[odf-discuss] Re: Member of EU Parliament asks if Microsoft should be excluded from public procurement

[Ian Lynch]

On Fri, 2008-04-11 at 08:35 +0100, Rui Miguel Silva Seabra wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> That would seem like preparing the ground for the seeds of the campaign
> of so called "Windows 7" which Microsoft claims will be extremely
> modular.
> 
> Notice that it talks about "people wanting windows" that they can
> install in lower powered machines.

They have that in Windows CE/mobile which could be developed. It's not
that successful in competition with Symbian and Linux etc. and more to
the point MS probably get a very small license fee for it in comparison
with XP/Vista. So a dilemma. As soon as they disengage the massive
applications base they remove the one advantage they have over Linux and
to a lesser extent the Mac. There is no way they will sustain the OEM
prices. In fact, these are looking very difficult to sustain now with
ASUS EEEPC etc coming out. If they have to cut the price of OEM windows
in half they have to sell twice as many which is going to be difficult.

> To me it seems like a microturf ad-news-report

I think it is a further sign that the tipping point was actually reached
some time ago and MS know it. The tipping point is just the point where
change becomes inevitable. There is massive inertia in the system so it
will take time. The days of the dominance of the desktop computer are
numbered simply because mobile technologies and web based applications
are already taking large slices from that space. That is only going one
way.  MS can delay the inevitable fighting back with OOXML etc but they
are not going to stop water flowing down hill eventually. The
uncertainty is simply the rate of change.

Ian
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