[QUOTE]…No more are users stuck with Windows. No more are they forced to pay the Microsoft tax…
…the arrival of Linux on a mainstream desktop will force Microsoft to make significant, rather than cosmetic, improvements to its own operating systems…
This isn’t just a big day for desktop Linux users. This is a red-letter day for all PC users.
[/quote]
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7546369370.html
I think the closing paragraphs are very apt.
Even users who never intend on using Linux should be glad to see Microsoft's iron hand finally lifted, albeit just an inch. Just as the arrival of Firefox forced Microsoft to improve Internet Explorer, the arrival of Linux on a mainstream desktop will force Microsoft to make significant, rather than cosmetic, improvements to its own operating systems.
This isn’t just a big day for desktop Linux users. This is a red-letter day for all PC users.
If this forces MS to take notice I would be surprised (I live in hope), but if sales start to eat significantly into the number of windows OSes installed by Dell then MS should notice and hopefully take some positive action. Like the real improvements not cosmetic bells and whistles, but most importantly bring prices to realistic levels, because if they aren’t selling the OS they won’t be selling the other major MS meal ticket MS Office.
Hi forum members,
I think this move comes way too late. The tide has been flowing the other way now for such a long time, and it is not flowing the direction we’d like to see it flow. M$ has teamed up with the content industry, and content industry is about DRM, and what about fair use? Remember what you could do with a VCR in the past, and what you can do with HD-DVD now. The pirated version has often better quality than the crippled version. Has not the user’s freedom been limited. These development are the signs of the times. Those that wanted to speak up against it, could wave their hands for two hours and weren’t even allowed to speak, when it was decided where content industry go. So on the one hand there is a corporation that has proven not to be on the side of users and developers (Microsoft versus Sun Java) (Microsoft versus Google), but has its own agenda as a monopolist.
Linux has its own little corner, but it has not come in sight for the mainstream user as an alternative for his or her clicking habits; not for a long time to come. And in a lot of cases people get the platform they deserve, and for to-day that is MS.