Quote:
Originally posted by lynx@12 May 2004 - 05:52
To use the networking example again, this goes back to the time when most buyers were corporate users.
The networking product was bundled in with the OS. What corporate buyer was going to go to the board and tell them "We've got networking with this product but I suggest we ignore what we've had to spend on that and go out an buy a new one. And if you could suggest where I look for a new job that would be useful".
Networking didn't need to be part of the OS. Integrating it so closely has been the cause of most of the worst security breaches. It is not like the Ferrari engine, more like bundling a garage in with the car. It doesn't match your home, it is even out of character with the locality and it breaks all the planning laws, but nobody is doing anything about that and, what the heck, it is "free".
I think you've probably noticed this, many pc's come with pre-installed software. It often isn't all Microsoft software, which means it had to be installed separately. The big pc vendors don't mind, they do it once (or twice to make sure they've got it right) then they clone the hard drive. But there's a media player included with the windows price, do you really think they are going to buy another player, at their own cost, just to give it away? Once again, the corporate buyer who suggested that would very quickly be looking for a new job. And most of the public don't realise what a crappy product WMP is (and IE for that matter) so they go along with it.
That's like buying the Ferrari with the garage. You CAN open the garage doors and drive outside, but there are no instructions on how to do it, and anyway the garage is now tightly bolted on, and it keeps some the rain off your Ferrari. Most people don't realise they should be able to buy the Ferrari on it's own, but they are uninformed, and they are still being told that their Ferrari can do 0-60 in 5 seconds. Now fitted with Microsoft Stopwatch for improved performance, 0-60 in under 1 second!!! :lol:
Built in Firewall? Don't make me laugh, but you can bet that's the next big push. At the moment it's a complete POS, but Microsoft will improve it slightly so that it nearly works, then push it as the best thing since sliced bread. What do you suppose will happen to the other Firewall suppliers.
And the $90 OS?
Most pc's have got an OS thrown in. The people who bought the pc's paid $90 for it, although they don't realise it because it was an inclusive price.
Now they want a new pc because their old one is out of date. So they get one, and pay $90 for a new OS. And this one has 2 "free" extra features. But of course they already had a perfectly good OS, so they've just paid $90 for the 2 extra features. When you look at it in those terms, all of a sudden it isn't such a good deal.
Nobody so far has said Windows isn't a good product. But IE is mediocre and WMP is a POS. I don't use WMP at all, and I only use IE when I have to because some Microsoft brainwashed idiot has designed their website to be compatible with IE and nothing else. So I have no choice but to have IE installed, and I understand the problems trying to remove WMP are worse than leaving it sitting unused, even though it probably leaves gaping security holes and degrades the performance of my pc just by being installed.
Nobody want's to stop Microsoft selling any of these products, they just want them to do it FAIRLY.
lynx once again your argument is flawed.