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Microsoft At Middle Age

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-not-complacent dept.

gordyf writes "The Seattle Times has an interesting article concerning Microsoft's current position in the market. It describes how its customers and parners are reacting to its heavy-handed tactics, and how 'you can point to Linux being one of the major drivers for this decade.' An interesting read."

3 of 544 comments (clear)

  1. Don't get all excited by FortKnox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sick of hearing zealots spout crap like "Wait until DRM is in, then everyone will tell MS to shove it!"

    MS is a superpower. If they told everyone they plan on cornering the stock market, and taking over the world, people STILL would be buying their product. Face it people, if there is going to be a change, it will happen slowly.

    I'm not saying Linux is bad, or that there is no way it will ever take over MS, I'm just saying don't expect it to happen overnight (or in the next 5 years, for that matter).

    --
    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
  2. Mac OS X will have limited impact by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but great influence. Mac OS will only run on boxes from Apple, whereas Linux/BSD runs on those Dell, IBM, and HP machines, too. Linux could kill Microsoft; Apple can't. The most Apple can do is take a few market share points from Windows as people upgrade from PCs to Macs.

  3. Mmm... Seattle Times, eh? by Flamerule · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'm not really familiar with how things work in Seattle, but that was a pretty flimsy piece. We get lines like the following, supportive of Microsoft:
    The 28-year-old company is transforming from a fast-growing, young organization into a big, mature enterprise more aware of its responsibilities and the effects of its legendary aggressive -- even illegal -- behavior. The company is trying to adopt a more paternal role. It's using its vast resources to help the ailing PC industry in new ways.
    Then we hear about the viewpoint of the anonymous, amorphous "critics":
    Then there's the widely held notion among critics that Microsoft is essentially unchanged after its antitrust settlement with the federal government.
    ... except 2 paragraphs down, the writer flat out says that Microsoft is changing, downplaying the validity of customers' complaints.
    Customers are less likely to praise the company's software than to gripe about its prices, aggressive sales tactics and stranglehold on their machines -- even as it changes its practices as a result of the antitrust case.
    Anyway, there's a lot more stuff like that. It's not a blatant flack piece, but they've got Gates and Ballmer with smooth marketing-speak from the interview, and no one to respond and call them out on it. If the Seattle Times wants to present a more reasoned article, they should actually go out and get more objective viewpoints than a single "technology analyst" with the "Giga Information Group".