Ok, I’ll address some of the point you’ve raised.
i think your the deluded one... you think linux will NEVER get to the point where it's easy to use and does what most people/business want it to... i think not... linux is slowly grinding away at Microsoft on the desktop/server. OEM's would love to dump microsoft if they could get away with it, once Linux is up to it (don't know when!).
Firstly, Linux’s potential is really quite large, but I’m sceptical to whether it’ll mature in time to make a difference. It’s taken MS the best part of two decades to bring an OS from just providing functionality to a streamlined OS that it is now. Linux is about half way there and has made huge leaps and bounds, especially with distros like Ubuntu, but it has a fundamental issue: cohesion. Microsoft has a vision for the short, medium and long term future of its OS and has control over its direction; an advantage that Apple exploits to full potential. However, with so many developers and stakeholders with so many ideas, I find Linux lacks direction to mature into a consumer OS. Until there is substantial control over the cohesive development of Linux, it will never get a decent market share. And let’s get one thing straight: Microsoft will not wait for them to catch up. Despite many people’s views on Vista, it does open up some huge doors to the future development of the Windows OS, some of which will give it a clear technological advantage over Linux.
this is not good value for money for microsoft shareholders. their throwing good money after bad. they should break their various devision up and spin them off as seperate companies, each business unit could then do what's best for it and not 'Microsoft', who knows the Office business could actually do a joint venture with Google, release a Linux version etc.
I agree that MS’ rebranding of most of the MSN services isn’t as streamlined as it should be, but I think this’ll change once focus is brought more to the online part of the business. I totally disagree that there is no future or money left to be made from online technologies, in fact it’ll always be profitable because of the intrinsic fact that information powers business, and that’s all the internet is: a huge store of knowledge. We just need new ways to make it do what we want, and the semantic web will give huge opportunities to companies that embrace it early on.
This bit made me laugh quite a lot. MS’ long term strategy is to integrate as many technologies as possible to give a unified, interconnected environment where people will see a seamless transition of information from one device to another. Personally, I think this is a very interesting vision, and I’d like to see it realised. By doing what you’re suggesting, it could very possibly break MS. It simply makes no business sense. One of the reasons MS has been so successful is because of its integration of technologies, you’re suggesting MS lose that key advantage. Anyway, why would MS want to make a Linux version of Office? It simply isn’t viable. Ms would never get their money back because the Linux market share is so small. In January 2008, the market share of Linux was 0.67% compared to 7.57% from Mac OS, and I’d bet the huge majority of that is from Linux as a server OS where Office wouldn’t be wanted. So, nothing you’ve said there makes one inkling of sense whatsoever.
HELLO i'm not a google or microsoft fanboy... i'm merely stating from a financial point of view it doesn't make sense...
You keep saying that it makes financial sense, but I really don’t see any basis for this. At the end of the day, the linux platform is a very small fish to go after.
i'm quite happy for MS to integrate anything it wants .
i'm quite happy for MS to integrate anything it wants .
That’s ironic considering you’ve just suggested that you think MS should be broken up into smaller subsidiary companies.
you work for MS gold partner - yea you probably make the tea, and probably went to Microsoft Tea 2.0 event
Lets not degrade to personal insults, lets stay mature and our accounts active
This is a good debate, lets keep it that way.
Burnsy
