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Microsoft Continues Anti-OSS Strategy

Posted by Zonk on from the a-little-innovation-here-a-little-bad-press-there dept.

MacDaffy writes "Microsoft's General Manager of Platform Strategy, Michael Taylor, continues Microsoft's press blitz against Open Source in general and Linux in particular in a CNET Interview. He says of Linux: 'You can build it, design it, and it will work great. The trouble begins when you want to add things to it...(due to) the brittle nature of the platform, when you do that, other things break.'"

5 of 857 comments (clear)

  1. Compared to? by CoyoteGuy · · Score: 1, Troll

    Windows 2003? That breaks when you install it? Or breaks when you apply a hotfix?
    Or breaks when you reboot it? (blue screens and dumps)
    Or breaks when you add new hardware?
    Or... Well... You get the idea..

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  2. Joel on software by andr0meda · · Score: 0, Troll



    Q. "So why do you think the ideals of open source... have appealed to so many people?"

    A. "Taylor: Well, first you have to define "people"... And what is open source? It is interesting in how you define it..."

    How shifty is that?

    People: Human beings.

    Linux programmers program for linux programmers. The audience is almost primarily a programmers audience. The GUI sucks and no one has a real true standard to enforce anywhere.

    Mac & Windows programmers program for a client base of home users. Ease of use for the tech-unsavy is the golden cow everybody bows to. Not surprisingly, screenshots of the GUI are the first thing people want to see when they talk about a new version of the OS. A standard way of doing things are key to appeal to a large audience.

    Wo when he mentions people, he`s right. Linux has a different audience than Windows has.

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    1. Re:Joel on software by Lally+Singh · · Score: 0, Troll

      Here here. Copying bad copies of 25-year old systems isn't the way we should be aiming for.

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    2. Re:Joel on software by jrockway · · Score: 0, Troll

      If you can't use Linux, then don't use it. Use Windows, I don't care.

      I think a lot of non-Linux users think the goal of Linux is to take over the world and be the only OS out there. No. Most of ue hardcore Linux users just want something that works for us. We don't care if grandma can use it or not because we're not grandma!

      There are some people that want Linux to be a desktop OS. OK, fine. Good luck to them. But that's their project, not mine. If you want Linux to be easier to use, you have two choices: 1) write the code to do this. 2) donate money to someone who will do this. Otherwise STFU and buy a Mac or Windows box.

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  3. Re:Hmmm by kevlar · · Score: 0, Troll

    I do agree that once you have a solid configuration for a linux box, that it'll generally work indefinately. However, for the average person to configure and use a linux box for their every day tasks is quite simply too difficult. MS makes it VERY easy to install/uninstall/configure and use. The stability of the platform certainly is a problem, however people DO have a choice right now between Linux and Windows, and they're still choosing Windows. You can't chock that up to being the incumbant platforms dominance. There are companies like Lindows (or Linspire, or whatever) whose sole purpose it to steal market share from MS, but they aren't because they are not a viable competitor.

    The instant that Linux has a leg up over Windows, you'll know it because there will be a thousand companies formed overnight dedicated to dismantling Microsoft's market share.