Re: OT: Two ways Microsoft sabotages Linux desktop adoption

On 2/11/06, taharka <res00vl8@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
By Jan Stafford
09 Feb 2006 | SearchOpenSource.com

Microsoft may not make flawless software, but its proprietary strategy
is hard to fault. In particular, Microsoft has mastered desktop lock-in,
undermining users' confidence in any alternatives and creating a slew of
minor difficulties that irritate those who do switch.

Full story at;
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/columnItem/0,294698,sid39_gci1165420,00.html

I expected to see "two ways Microsoft sabotages Linux desktop
adoption" but didn't see anything Microsoft is doing to sabotage
adoption. They had some users that decided they didn't like
OpenOffice and thumbed their noses at management by installing Windows
and Microsoft Office again. That's not Microsoft's doing, that's
management's inability to control their employees.

As for the laptop, yes, not every piece of hardware is going to be
supported. There's a wealth of information online that indicates what
works and what doesn't, all maintained by people with personal
experience. If folks aren't willing to take advantage of that
information, then I can't work up a lot of sympathy when their
hardware doesn't work.

Hardware support isn't Microsoft's issue, either. It's a vendor
issue. Vendors need to be willing to write drivers for their hardware
or release specifications so someone else can write the drivers. This
is how Microsoft handles it. Vendors write drivers for Windows when
they release a piece of hardware and either release that driver on an
installation disk, or send it to Microsoft for inclusion in the
Windows OS release. If the laptop vendor didn't care to do the same
for Linux, it's not Microsoft's problem.

--
Chris

"I trust the Democrats to take away my money, which I can afford. I
trust the Republicans to take away my freedom, which I cannot."

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