Good analysis that doesn't toe the party line (sadly rare these days). The authors argue that the market edge belongs to Microsoft largely because of its initial position; Linux is playing catch-up. But also, Microsoft can and will leverage piracy to its advantage (people who pirate Windows don't contribute to the bottom line, but they do contribute to the user base, increasing the valkue of Windows). It can also exercise price differentials to strategic advantage (we have already seen this) and to advance the campaign of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) in the corporate market, as we have seen with the SCO lawsuits. Surprisingly, the author misses another significant advantage for Microsoft: strategic alliance with chip manufacturers, who with the embedding of DRM into the hardware itself will make increasing quantities of content unplayable on free and open source platforms.
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