On Sep 17, 11:40 am, Matt <m...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> ness...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > From the Inquirer article:
>
> > "LINUX HAS MADE headway in Microsoft's UK heartland, the PC sales
> > channel. The number of machines shipped with Linux preloaded on them
> > has multiplied a whopping 28 times since Microsoft launched its Vista
> > operating system in January 2007."
>
> > The article makes the point that this is starting from a small base,
> > maybe 0.1% at the beginning of the period in question, to about 3%
> > now.
>
> > I thought this was going to be an interesting year, but it's been
> > better than I would have expected.
>
> > I gather Microsoft is hurrying to get Windows 7 out, reportedly with a
> > June 2009 release date. They must be worried. Of course, 7 will
> > solve all the problems with Vista.
>
> Everybody knows there is a what might be called a "hardware gap"
> nowadays, meaning that cheap or even run-of-the-mill hardware can't run
> Vista but can run Linux.
>
> Things will change somewhat as hardware prices drop and MS acts to
> decrease the hardware demands of Windows.
Well there's the question about exactly *why* Windows (especially
Vista) has such hefty hardware requirements, when Linux does well with
less. DRM is certainly part of the answer, and probably the legacy of
kludges and spaghetti code in Windows is also part (but that was true
of XP, too, so it doesn't explain specifically why Vista is so bad).
And then there's the question of what Microsoft can do to reduce it.
To the extent that Vista's bloat is due to DRM, it's Microsoft's own
fault if they get clipped by leaner OSes, and they probably aren't
willing to drop DRM, so they're just going to take a hit. Too bad.
Maybe they solve the problem with marketing.
On Vista DRM see:
http://www.cypherpunks.to/~peter/vista.pdf
On spaghetti code in XP, see:
http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/06jan/bigb_microsoft.htm
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