Re: tlug: MS watching Linux and Borg revealations

["J. David Beutel" <jdb@example.com>]

On Mon, 7 Sep 1998, Jonathan Byrne wrote:

> > NEVER forget: M$ is NOT concerned about technology. They are
> > concerned about making money - and if Linux holds more promise
> > of making money than their present OS's, they'll drop them like
> > the proverbial hot potato.......
> 
> Exactly.  Above all else, they are concerned with making money ([snip]
> ), which is why they'll never do it.  The amount of
> money they would lose by throwing away what they've invested in NT
> (billions) and all the applications software that would become obsolete
> (more billions) and the market share they would  lose to Apple (from
> people who just didn't want a UNIX-alike system, even if it had the Win95
> GUI) would be immeasurable.

Whatever MS has invested in NT is water under the bridge.  If Linux
looks like it will kick NT's ass, then MS will certainly try to do
something about it.  Winix-99 would FUD Linux.  MS would not loose
that much face--they'd just say they added NT technology to Linux
plus MS's fine quality assurance and customer support.  The primary
thing, for MS to make money, is for MS to have control.  Therefore,
if Linux musters a real challenge to NT, MS must do their own Linux.
It just makes sense.

--
David Beutel          "In order to make an apple pie from scratch,
jdb@example.com               you must first create the universe."
11011011      

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