thelinuxlink.net

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_ ... crosoft_xp

REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers Monday, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista.
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Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally "downgrade" to XP.

Ahhh, the advantages to being a monopoly and being able to screw over your customers with near impunity. Gotta love it.

greggh wrote:Ahhh, the advantages to being a monopoly and being able to screw over your customers with near impunity. Gotta love it.

I think what makes this even better, is the fact that the vast majority of people out there, in the end don't really care, and are just gonna accept it.

At Fry's standalone Microsoft Windows XP was around $140 and now it is around $300. That takes real gall. If there are any left, Directron was selling a used p4 monitorless with xp for $109. Add ten dollars and they included a 17 inch monitor according to the ad.

Tsuroerusu wrote:I think what makes this even better, is the fact that the vast majority of people out there, in the end don't really care, and are just gonna accept it.

They might accept Vista. But they won't accept the schedule to pay more and more for the software they're using. Office used to be copied like crazy so people effectively paid $50 or less for it. Windows was a similar cost to the end user. People will expect the prices of these things they need to go down and if they don't, well that's where the acceptance will end. Linux will be waiting...

This looks like an opportunity to make some new friends and help them out of their computer troubles. It's a shame Microsoft made this decision and I feel bad for those that can't switch for whatever reason. All that aside, it's an opportunity for Linux advocates to gain even more ground.

I think Microsoft wants to play the os shell game. Their newest fud (i mean os) will allegedly be called singularity/midori (spanish for consumers) and is reported as being written in c#. I wonder if it has any translated linux code in it. I wonder if it will be as popular as winflp...

weex wrote:

Tsuroerusu wrote:I think what makes this even better, is the fact that the vast majority of people out there, in the end don't really care, and are just gonna accept it.

They might accept Vista. But they won't accept the schedule to pay more and more for the software they're using. Office used to be copied like crazy so people effectively paid $50 or less for it. Windows was a similar cost to the end user. People will expect the prices of these things they need to go down and if they don't, well that's where the acceptance will end. Linux will be waiting...

You know, I have already been in such situations and tried just what you are describing, and to be perfectly honest with you, no success at all. I have actually had a lot more success convincing people to buy antivirus subscriptions for their Windows machines, than switching to Linux as a means of getting rid of the virus issue altogether. In a recent case a few months ago, I was to fix the computer of a former classmate of mine's younger brother, and I suggested he switch to Linux instead, that way he didn't need any antivirus etc. But in this case Pidgin was the stumbling block, as it lacks a lot of the "cool" features of Windows Live Messenger, he felt uncomfortable with it, and it being too different or "him not being a geek" and in general issues of familiarity. And yes, this guy did buy antivirus for his machine, it costs him 80 USD. In other cases it has been OpenOffice.org that was the issues, or that certain applications weren't available for Linux. I feel that the cost factor in this game, is only relevant if familiarity is not an issue, or that you're dealing with people who have very tight budgets.

Linux and free software work fine. It just takes some time to retrain. There's something a lot cooler about Pidgin connecting to every network all in one place than some "cool" single feature in WLM.

There are two types of user that are easiest to introduce Linux to. 1) Users that are geeky enough almost to do it themselves and just need a little push. 2) People that have not invested much of their time and energy in Windows.

The trick is to identify if people are in one of those two groups and if not, well then you can give up. After dropping a hint about Firefox and it's cool adblock feature + reduced virus susceptibility(even with that $80 av software).

I have a friend that although he won;t get back to windows told me he prefers windows messenger because of some add-on.
In regard to openoffice , formatting is not perfect. I have opened quite a few documents and ended up having to open them up on windows.

weex wrote:Linux and free software work fine. It just takes some time to retrain.

I completely agree, the problem is, people who can pay for something, and then have to not "retrain", almost always take the easy way out. As is the case with the example I gave in my earlier post.

weex wrote:There's something a lot cooler about Pidgin connecting to every network all in one place than some "cool" single feature in WLM.

Once again I agree, but the problem is that the person I showed Pidgin to did not. Here in Denmark, 99% of people use MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger, so the multi-protocol features of Pidgin and Kopete are almost completely irrelevant. Individual feature of a certain network/protocol is a lot more important, such as voice communication and webcam conversations etc. and all sorts of advanced og niche features. I know that in the US, a lot of people use AIM, and in Canada the majority tend to use MSN, so here the multi-protocol stuff is relevant if you know somebody in Canada, or somehow use "the other" network. This is not the case here in Denmark, I know of no non-geek person at all, who told me "I don't use MSN", sure some geek friends of mine use Jabber, but the majority of the Danish Internet users do not.

weex wrote:There are two types of user that are easiest to introduce Linux to. 1) Users that are geeky enough almost to do it themselves and just need a little push. 2) People that have not invested much of their time and energy in Windows.

If you ask inexperienced computer users, I think they consider even an hour of figuring stuff out to be "invested much of their time and energy in Windows", the people I talk to just doesn't seem to realize that the knowledge they do have is generic and applicable to even freaking Solaris to some extent.

weex wrote:The trick is to identify if people are in one of those two groups and if not, well then you can give up. After dropping a hint about Firefox and it's cool adblock feature + reduced virus susceptibility(even with that $80 av software).

Again, the majority of the Danish population don't care about investing 80 bucks in some antivirus subscription. I guess when people have disposable income, they don't care about paying for something they really didn't have to. Because the people I have suggested Linux to, would rather pay to continue using Windows, than have to spend time getting used to Linux, even though technically the amount of time they would have to spend would be miniscule.

weex wrote:The trick is to identify if people are in one of those two groups and if not, well then you can give up. After dropping a hint about Firefox and it's cool adblock feature + reduced virus susceptibility(even with that $80 av software).

My wife's uncle runs a business out of his house and Quickbooks has been the lynch pin in moving him over. As soon as I realized this would be a stumbling block, I backed off. I haven't completely lost hope that some day there will be a miracle and someone will develop a fitting replacement. His girlfriend is a teacher and shares his office with him. She is completely hooked on Ubuntu and smiles from ear to ear every time he gets a virus on his machine. I refuse to give up, but I'm not going to push until I find decent business financial software.

I thought quickbooks was going to make a linux version?


http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/su ... linux.html

That's just the server portion, not the client.

I forgot to put the link for running it under wine. Anyway, we are testing sql-ledger and some of the other major web based accounting systems. So far the the easiest/intuitive packages seem to have the least security.