From: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/08/20/010820opsurvival.xml
Survival Guide
Bob Lewis
Go Linux desktop now
"THE MAN WHO is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take."
-- C. Northcote Parkinson
WHEN YOU PLAY bridge, you sometimes overbid. It may be a sacrifice to prevent your opponents from scoring. Probably it's your partner's fault, but you're stuck playing the hand. Sometimes you'll make the contract anyway. That's dangerous because it might make you greedy. Then you'll overbid the next several dozen hands, too.
Your opponents will love you for this. Your partner, however, just might choose to become your ex-partner.
Microsoft isn't in the bridge-playing business. It has, however, overbid its hand and it might just be time for you to become its ex-partner.
It is, in short, time to seriously consider Linux as a desktop operating system. If it isn't time to develop a migration plan, it's certainly time to perform a cost/benefit analysis.
It's a triple irony: The timing coincides with Dell dropping its support for Linux; it comes just as Microsoft has finally achieved sufficient OS stability to eliminate that as a differentiator; and it is Microsoft, through its licensing shenanigans -- not any of Linux's backers -- that has made Linux a credible option for you.
Microsoft has backed off from its upgrade-by-October-or-else marketing plan for Office XP. So what? Its willingness to play licensing hardball with customers is beyond doubt. Its preference for renting software rather than selling it is overt. And the correlation between its products' market share and pricing is a matter of record.
Survival Guide
Bob Lewis
Go Linux desktop now
"THE MAN WHO is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take."
-- C. Northcote Parkinson
WHEN YOU PLAY bridge, you sometimes overbid. It may be a sacrifice to prevent your opponents from scoring. Probably it's your partner's fault, but you're stuck playing the hand. Sometimes you'll make the contract anyway. That's dangerous because it might make you greedy. Then you'll overbid the next several dozen hands, too.
Your opponents will love you for this. Your partner, however, just might choose to become your ex-partner.
Microsoft isn't in the bridge-playing business. It has, however, overbid its hand and it might just be time for you to become its ex-partner.
It is, in short, time to seriously consider Linux as a desktop operating system. If it isn't time to develop a migration plan, it's certainly time to perform a cost/benefit analysis.
It's a triple irony: The timing coincides with Dell dropping its support for Linux; it comes just as Microsoft has finally achieved sufficient OS stability to eliminate that as a differentiator; and it is Microsoft, through its licensing shenanigans -- not any of Linux's backers -- that has made Linux a credible option for you.
Microsoft has backed off from its upgrade-by-October-or-else marketing plan for Office XP. So what? Its willingness to play licensing hardball with customers is beyond doubt. Its preference for renting software rather than selling it is overt. And the correlation between its products' market share and pricing is a matter of record.
