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November 14, 2003
Quotable Quotes
These quotes were taken from 2003 and Beyond.
Microslosh partners:
This same fate [i.e. what happened to RealNames] has befallen numerous Microsoft "partners" in the past, and awaits those that sets up .NET services.Either your service is not successful and you go out of business, or it is successful, Microsoft commandeers it, and you go out of business.
Trusting Microslosh:
Trust, Trust, and Trust. Just about nobody trusts Microsoft any more, not even after a few drinks. Not even after smelling the money. Particularly after the screwing they got with License 6, businesses are wary of tying themselves tightly to Microsoft products. This is becoming a major and growing problem for the Redmond empire.
The future of Quick Books:
"But," you say, "how can Microsoft displace Intuit? Everybody's using QuickBooks. Intuit is just too popular." Microsoft's "Triple Terminator" is the transition of Windows software to .NET, Longhorn and Palladium. Microsoft will "help" Intuit make these transitions the same way they "helped" WordPerfect and Lotus make the transition from DOS to Windows. Only Microsoft software will be able to take full advantage of the this future world - Intuit is the WordPerfect of the future.
Profitability:
Microsoft's economic model requires rapid revenue growth. As their markets saturate, they must squeeze more money out of established customers. The whole purpose of monopoly is to increase profits through unrestriced price increases (new FTC rules have forced revealation that profits for Windows / Office are about 80%).
DOT NET (or is that DOT NOT):
Now, here's Microsoft's problem - .NET. Microsoft's Web services are still pretty much "vaporware" (often impolitely called .NOT), and .NET has serious competition. Sun Microsystems' Sun One and most especially IBM'sWebSphere are more mature, and are backed by companies long established in the data center space. WebSphere is backed by IBM Global Services. a worldwide operation with an estimated 2002 revenue of nearly $40 Billion.
Why choose Microslosh?:
Despite matters discussed above, some of which can be interpreted as detrimental to businesses, most businesses will choose Microsoft solutions, and many will choose only Microsoft solutions.
A principal factor is that America's business leaders simply don't want to think about complex technology issues - they want to think about golf. Microsoft promises them that, and being a large, and hugely successful corporation, they have high credibility with top business executives.
Replacing Novell:
ome years ago, Microsoft convinced management that moving from Novell NetWare servers to Microsoft Windows NT servers would save them huge amounts of money, because the servers could be administered by people with far less skill - it's all "point and click". Companies following this path found that every NetWare server was replaced not by one, but by three or four NT servers, and the admins were definitely cheaper, but there were four or five times as many of them.
Conclusion:
To avoid this fate [Microslosh Hell], you need to start moving to alternatives now. It would have been a lot easier to do before you moved from DOS to Windows, but it can still be done if you can summon up the nerve to do it.
From the references in the article, you might also want to read Windows XP Shows the Direction Microslosh is Going. There is also an article by the same author on the SCO vs IBM funfest which contains this gem:
Speculation [on SCO shares] began with well distributed reports from Renaissance Ventures, which include more erroneous thinking and suspension of disbelief than the war in Iraq.
P.S. The author of the main article doesn't like Apple much as an alternative. He appears to be pro-Linux (or perhaps pro-OS/2)
Posted by Ozguru at November 14, 2003 12:11 PM
