
>
> Nonsense. ALL large companies grow through acquisitions. IBM, Google,
> Microsoft, GE, Exxon, etc.

Generally though, a company looks for synergy.  They are looking to
make buys where the combination is greater than the sum of the parts.
Microsoft already has a Windows based network and web presense in MSN,
MSNBC, CNBC.  They also have partnerships with revenue generating web
sites such as CarPoint, Expedia, and a couple of banks.

> Because there is some rumor (again) that MS might
> buy Yahoo has absolutely nothing to do with some imaginary woory about what
> Linux is doing on the desktop market. (Which is basically nothing.)

http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/

http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/halloween2.html
<blockquote>
Key Quotes:

Here are some notable quotes from the document, with hotlinks to where
they are embedded. It's helpful to know that OSS is the author's
abbreviation for Open Source Software.

    * Linux represents a best-of-breed UNIX, that is trusted in
mission critical applications, and - due to it's open source code -
has a long term credibility which exceeds many other competitive
OS's.

    * Most of the primary apps that people require when they move to
Linux are already available for free. This includes web servers, POP
clients, mail servers, text editors, etc

    * An advanced Win32 GUI user would have a short learning cycle to
become productive [under Linux].

    * I previously had IE4/NT4 on the same box and by comparison the
combination of Linux / Navigator ran at least 30-40% faster when
rendering simple HTML + graphics.

    * Long term, my simple experiments do indicate that Linux has a
chance at the desktop market ...

    * Consumers Love It.

    * Linux's (real and perceived) virtues over Windows NT include:
Customization ... Availability/Reliability ... Scaleability/
Performance ... Interoperability ...

    * Linux is emerging as a key operating system in the nascent thin
server market

    * Using today's server requirements, Linux is a credible
alternative to commercial developed servers in many, high volume
applications.

    * The effect of patents and copyright in combatting Linux remains
to be investigated.

    * Note, however, that Compaq and Dell merely have to credibly
threaten Linux adoption in order to push for lower OEM OS pricing.
</blockquote>

http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/faq.html

Microsoft does consider Linux/OSS to be the biggest single threat to
Microsoft's revenue model.

You can even see this in their SEC filings almost every year since
1999.

Microsoft may even attempt to argue that the success of Linux, even
without the OEM distribution channel is sufficient to justify not
extending the DOJ settlement through another president's
administration.

I wonder if Microsoft will testify, under oath, that the market has
grown further since they testified in 1999 that Linux was getting 14%
of the market.

Some older articles:

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=55800672
InformationWeek predicted that Linux related revenue would be 35B per
year by 2008.
(according to documents put out by Red Hat and IBM, Linux passed that
number in 2006).

http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7070519787.html

http://www.linux.com/feature/122473

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8060720094.html

http://tinyurl.com/2pmy98

http://tinyurl.com/3bbpj8

Red Hat has a New CEO who has targeted Microsoft.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOOKtJ_dA7PvQW26EjdDJvhSQMIQD8TVAOE82

http://tinyurl.com/362bpu


Rex Ballard
http://www.open4success.org

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