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Microsoft Discounts Against Linux


bjf123

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Microsoft should realise that theres no place for proprietary stuff...Business models have changed too. More going towards services. Its a good thing that a huge community is involved in GNU/Linux. This is one big company they'll never be able to buy! :) :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest genaldar
Microsoft should realise that theres no place for proprietary stuff...Business models have changed too.  More going towards services. Its a good thing  that a huge community is involved in GNU/Linux. This is one big company they'll never be able to buy!  ;)  ;)
I have to disagree, there is a place for proprietary stuff. I'd also like to add that ms could in theory "buy" linux. All they'd have to do is buy the rights to the kernel from Linus along with the rights to a few key apps (kde, gnome, apache, etc.) and linux would need to do some major adjusting. It wouldn't be that hard either. Linus probably makes a good living, but if ms offered him a billion dollars for the kernel do you think he'd say no?
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but if ms offered him a billion dollars for the kernel do you think he'd say no?
I´m pretty sure he would say NO ! ;);) Bruno
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I have to disagree, there is a place for proprietary stuff.  I'd also like to add that ms could in theory "buy" linux.  All they'd have to do is buy the rights to the kernel from Linus along with the rights to a few key apps (kde, gnome, apache, etc.) and linux would need to do some major adjusting.  It wouldn't be that hard either.  Linus probably makes a good living, but if ms offered him a billion dollars for the kernel do you think he'd say no?
I don't think MS could ever buy Linux - no one "owns" it or has any right to sell it. The GPL protects it (correct me if I'm wrong). Also, I'd agree with Bruno, Linus would most definately say no - money is not the most important thing.
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While I doubt MS could get linus to sale his "IP"to linux..SCO wll try to cripple it and is doing a much better job at that and challenge the the legality of the GPL at the same time (personaly I think this will be the big battle ground in the coming court battles). I also doubt MS is going away..but I think their business model will have to change. But services alone won't get it..see telcos..dotcoms, it will have to be a mixture (Suse understands this) Will they remain proprietary, who knows or really cares..if they adapt to the market they will do fine..if not...linux will become "the OS of choice"However, Lowering prices is normal in a Free Market, MS didn't invent it, so this is nothing new...any business that has an challenge to it's bottom line reacts this way. And whatever is deemed best in the eye of the consumer wins (not which actually the best , but which is perceived as best) ...what I think they are doing in the EU of promoting linux based on the value of the system, rather than protesting MS is the reason for the success there..and It's working here in the US too.

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Guest LilBambi

Here's another article along these lines that was very interesting:Microsoft loses big deal in MunichTo follow that up, here's some comments from LinuxOnline:Linux News(Check out the New York Times Technology article: Microsoft Finds Some Doubters for the Motives of Its Largesse -- free registration required)Two quotes from the article:

The company is significantly increasing its donation of software to the nation's nonprofit organizations, to a level that may approach $1 billion annually in the next three to four years, according to the organization that will distribute the software. Executives at nonprofit organizations are applauding the expected increase in donations, up from $207 million in estimated retail value last year.
The increased donations come at a time when Microsoft has adopted a strategy, as reported by The International Herald Tribune, to discount its software in Europe for government and large private agencies to counter the growth of open-source programs, like the Linux operating system and OpenOffice, that might potentially threaten its dominance in the desktop computing marketplace.
The plot sickens, errr, I mean thickens LOL!
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The only way either Linus could ever "sell" Linux or SCO could prevail against Linux OS's is if one or the other could get the courts to declare the GPL somehow revocable. IANAL, but I can't recall reading about any precedents that would make me think any court in the U.S., anyway, would ever be likely to do that.Whether or not SCO's suit against IBM actually has any merit (and most people in a position to make an educated guess about that seem to think it does not), SCO has the problem vis-a-vis Linux that it already released its Linux software under the GPL. SCO would have to come up with some pretty ... um, "creative" ... reasoning to make the courts agree that it now has the right to decide it doesn't want to abide by the GPL's terms. Linus would be in the same boat.The thing about the GPL is that its enforcement depends upon copyright law, even though it was conceived of as a sort-of end-run around the abuses that many software and media companies make of copyright law. What actually gives a software developer the right to release software under the terms of the GPL is his status as the copyright holder of that software. That status also gives him the right, instead, to license his software to a Microsoft or an Adobe or to sell it himself (and gives an author the right to sell publishing rights to a publisher, a songwriter the right to sell recording rights to a musician, etc.). Once such a deal is entered into, the copyright holder can't simply back out without good reason, such as proving breach-of-contract, bad faith, fraud, or some such on the other side. You can't really prove any of that against the GPL, which as much as anything is simply a contract under which a product is released. I'm mystified as to how SCO could somehow get a court to revoke that contract. And if it can't do that, then whatever the outcome of SCO vs. IBM, Linux is unaffected.--Michael

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I found this article on CNET to be interesting...MS Tweaks Troubled Licensing Plan

That's the message that the company is seeking to convey with an overhaul to its controversial Software Assurance purchasing program. Microsoft said Tuesday that it will throw in several services, including training and support, with the cost of software licenses, in an effort to encourage customers to buy into the program.
One Microsoft customer said that the services Microsoft added to the Software Assurance program made the overall plan significantly more attractive. Services such as customer support and training are often included with the purchase cost of a software product. The enhancements to Software Assurance bring Microsoft in line with other software providers, said David Burke, chief information officer of Raycom Media. "The costs of the licenses are the same, but they've added so much more value. Before, it was harder to justify the costs," Burke said. "It's more of a bundled solution (now) than a pure software version upgrade."
linkage
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Guest ThunderRiver

Now if their volume licensing program is as cheap as retail copy..I would buy it B) and if Microsoft Developer Network Universal Subscription is as cheap as the retail copy, I would be in heaven :D

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Yea, there's no way Bill could ever buy Linux. I live in Columbus, Ohio and Les Wexner lives out here.. Owner of The Limited and Victoria's Secret. He lives out in New Albany, a suburb. There is a church next door to him with a really huge cross.... 100 feet tall or something. He offered the church somewhere in the order of a couple million dollars to take it down... Guess where the church told him to stick it? Linus wouldn't even sell it for a Billion dollars. That's pretty perposterous to even think that he would consider it.... M$ is a dying company and not too many people have the foresight to actually see that. They are in their peak right now but their record speaks volumes.... Nobody trusts them anymore. If you don't trust a bussiness man, how can you do bussiness with him.... People are migrating their bussinesses to Linux and it's Big brother at record proportions... That is whole reason for SCO's sliging mud and why Microsoft is sweating it big time over Linux. IBM and Redhat would be GREAT companies to invest in along with Sun Microsystems... With the continual BS that Microsoft has been doing to other companies in order to put the competition out of bussiness, no one will ever use their products, much less buy them. I have many hacked OS's from them. You couldn't pay me to use it and I got them for free.... I use my original 98 for games and nothing else. Xp turned into a drink coaster and NT was a dog frisbie... Me I shot with a 20 guage on my Dad's farm... Anyway, I feel a rant coming on so I should sign off. This is too nice of a forum to flare tempers on.... I know some really good forums to pick M$ vs. Linux fights on..... :D Jon

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I've done it on the main M$ forums.... WOW!!!!!! What a sh*t storm those turn out to be..... They'll go on for 40 or 50 posts til the "MVP" kills the thread...... He He..... I'm bad sometimes..... I think I'm banned from there... No big loss......Suprisingly it's an even ammount of view points... There are Linux fans on the forums over there..... It can get ugly... :D

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;) @ MS buying LinuxBetween Lindows and Linux, MS might have to keep it's prices in line by golly, but still I see higher prices for windows to come yet. Always great idea to have em both, cant go wrong.
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Guest ThunderRiver

There is really not much point for Microsoft to buy Linux. If Microsoft buys Linux, they would have to support the exsiting Linux users with the newer kernel..surely Microsoft is willing to do that. If they stop working on the kernel, more fan will turn into anti-Microsoft. Now that would not make MS look good in front of its Antitrust cases does it?

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