[pp.int.general] Microsoft Drafts Consumers In Fight AgainstSoftware Piracy: Carrot And Stick

[Andrew Norton]

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Reinier Bakels <r.bakels at planet.nl> wrote:
>> > I still believe that within a few years, there will be no Microsoft >
>> > anymore.
>> > The firms is not innovative (probably never has been), and users don't >
>> > need
>> > yet another Windows or Word version. So "selling" software is just a >
>> > matter
>> > of law enforcement, a "fight" that justifies all means for MS, >
>> > apparently.
>>
>> It's statements like this that undermine Open Source. It sounds
>> bitter, and derogatory. Windows is just as innovative as any linux
>> system. What Windows has over Linux (generally) is usability. Almost
>
> My comment was meant on a very different level. MS mainly produces operating
> system and office software. From time to time it releases new versions, but
> that's it basically. I must admit, I use MS software too. And I am *not*
> interested in new versions. And I guess for many people it is the same. So
> MS basically makes a business by forcing people to move to new versions,
> typically because they are bundled with new hardware. And they make a
> business by forcing people to move from "illegal" to "legal" versions -
> which is where this thread started.

If you don't need new versions, don't buy them. Contrary to what you
are saying, there's no forcing to buy new versions.You may get a new
version with new hardware, but there's no requirement to use that. I
have Vista on this box, but there's nothing stopping me going to
Win2k, or ubuntu, or anything else.Older OS' won't mysteriously not
work. MY IRC box, that looks to be in need of major hardware work (I
have to get my diagnostic gear our of storage) is a 1ghz athlon (it's
also my email box) that's been running XP since that came out, and 2k
before it. It doesn't need upgrades, and no-one's tried to force vista
or 7 on to it, same as 7's not been pushed for this box (a q6600)

>
> I don't contrast MS' innovativeness to FLOSS, but to Google. Google again
> and again suprises the world by functionality people like. Making money by
> fulfilling (hidden) needs is much more sympathetic to me than making money
> by tight law enforcement and threatening people. Mafia lives from threats
> too (No, I don't say MS *is* mafia ...)
>
> The link to FLOSS was because I thought of stickers I saw some time ago
> calling up people to "get legal" with their offoce software - and in the
> small print it said: go to Open Office!
>
> <start of new flame war>
> Andrew, didn't I accuse you some time ago for being a MS troll? And now you
> say that MS provides superior usability??
> </start of new flame war>

Microsoft provides superior usability to the gnu/linux
systems/environments I've used. But, if you read the rest, so too did
Acorn (the only part of which still going is the chip division, as ARM
- for which, I'll admit, I did some work for years ago) and Commodore,
with the Workbench system. In short,  to the experiance of myself, the
usability is more than 20 years behind other competitors. Don't assume
that because I find MS is better than x, as is y, z, and mu, that I
must be a MS troll.

I for one use OpenOffice, have done since 2000 (and it's brother Star
Office - from back when it had that horrible desktop replacement
system). Sad to say, but it's one of the few FOSS full 'packages'
things that performs better than it's closed source competitors (by
package, I mean a full thing, rather than, say a codec or library). By
comparison, the new layouts for MS office are horrible for usability.

Most of all though, I'm all about choice. Choose GNU/linux, choose
Windows, choose macOS, personally, I don't care. It's your choice. How
can we say that letting people choose is wrong? Linux has made some
inroads with netbooks over windows, but from my experience (and
remember, I'm in the state ranked 48th of 50 for education) people
don't want to be messing about with all the complications that 'linux'
has to get things working. Once that's sorted, then you'll see
Microsoft with some real competition, and then you'll see the market
share moving.

Andrew