[NCLUG] Why Linux will win and Micro$oft will lose

John L. Bass jbass at dmsd.com
Sun Nov 11 11:04:47 MST 2001


	Linux will win and Micro$oft will lose. So
	sit back, have fun and watch it happen.

Cheap imitation products have a long history of being second
to quality full featured products. If close to free were the
ruling market force, we would not see the relentless expensive
drive to upgrade products to the newest and best products
availalbe. The reality is that the market did not stay with
Win95, or Win3.1 which would have been a "free choice" since
it was already purchased. What we have seen instead are fewer
and fewer people running Win3.1, and Win95. When it comes to
product support - Linux doesnt' come close yet to having ported
applications that those two older platforms supported.

Nor does Linux have many other important desktop features that
have been standard with those platforms, and their successors.

I strongly support Linux, and I'm sure that it will have a
place in the market for a long time to come. But it isn't likely
to "win" on being free alone. And as long as it is primarily
supported by open source free labor - it is almost certianly
not going to catch up to Microsoft, or pass it as the "best"
product on the market. Free labor does what is fun, not what
is necessary.

John



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