[PLUG] Microsoft to kill popular Linux antivirus product (fwd)

[Matt Chorman]

I think this is the start of a rather disturbing change in the tactics of
M$. First, it was "buy out all competition on the windows platform for M$
products, or cause them to not work. Be uncomeptitive." This evidenced by
the dozens and dozens and dozens of acquisitons/buy outs microsoft has made
over the last 10 years or so.

In the market of today, Microsoft has no real competitors for anything they
make. Notice I said "real" - this means someone who would consitute a direct
threat to Microsoft revenues. Well, except for OSS that is. We all know the
most prevelant OSS (at least in people's minds and in the news) is linux.
Microsoft has decided to take it's "working" domination plan and modify it
for the OSS world. How long before they start buying other OSS companies?
Can you envision a buyout of redhat? Sure, it's farfetched, but who's to say
it's not possible? Redhat "won't be bought" - well, they've never had a
multi-billion dollar offer before.

Microsoft will be careful - they will identify "hot spots" of production,
commercial software on linux. They will *slowly* buy out these vendors. The
less vendors for a platform the less successful - this was evidenced by
apple in the early days of competition vs. windows 95.

This is my own conjecture, based on the trends on what I see and what is
happening.

The only real way to combay microsoft is to make everything free. If it is
free, then it cannot be bought out.

I'll end with a poem:

To cost, or not to cost: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler for the pocket to pay
The costs and moneys of outrageous fortune
And to bow down to those who would enslave you
or to support freedom of choice? There is choice:
To crash, to bluescreen? No more; A bluescreen ends;
The documents lost, the work is gone, heartaches
headaches and the computer out the window. Nay!
To process, to compute. To type in freedom
without worry of cost or crash; and the feeling,
the user is heir to, 'tis a computation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To crash, to fix;
to fix: perchance to learn new things: so hard!
Research, frustration, lost sleep: ay, there's the rub;
For in that brief crash what data may be lost
When you reboot your pc and scan your disk....
For those that would suffer the indignity
of microsoft, of paying for bits of nothing,
The oppressor's wrong, the guru contumely,
The pangs of monopoly, from law's delay.

My apologies to the great bard.
-Matt Chorman

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael C. Robinson" <michael at robinson-west.com>
To: <plug at lists.pdxlinux.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 9:54 AM
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Microsoft to kill popular Linux antivirus product (fwd)


>
> > It's a good tool that some admins like to use, for example those who
must care
> > for winderz clients. In any scenario, having that choice taken away is
in
> > itself a very bad thing.
> >
>
> Is the owner really going to sell it to Microsoft?  This wouldn't make
> any sense considering if it's popular that this company would arguably
> want to keep it.  I doubt Microsoft will keep this software
> successfull.
>
>      --  Michael C. Robinson
>
>
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