Hi Carl, Thanks for the kind words regarding CB!
>Unfortunately - Microsoft doesn't care. Why? Because the home >market, while large to you and I, to Microsoft is a small division. >It's the corporate, enterprise, editions and the new unit division >that makes them their money. Buy a new computer - it'll have Vista >on it. If you take Vista off, they don't care - they've already got >their license fee from the manufacturer. When a business buys new >computers, they all have Microsoft products on them. No doubting that. >We've got the stats to show and prove that 95% of all personal >computers in the world - not just the U.S. but the whole freaking >world - run either Microsoft O/S or Microsoft products. (They may >not have been legally acquired - aka piracy - but they're running our >stuff.) In a sense Microsoft should be pro-piracy since it guarantees them a lock on the market. :) >Oh, and I (unfortunately) do know what I'm talking about with this >stuff. I happen to be a Microsoft Entertainment/Devices Field >Specialist - I train retail sales people on our products, educate the >public, and maintain Xbox 360 interactives. Been doing that for >years - and I'm also a firm lover of Cyberboard over all other PBEM >methods. I actually like XBox! I think it's a great product. It turns out I do have some close ties with Microsoft in the embedded space (winCE and .NETcf). I've been out to Redmond many times to talk to developers on those teams. One thing I've learned is that Microsoft is tenacious. If they mess up they do it again until it works. However, I think they screwed the pooch with Vista. They are definitely making inroads into the embedded space. In a couple weeks I'll be heading to Vegas for my third MEDC conference in as many years. I've made a good living developing stuff for Windows. I jumped on full time at Win3.0 and witnessed its evolution. I don't think they are totally evil like some. In fact many of the folks I've dealt with at MSoft are smart hard working engineers that are easy to interact with. I work at LARGE company (130,000+ employees) and it takes a long time to changes OS's. They didn't change to XP until 2000 wasn't viable anymore. They would literally rip out the XP that came with the box and put on Win2000. IT groups HATE change. Of course none of this has anything to do with Linux. But, if MSoft doesn't capture the hearts of the young, those same people become the IT decision makers of tomorrow and entropy may catch up with Microsoft. Dale
