Linux's Role In Microsoft's Decline

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linux's Role In Microsoft's Decline

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday January 23, 2009 @08:49AM from the karma-catching-up dept.

nerdyH writes "As early as last quarter, Microsoft admitted that Linux and netbooks were eating into its fat profits. Recently, it came home, with the software giant announcing its first-ever layoffs. LinuxDevices interviewed Linux Foundation Director Jim Zemlin on Linux's role in Microsoft's misfortunes. Zemlin sums it up pretty well: 'Companies can offer their own branded software platform based on Linux. If Microsoft is getting 75 percent margins, you would like some of that high-margin business, too.'"

3 of 532 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Oh, Dear by je+ne+sais+quoi · 2009-01-23 09:07 · Score: 5, Informative

Also, if you look at the trend in Microsoft Windows "market share" estimated by people like Net Applications, you can see that the decline of Windows started long before the housing bubble deflated. They were still being rated at 96% of the market in 2004 and 2005 and have been in what looks like continuous decline ever since. Granted, it's not much of a decline yet, only 7% or so according to Net Applications, but it does serve as evidence that Microsoft's troubles did not start with the economic crisis, the economic crisis may have compounded their existing troubles though.

--
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
Linux can do even better by bogaboga · 2009-01-23 09:31 · Score: 5, Informative

Yes, Linux marketed as a distro can do better. The good thing is that very soon, we'll have KDE with a business friendly license. What I would like Linux programmers to do is to get their act together and solve problems that continue to plague the Linux ecosystem.
These come to mind:
1: Multimedia. There are so many back-ends to choose from, each with problems of their own. The associated front-ends are even worse both in functionality and bloat.
2: Polish. It seams that by default, Linux distros are less polished by default. In fact, I can say they are ugly by default. This does not help.
3: Bloat. KDE is wonderful but suffers from bloat. GNOME is kind of OK, but it's interface looks ancient and lacks the functionality of modern systems.
My 2 cents.
Look at their books by BlendieOfIndie · 2009-01-23 09:47 · Score: 5, Informative

Microsoft Revenue/Growth
Year Revenue %Growth 2005 39,788 - 2006 44,282 11% 2007 51,122 15% 2008 60,420 18% Red Hat Revenue/Growth Year Revenue %Growth 2005 196 - 2006 278 41% 2007 400 43% 2008 523 30% Red Hat is growing much faster than Microsoft, but Microsoft has 115x more sales.