Re: [tlug] Eating bugs...

[Jonathan Q <jq@example.com>]

On Tuesday 15 April 2003 08:45, Renato Saito wrote:

> Now, a real one. What you, masters, think that could
> happen if microsoft release a proprietary distro and
> not only software for Gnu/Linux as they are
> announcing.

Read the Gnu General Public License (GPL), under which the
majority of the code making up a Linux distro is covered, then
come back and tell us if you think Microsoft, or anyone, could
release a proprietary distro (note the difference between a 
proprietary distro and a distro containing some proprietary
components, something a number of companies have released).

I have not seen any announcement of MS software for Linux that
was not either a hoax or pure (and poorly founded) speculation on
the part of the writer.  If you've seen anything concrete, please post
a URL.

The reason I call any such speculation poorly founded is that it would
not be at all in Microsoft's best financial interest to release software for
Linux, especially important software such as MS Office, which is
Microsoft's biggest money-maker.  If they released MS Office for Linux,
even if it sold for the same price as the Windows version, or even if it
sold for more, that would have a negative impact on their revenue
stream because a lot of individuals and businesses who are currently
running Windows would stop doing so.  Result: fewer upgrade buys from
individuals and smaller businesses, fewer sales of Software Assurance
licenses to enterprise customers (who could save millions of dollars by
dumping Windows and running MS Office on Linux, even if they were
still paying for Software Assurance on MS Office), and more demand for
PCs sold without Windows (which would lead to more vendors doing so)
and for PCs sold with Linux + MS Office for Linux (which would also
lead to more vendors complying).

Imagine a world where you could natively run MS Word/Excel/Access/Outlook
on Linux.  Now try to imagine a world where you would still need Windows on
your business desktop.  Oops, that second one is pretty hard to imagine now :-)

If they went a step further and released Exchange for Linux,  that would take
away a huge reason for running W2K server, too.  A lot of all-MS shops,
especially small-to-medium-sized ones where conversion isn't quite as
difficult, would become mostly-Linux shops in short order.

-- 
Jonathan Q
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