The problem is that "these people" are not sufficiently identified, with the possible exception of the FSF who holds the copyright of a part of the software accused by MS of infringing their patents.
If anybody else would do as you suggest, MS could get away with simply ignoring their request.
We, the world's population, are already consuming (mostly fossile) energy at a rate of 0,01% the energy the sun is radiating onto earth. Assuming an accumulated efficiency of 10% that means that we would have to cover 1/1000 of the earth's surface with solar panels, in order to replace fossile with solar energy.
Announcements like the FAA one have been made before, after major MS product releases. The really big news would be if a large institution, currently relying on a large XP base, would decide not to upgrade to Vista, but instead to MacOS or Linux.
IE was included in the automatic updates. It was already on most users computer as an update. This is push, not pull/download.
In most cases IE was installed unvoluntarily.
OK, a downloader is not a guaranteed user, but a non downloader is a non-user. So the absolute maximum amount of users is the number of downloads. But is is probably (much) lower for reasons already noted.
Cost per watt is indeed important for widespread acceptance. But conventional energy prices *will* go up sooner or later, and the real bottom line will be what we are willing to, or can, pay for a watt. It is likely that the cost curves will converge and at some point in time cross. After that few will be interested in conventional energy. This solar energy efficiency milestone is important to guesstimate if and when this will happen.
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The problem is that "these people" are not sufficiently identified, with the possible exception of the FSF who holds the copyright of a part of the software accused by MS of infringing their patents. If anybody else would do as you suggest, MS could get away with simply ignoring their request.
We, the world's population, are already consuming (mostly fossile) energy at a rate of 0,01% the energy the sun is radiating onto earth. Assuming an accumulated efficiency of 10% that means that we would have to cover 1/1000 of the earth's surface with solar panels, in order to replace fossile with solar energy.
Announcements like the FAA one have been made before, after major MS product releases. The really big news would be if a large institution, currently relying on a large XP base, would decide not to upgrade to Vista, but instead to MacOS or Linux.
IE was included in the automatic updates. It was already on most users computer as an update. This is push, not pull/download. In most cases IE was installed unvoluntarily.
OK, a downloader is not a guaranteed user, but a non downloader is a non-user. So the absolute maximum amount of users is the number of downloads. But is is probably (much) lower for reasons already noted.
Cost per watt is indeed important for widespread acceptance. But conventional energy prices *will* go up sooner or later, and the real bottom line will be what we are willing to, or can, pay for a watt. It is likely that the cost curves will converge and at some point in time cross. After that few will be interested in conventional energy. This solar energy efficiency milestone is important to guesstimate if and when this will happen.