Desktop platforms Toolkit

Story: Longhorn and the Linux long-game

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Linux and Mac tech snobs are never going to get it.

The pc market is never going to be driven by excellence. The success of Microsoft is proof of this - they were never concerned with technical excellence - only market dominance. They don't care about innovation - they are mostly about aquiring and rebranding entire products (they bought q-dos and repackaged as Ms-dos) and ideas (the gui idea came from Apple).

Microsoft sucks, but Gates understands the market. He understands the way the average pc customer views the pc - more like the sewer system or plumbing - users don't want to think about it, they just want it to work.

Techies don't get it - they think of an os more from it's tech excellence - like a powerful machine. They have more of the 'ivory tower' mentality - they think the whole world doesn't get it -- when it's them who really doesn't get it.

Open source/Linux will never overtake MS anymore than a soup kitchen will overtake McDonalds. Linux is for hobbyists, not anyone seriously concerned with stability and productivity. Linux stands a chance in the server market, only because of IBM's big name and support - exactly why people buy MS and exactly why open source supporters are wrong about what customers want.

Customers - both business and home- like universality and familiarity - especially when it comes to something complex like computers. They will choose to pay a measly $100 dollars for an os as opposed to having to invest hundreds of hours learning how to use an os. Why use a constantly changing, multi flavor, designed-by-millions-of-script-kiddies os when you can use one designed by business minded adults that rarely changes ? Ease of use and reliability trump technical excellence in this market - that is just what the market says - the truth - whether techies want to listen or not.

The only way MS is going to be taken down is when the paradigm shifts. It will happen when the os is no longer locked into the choice of apps and hardware. It will happen just how MS took over the desktop market when the PC became independent of manufacturers. Only then will we truly get great operating systems - when there is real competition among real companies (no open source bullshit - public/free is always inferior to private/profit driven).

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