[LUAU] "Piracy reduction can be a source of Windows revenue growth..."

[Jim Thompson]

Ballmer isn't backing down:

http://news.com.com/Ballmer+repeats+threats+against+Linux/ 
2100-7344_3-6160604.html?tag=nefd.top

Gates is confused: http://tinyurl.com/3xs6w3
	"People who sell PCs have seen a very nice lift in their sales.  
People have come in and wanted to buy Vista," Gates told
reporters at an Ottawa news conference.


NPD Group attributed January's surge in demand to some canny stock  
management by retailers who choked off inventory
rather than stock redundant Windows XP PCs in the pre-launch days of  
January. The week before Windows Vista's launch
saw a 59 per cent slump in desktop sales and a 20 per cent decline in  
notebooks - the first such drop in two years.

Vista is selling slower than XP, but the higher costs of Vista will  
probably keep the revenue 'neutral'.   For a while.
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=46018&r=hstory

Dell asked its customers what they wanted..  http:// 
www.dellideastorm.com/
They want Linux, Open Office, no 'India' tech support and more RAM.

The bottom line is that Microsoft is not particularly good at  
programming.  Their Office apps are bloated, feature overloaded programs
that have not had useful enhancements added for over five years.   
Windows was released as a product in 1985, but ten years passed
before they were able to turn it into a usable platform with Windows  
95.  Windows Cairo, an attempt to bring the OS up to contemporary
standards was announced in 1991 and subsequently never released,  
except as bits and pieces showing up in Win95 and Win98.   Windows
2000 and Windows ME were notorious failures, and Windows XP is a  
straight-forward repackaging of NT, with XP now five years old, and NT
much older still.   The ambitious "Longhorn" was announced in 2001.    
After being strangled by its own spaghetti for years, most of the code
was finally tossed out in 2005, and two years later the world was  
introduced to a re-written, feature-truncated, resource and RAM  
devouring
version titled "Vista", which can't run on 70% of the installed base,  
and is crippled by excessive DRM measures.

Internet Explorer market share peaked in 2004 at 92% of the available  
market.  It has since slid to 79%
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0

Does Microsoft have the flexibility to respond to these changes in an  
constructive fashion?  It has a poor track record when trying to operate
outside of the umbrella of its desktop monopoly.  Its first venture  
into the portable mp3 player market with its Janus DRM package was a
failure.  It admitted as much with subsequent Zune player, which left  
its prior DRM and partners behind.  Unfortunately, the best it could  
come
up with was a repackaged Toshiba player and a pale imitation of the  
iPod/iTunes model, marketed at a zero margin price in an unsettling  
shade
of brown.  It entry into the game console market and its prototype  
for a home  media center, the Xbox, is its second generation, but  
still is sold at
a loss and is outsold by Sony products by a nearly 5 to 1 ratio.

Is Vista better?

http://www.itworld.com/Man/2676/nls_solutinons_vista060525/index.html

But its not all roses:  http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4834.html