For those who wanted the OLPC laptop

[Walter Dnes]

On Thu, Mar 29, 2007 at 06:26:46PM -0400, Sy Ali wrote
> On 3/29/07, Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >  Here's a concept for how to lock Microsoft out of a market... low spec
> >computers that Vista simply can't load on, let alone operate fast on.
> 
> Yeah, but Microsoft has had plans for various slim versions of Windows
> for some time now.  So odds are that one of them could be made to work
> if that market became significant to them.

  A "slim Windows" is pointless without a "slim Windows Office Suite".
The office suite will be the real challenge.

  Will they pull an IBM?  Remember that IBM's mainframe and mini
divisions deliberately interfered with plans by the upstart PC division.
They feared that cheap, low-margin IBM PCs would cannibalize their
high-profit-margin businesses.  Well, they slowed down IBM's PCs alright,
but that only meant that low-margin PCs from Compaq, etal cannibalized a
lot of IBM's high-profit-margin mainframe and mini business.

  Way back when, before "Machrone's Law" (The PC you want will always
cost $5,000) was "repealed", spending several hundred, approaching
$1,000 on OS and office suite for a $5,000 PC didn't look too bad *AND*
there wasn't a free alternative back then, either.  But given a $200 PC,
*AND* today's available free software, spending close to a thousand
dollars on OS and apps will *NOT* look good.

  Can MS make a Windows (no, not a crippled "Starter Edition") and
Office suite that will run on a low-spec computer, sell the combo for
$150, and make a profit?  And if they do, what happens to their current
cash-cows?

  This will be a challenge for linux, too.  Too many linux apps seem to
pull in all of Gnome, or KDE, or GTK, or Java, rather than write one or
two functions into a program.  Linux has gotten sloppy and bloated.  DSL
and Puppy Linux are exceptions to a general rule.  Why is it that Java
can be squeezed into a mobile phone, but removing JRE and associated
dependancies frees up 3/4 of a gig on my hard-drive in Gentoo?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
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