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The question here is whether Google is sufficiently dominant in Market A, the web search market, to be classified as a monopoly. If they are, then what they are doing could be classified as illegal abuse of that monopoly.

The latest market share figures put google at less than 50% of the US Internet search market. That is pretty far from a monopoly. If Microsoft had 45.4% of the PC OS market and Apple had 28.2 percent and Ubuntu/Linux had 11.7 percent, FreeBSD with 5.8 percent and SunOS had 5.4 percent, then we wouldn't be calling Microsoft a monopoly for desktop OSes. We would consider that a healthy competitive marketplace.

Microsoft, on the other hand, now controls 97.46 percent of the global desktop operating system market, which is clearly a monopoly. But then on the server OS side, Microsoft is pretty far from a monopoly with less than half of the server OS market, with healthy competition between Linux, Solaris and other server OSes.

Maybe so, but I don't think ATI is going to stop announcing new, and apparently better, hardware just because less than 1% of PC users who are adventurous, and most of the time smart, enough to try Linux (http://www.wininsider.com/news/?2248) are complaining about driver support. I can't imagine ATI is crying in the corner over a potential 3% user loss. In the end, it's a numbers game, and personally, I'll take a potential 97 out of 100 any day of the week. You want better Linux support for ATI cards, write it yourselves. (In all fairness, I am an admitted Windows AND Linux user.)

Anyone who believes that IDC isn't a Microsoft lapdog is sans clue and should be ignored. Obviously you sit in that camp. A 5 second trip to google and searching for "Microsoft funded IDC survey" yields 161,000 hits. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Microsoft+fun ded+IDC+survey History does not lie in this case. Anything from IDC which both touts Microsoft as a leader over *NIX and then espoused immediately by Microsoft has historically been funded by Microsoft. If you consider that bat guano, then so be it. Arguing against the facts is pointless and assinine. Just a sampling. http://www.daynesoftasia.com/English/NewEvents/THR EE.htm "The report has cast serious doubts on the Microsoft-funded TCO study undertaken by IDC" http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalCon tent/0,289142,sid39_gci885961,00.html "A Microsoft-funded IDC report that claims that the Linux TCO is 13% higher than an equivalent MS Windows solution" http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=14493 08906&fp=16&fpid=0 "The Yankee survey is just the latest to compare the TCO (total cost of ownership) of Windows and Linux, but is the first (unlike those from Jupiter Research Inc., Forrester and IDC) that have not been requested and funded by Microsoft." http://www.wininsider.com/news/?8861 "The Microsoft Partner Program got high marks from industry analysts at IDC in a recent survey comparing the channel programs of 25 top software vendors." http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/outs ourcing/itservices/story/0,10801,85963,00.html "Last month, some IT professionals reacted angrily to a Microsoft-funded report released by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. that concluded that developing and deploying Web-based portal applications is substantially less expensive using Microsoft technology than it is using a Linux/J2EE combination [QuickLink 41320]."

Apparently, Microsoft are working on a command line only version.
Couple that with storing things in config files, and you start to think about the old saying: Those that don't understand Unix are destined to re-invent it - badly.

• Windows Insider says Windows is huge and will have 60% by '08.
• IDC says that Windows will drop to 35%(!?!) by then, with Linux only 15%
• but then a couple of months later IDC says that linux will be up to 37.6%

I moved my girlfriend and my family over to GNU/Linux, and they've not had any problems. All of a sudden they don't suffer from worms, viruses, popups and adware

let me wake you up.. compared to the install base linux is actually less secure than Redmond OS..

Well, and what about playing that blockbuster game.. using that particual outlook add-on .. or using their favorite p2p app? I guess those have disappeared as well. Or do your parents and girlfriend use command-line p2p clients, play only flash games (and kfreecell) and use elm? That must be a wonderful computer experience I'd say.

[Posted anonymously to protect karma resources]

he left the company Aug 30 2003

1. Possible reasons
2. Technical
   The product isn't ready for users. Note that this didn't stop them from shipping Bob, ME, XP-SP1, or other problematic software. (I apologize for leaving anyones favorite "what a piece of c**p" off the list)
3. Business
   Shipping SP2 now would negatively impact the bottom line. Would I perform an very expensive upgrade to the next OS (Longhorn) if I had just installed SP2?
4. Business (part deux)
   Delaying SP2 will help the bottom line. In 2004, MS can offer users a choice between a patch of that pesky ol' XP, or The Fabulous, Great, Incredible New, Improved OS that Does So Much More,More,More. Yea, it's hype, but never, EVER underestimate the power of the Microsoft marketing department.

Yes, yes...but does it integrate well with the iLoo?

There is at least 500 systems from NewiSys already delivered as test to various clients, incl MS so that is not the issue. Something else is going on.

Since this site seems /.'ed already, here are another ones that have some screenshots too -

http://www.wininsider.com/news/comments.aspx?mid=3 069.
http://users.pandora.be/AMDtje/Office11_2.htm
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol11.htm

Suhit