ms on the offensive again

[Alex Beamish]

On 5/20/05, Francois Ouellette <fouellet-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > Peter wrote:
> >>
> >> Found via slashdot
> >>
> >> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/18/AR2005051801770.html
> >>
> >> ms is preparing a w95/98 replacement 'light' xp that can run on older
> >> machines. It is aimed directly at preventing linux from making inroads
> >> where the hardware upgrades are not welcome.
> >
> > "Goffe said Microsoft will continue to recommend that the best way to
> > get more out of any operating system is to replace computers when they
> > get old."
> >
> > An of course, that new hardware comes with a new Windows licence.
> > --
> 
> MS tried that "light Windoze version" trick with the Brazilian government
> last month but the response they got was that this would still force them
> into a single supplier situation for the add-on software and was rejected.
> 
> Why wait for a "new" proprietary (read: expensive) product when the ideal
> solution already exists: Open Source!

Actually, I think this is Microsoft *finally* listening to the Windows
95/98 users that they abandoned over the last few years. In hindsight,
it would have been smarter to continue to support Windows 95/98 users
with small upgrades, rather than just steamroll over everyone and tell
them "Your computer and OS are crap. Throw it all out and start
again."

it's the same mentality that American car makers espouse -- "You car's
three years old? It's junk! Get a new car!!" This, compared to the ads
that Volvo or Volkswagen run, boasting about how their cars are still
on the road ten years later, thank you very much.

The thing is, once you get a computer system working the way you like
it, there's some inertia to overcome before you switch to a new
system. I have a Windows 98 system that I started using in March 1998
-- it's now seven years old, but I resisted upgrading to Windows 2000,
Windows ME (whatever that was) and by the time Windows XP came out I
knew a P400 with 384M RAM wouldn't cut it.

Why? Everything was working. Why upgrade? I have piles of application
software that works well. Oh yeah, and I also have two Mandrake 10
installations that I use to do everything except audio editing. Once I
get that figured out on Linux, the Windows machine gets archived and
recycled.

I'm really surprised that Microsoft took this stance with their
customers -- if you have a new product that you're pushing and a
trailing edge product that you continue to release small updates for,
you've got both ends of the market -- new customers and old. If the
customer doesn't want the new product (too complicated, too new, won't
run on my hardware), they'll look elsewhere -- and that's when they
find open source.

I work in a building owned by a car dealership -- the new car lot is
on one side of the building, and on the other side is the used car
lot. Sometimes people prefer a 'pre-owned' car to a new one. The car
dealership is playing both sides of the street. Microsoft is venturing
into this territory by supplying an XP Lite. I think continuing to
support Windows 98 would have served them better, but we're a few
years late for that.

People don't always want something new. They just want something that
works. Microsoft would do well to learn that lesson, and fast.

Alex
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