Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and assorted bits of hardware new and old.
Wednesday 9 September 2009, 11:43 AM
Microsoft Resorts to Disinformation and Distortion Against Linux
If the reported content of the presentation is accurate, as it seems to be, even I am surprised at how low MS is willing to go, and how much they are willing to distort the facts, out of obvious fear of the truth. Of course, it is also possible that they are trying to deflect attention from the fact that Vista with Lipstick (aka Windows 7) has a pretty steady stream of bugs, security flaws and zero-day failures being reported, before it even goes on sale!
jw
PreviousComments on this post
I have read about this elsewhere and am appalled.
Having read other items about Microsoft recently, I have been thinking that Microsoft seem to be able to plough on with impunity and do not seem able to be held to account for their abuse of their monopoly and other dubious activities. The power and reach of Microsoft seems to exceed that of any individual country, with or without a democratic government.
The EU do try, but focusing on Internet Explorer and Media Player tends to miss the point. Microsoft's complete philosophy is seen to be one of domination by whatever means, rather than competition on a level playing field to a set of (non proprietary) standards. I am also reminded that they torpedoed OS/2 which had the makings of a good operating system.
The advent of negative campaigning, advertising, politicking, reporting, etc. is a sad indictment on our society, as is the greed and self interest so prevalent now.
As an aside, I have been installing Linux on older machines for users with straightforward requirements, on the basis that their needs are met in a safe and simple environment (Gnome - sorry KDE) with long term stability and ease of use, not to mention the savings generated by not having to purchase new hardware and Microsoft programmes and the hassle aound security and monthly updates. The ease with which additional software, most hardware and updates are installed frequently leaves Microsoft in the dust.
@Moley - I fully agree with you. As an American I can tell you that it has long been the case that the power a company weilds (or as you aptly put it, the ability to plough on with impunity) is a direct function of two simple factors:
- The number of lawyers you can have on staff. It is important that they be "on staff", i.e. employees of the company, because then they become a fixed cost, not proportional to the amount of litigation you drag them into (or they drag you into).
- The amount of money you can budget for paying fines, and thus be able to simply accept the punishment and continue doing whatever you want. I agree that the EU competition commission has tried, but I've often wondered if it is just Microsoft's "good luck" that they have focused on such trivia as IE and Media Player.
jw
The thing is everyone moans about microsoft and yes they are a lot of valid points raised in most cases, however when is some one going to stop moaning and actually bring a viable alternative to the shelf for EVERY ONE TO USE? and I mean something that has the SAME LEVEL of functionality that windows offers in EVERY CATEGORY NATIVELY, irregardless of the user type.
How long has windows being with us now? 14 17 plus years and in all this time BSD Linux Ubuntu and so on, have consistently failed to do this why? they would rather create more falks than try to bridge/unify there driver databases their developer basis and their user base's.
Out of the three mentioned the only one that has come close is Ubuntu their just missing that last jigsaw peace, that will increase their user base MASSIVELY and that is proper games support, despite what some may think people do expect to be able to run everything irregardless of what purpose it serves, and they expect there software to run natively.
Its time to bring Unix & Linux based systems out from the garden sheds and into the homes.
This is, unfortunately, woefully uninformed and generally incorrect babble. The generalizatoin of "BSD Linux Ubuntu and so on" makes no sense whatsoever, I have no idea what a "falk" is or whether Linux developers or anyone else are trying to create them, and if the "last jigsaw piece" which will massively increase their user base is "games support", well... then we are all in a lot of trouble.
The truth of the matter is that the problems with Linux adoption in the general public have very little to do with availability of applications. Some of the more critical factors are:
- Awareness. The members of this community, and similar ones online, are very much the exception in knowing about Linux as an alternative to Windows or MacOS, or for that matter in even knowing that an operating system exists on their computer and that there are alternative choices for it.
- Inertia. The vast majority of PC users have never used anything other than Windows, and are happy to continue in blissful ignorance as long as things keep working. But the revolt and rejection of Vista was a clear indication that this is not a sign of loyalty or dedication to Windows, per se.
- FUD. Using distortion and disinformation, such as the article this blog entry was originally written about, Microsoft (and many others such as yourself) have managed to create a generally bad public impression of Linux, not only in the general public but more specifically and probably more importantly in the distribution chain. Another recent excellent example of this was the claims that netbook return rates were substantially higher for Linux than Windows netbooks. Microsoft understands very well that if they can keep Linux out of the distribution chain, and out of the stores, they can keep knowledge of it, and therefore acceptance of it, down.
- Ignorance, inability or unwillingness to accept alternative applications. Your comment claims that LInux lacks "NATIVE" applications which Windows has. It would be useful for you to give some examples, other than "gaming support". What do typical PC users want? Office software? OpenOffice is better than MS Office in essentially every way, and the user interface is so similar to MS Office that I have personally had a lot less trouble converting users from MS to OpenOffice than I have converting them from MS Office 2003 to MS Office 2007. Web Browser? Firefox and Opera are both vastly superior to Internet Explorer. Email programs? Thunderbird and Evolution are both better than Windows Mail, or whatever Microsoft is calling the latest incarnation of Outlook Express. Photo management and editing? Both Gnome and KDE have excellent photo display/management/album packages, and GIMP is a better photo/image editor than 99% of the users will ever need. The simple fact is, the applications exist for Linux, and in many (most) cases are superior to the Windows equivalents, but they are not EXACTLY the same as the Windows versions, they don't have the same names and the same user interface, so users either don't know about them, or are reluctant to try them (see inertia above), and it is easy for uninformed people such as yourself to go around saying "Linux doesn't have applications".
- Confusing its own market. Yes, the wide variety of Linux distributions available is confusing, sometimes even to those who deal with it every day. But, first off, good ideas and new development come from different and often unexpected directions, and consolidating everything to one Linux version or distribution would be a sure way to kill that innovation. Besides, if the choice is between having to distinguish and decide between a lot of different Linux versions, or having a single version shoved down your throat whether you like it or not, I'll take the former in a heartbeat, thank you very much. Think about the Vista debacle for a while, and try to figure out if that is the way you want things to work.
- Conservatism. This is what I call the "cover your ass" aspect. In the corporate world, someone needs to buy one or more computers. They have to choose something. If they choose Linux systems, and it doesn't work out for whatever reason, whether related to that decision or not, they are left to blame, and there are plenty of people who will be happy to jump in and say "why the heck did you choose these Linux systems". If they choose Windows, and it doesn't work out for the same reasons, they can simply throw up their hands and say "I chose Windows, that's just the way it works, and we have to accept and live with it". I saw the same effect in the server market with IBM computers for a long time in the 80's and 90's, until Linux based servers were finally established and accepted.
I could go on and on with this kind of list. But the bottom line is, it's not the variety of Linux versions that are a problem, and its not a lack of applications. It is human nature, conservatism, inertia, and the Doubt, Disinformation and Distortion that are spread in the market.
jw
Right putting aside your personal attacks and your assumptions of myself, ill start where you left off.
"I could go on and on with this kind of list. But the bottom line is, it's not the variety of Linux versions that are a problem, and its not a lack of applications."
Variety and productivity applications is quite good for both Linux & BSD distributions if not on an equal footing with windows desktops, didn't say they where not.
"It is human nature, conservatism, inertia, and the Doubt, Disinformation and Distortion that are spread in the market."
To an extent yes but not entirely, I've never witnessed anti open source activities, nor have I activity took part in such activities.
But what I will say is this, its took the open source community an awfully long time to get to this stage to be able to offer something that the end user's can use in the same way they have become accustomed to, that no longer requires half as much self compiling by the end user as it once did.
I think the main problem that plagues these community's is the slow adoption of there home user operating systems by the system manufactures but why, what is it that the manufactures don't like about them why do they feel that they can't punt these OS's half as well as Microsoft's operating system? although the productivity suites work just as well as MS's the only conclusion that i can come to is the lack of 3rd party applications support & availability.
If I could do all the things that i can currently do on my existing OS on the open source alternatives, then I would have switched over years ago but the simply fact is i can't.
Edit;
Upon further thought maybe the future for open source operating systems being a viable alternative in the homes is not as distant as it would seem, due to up and coming cloud streaming technology's.
and to think you where so quick to bash it.
In response to nobody in particular and in repetition of an earlier comment.
When one buys a piece of hardware in fancy packaging, it will state on the packaging that the hardware will work with Windows and (sometimes) Mac OS, but very very rarely mention Linux when, in the majority of cases, it will install and run on Linux with no more difficulty, and usually install with less user input, than on Windows.
It is a great pity that GNU Linux does not achieve more traction in the market as 1) a more than adequate environment for all the usual everyday tasks for both the skilled and unskilled and 2) as an excellent environment in the more technically demanding situations.
It is also an extremely great pity that IT education in schools is now almost entirely limited to learning how to use Microsoft products. I remember my admiration, before the advent of the GUI, of the skills of young people getting to grips the command line and, hence, gaining a better understanding of computer science.
Oh the grand old command line operations yes well the price of progress I'm afraid, how else can hardware and research departments be funded if only the few buy the equipment in the first place.
Besides learning on the Archimedes & the Amiga's was much more fun.
