ms globla anti-piracy campaign

[John Moniz]

Scott Elcomb wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 2:46 PM, John McGregor <mr.mcgregor-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>   
>> John Moniz wrote:
>>     
>>> The spread of Linux and other open source software isn't going to happen
>>> by sitting around waiting for people to get fed up with MS.
>>>       
>> Actually that may happen given the current economic crisis in the world and
>> the advent of netbooks. It occurred to me as well, I'm sure, a lot of you
>> that a netbook that is powered by linux will have an upgrade path while one
>> powered by Win XP will not. This is a distinct disadvantage for a company
>> like Microsoft whose business model is based on its client base buying into
>> a continuous upgrade cycle. In this economic crisis ( which is expected to
>> last a couple of years) how will owners of Win XP based netbooks react when
>> they realize that they can't extend the life of their machines through an
>> upgrade, can't afford to buy new, and that they have in fact been Zuned
>> again by Microsoft.
>>     
>
> Agreed.  It seems to me that as time passes there are only ever more
> reasons to switch.
Before you switch, you need to know what options are available and what 
the impact will be. People still don't know much about Linux. I'd say 
most people still think that switching away from MS just means switching 
to Apple. With the exception of a few products such as Firefox, which is 
available for MS Windows anyway, the promotion of Linux and open source 
has been one of "wait until they discover us...". There were those great 
IBM Linux commercials a while back, too bad there hasn't been more of 
that sort of thing. Maybe it's been more prominent in business IT 
circles, but not with the masses who would use fancy desktops.
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