A YouTube Video About MS vs. Linux- Comments?

[Cluttermagnet]

Hi, All-

 

I'd be interested to hear your reactions about the comments in this ~25 minute video

on this topic. How accurate is it? I do remember a lot of this stuff. The SCO scare in

particular... but also bombastic Steve Ballmer, veins popping out on his neck, as he

strutted back and forth across various stages at MS gatherings. What a piece of

work that guy was. Comments?

 

BTW it strikes me as pretty rare that we see this sort of topic in the online media.

It's usually seen more in  linux oriented venues, that's my personal observation

FWIW...

 

Thanks, Clutter

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql3RXOtKzm0

[securitybreach]

Yeah, tis the history of Linux. I remember the days of Ballmer jumping around the stage swearing Linux was a virus and all that jazz. Funny that they now use Linux on a regular basis at Microsoft. It was a marketing strategy that backfired. Simple as that.

[abarbarian]

1 hour ago, securitybreach said:

It was a marketing strategy that backfired.

 

Nah not marketing. It was plain old bullying and lying and spreading FUD and telling untruths to get rid of the opposition and maintain a position at the top of the heap. Remind you of anyone today, you can take yer pick as there are plenty of folk around who fit the bill. 

[securitybreach]

That is how Microsoft marketed then.

[Hedon James]

22 hours ago, securitybreach said:

That is how Microsoft marketed then.

Ironically, Steve Ballmer railing against Linux was one of my first exposures to an alternative not in the OSX family.  If he had just kept his blathering mouth shut, I may never have bothered (maybe?!).  Instead, I couldn't help but wonder "what is this Linux he is so bothered about?"  I had heard of Linux, but that was about it.  Seeing how threatened the MS CEO was made me realize that there was more to Linux than just some "computer programmer/admin/nerd" operating system.  If I could learn more, MAYBE I could use it too?!  Thanks for the tip, Steve....and for legitimizing Linux as an option in my eyes!

 

I was amused by the CEO of Windows calling something else a "virus".  Dude, your OS crashes into a BSOD if I have the wrong combination of applications open at the same time; or if I fail to hit "enter" with the appropriate amount of tactile pressure.  Windows was the virus infecting nearly every PC since the 90s.  They've had PLENTY of time to fix it.  Linux has been MUCH more stable for me than the best version of Windows EVER was (for me it was Win7).  Virus.....pfffftttt!

[securitybreach]

I thought he was going to die right on the stage. He was running around yelling developers, developers, developers, sweating profusely. 

[Hedon James]

Thanks to Ballmer's unhinged railing, I learned that Linux was the OVERWHELMINGLY dominant OS on server computers that power the internet, and that Linux was so popular a choice due to its stability; downtime on webservers was lost revenue, and it was easily remedied by an alternative OS.

 

That was EXACTLY the problem I was trying to solve.  And I figured if Linux was stable despite all the web traffic and activity on a server, it would certainly be stable on my independent desktop box, right?  It took some tweaking, as it turns out a userspace GUI is a complication that webservers typically don't have to deal with.  But in a greatly condensed & shortened version of the story....I wasn't wrong, LOL!

 

Knowing what I know now, I'm honestly surprised that Windows won the PC wars to be the OS of choice.  The entire premise of the free-market capitalist system is "open competition" to "let the best ____________ win".  But that didn't happen here; the best MARKETING won, not the best product.  And it didn't just win by a majority, it CRUSHED all other competitors, with a +90% market share.  How does that happen? 

 

Interestingly enough, we had already seen something similar in the VCR wars.....Sony Betamax vs VHS.  By most accounts, Beta was the "superior standard" and had the backing/support of Sony....and electronic behemoth in the 80s.  But a distribution deal was cut between movie studios and backers of VHS and.....poof....VHS won.  A little later, VHS opponents tried to wrest market share with the advent of Video Disc technology (big records...but for videos, not music), but it was more expensive than VHS and lacked recording ability.  VHS crushed it....

 

Later, we saw Apple iPods and Microsoft Zune repeat the battle.  By all measures, the Zune was a superior piece of hardware, and I was certain the Zune was a clear choice.  But iPods had that slick software to manage music collections, and even provided a version for Windows users(!).  The Zune software was aesthetically more pleasing (IMO), but admittedly wasn't as intuitive as the iPod software.  While I chafed at Apple's implementation of DRM and a "3 device authorization limit", no one else seemed to mind.  And iPods kicked the Zune into extinction.  The irony is that Apple used Microsoft's "Windows playbook" against them.

 

I'm often reminded of George Carlin's satirical insight into capitalism when he remarked "if you nail 2 pieces of crap together in a way no one else has before, some schmuck will buy it."  When you think about it that way, he isn't wrong.  And apparently, if marketed properly, you'll have an overwhelming market share despite the "crappy" nature of your product.  LOL!

[Cluttermagnet]

One real life story about MS vs. everyone else. Their marketing included

the tactic of making offers to bigger companies they couldn't resist.

My wife Betty worked for a large east coast home builder. She was quite

skilled with Word Perfect. Along comes MS with an attractive offer and

Betty was stuck learning the inferior MS equivalent. It was so bad that the

terms of the sale included that 3rd party software like Word perfect must

be completely removed from all company computers. It was just scorched

earth, and believe me, Betty was pissed!

 

I migrated her to linux early on, and pretty soon she didn't miss Windows.

Light user that she was, the now very intuitive graphical drag & drop GUI

environment offered essentially the same user experience.

 

Clutter

 

 

Edited Saturday at 05:59 AM by Cluttermagnet

[goretsky]

Hello,

 

I think the "latest" event covered in that video was in 2004… twenty-one (21) years ago.

A quick search of Microsoft's MVP web site reveals something like forty-eight MVPs that have something to do with Linux in their bios, which would have been just as inconceivable back then.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

Edited 5 hours ago by goretsky
fixed a typo

[securitybreach]

3 hours ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

I think the "latest" event covered in that video was in 2004… twenty-one (21) years ago.

A quick search of Microsoft's MVP web site reveals something like forty-eight MVPs that have something to do with Linux in their bios, which would have been just as inconceivable back then.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

 

 

Oh, 100%. That FUD changed many years ago and Microsoft fully accepts Linux and see it is a tool for even their development.