MSN Browser - No Longer Free

[tr_one]

Internet Explorer still free

Microsoft Revamps MSN Browser, but No Longer Free

 my immediate thoughts

   "Microsoft declined to say how much the subscription would cost, but charging consumers for a browser would be another step significant break with the Internet's "free" culture."

 I guess this means that mozilla is no longer free?

    "Now the parent is totally in control of their child's experience on the Web," said MSN Marketing Director Bob Visse

I think that this was reported incorrectly.
some how I think it was suppose to say -
 
     "Now Microsoft is totally in control of your child's experience on the Web," said MSN Marketing Director Bob Visse

of course I could be wrong
 
     "MSN 8 even has the ability to generate an online activity report and a feature to request parental permission for certain sites"


wonder if this report is sent "home" to Redmond with everything else?

[rtgwbmsr]

What are they going to do? Add features? Charging for even more bloated software! Woohoo!

[Calum]

unless they are enlightened otherwise, the hordes of morons will swallow this just like they did everything else.

How will people know about the alternatives when the only people doing any huge deal of advertising are Microsoft?

[HibbeeBoy]

You are right Calum. Mac are doing a great campaign to "Switch" which is gathering momentum. Linux needs similar. As head of IT at a $100m a year company I ussure you, I am going to make every effort to remove M$ from the landscape. I want the PC manufacturers to offer the consumer, a Window$ PC @ $1500.00 or Linux PC @ $700.00. A new "Gateway" type PC distributer is needed to get Linux boxes on the market. I really think M$ has overstepped their mark.

[voidmain]

Wal-Mart is selling PCs with Mandrake preinstalled now.  Wonder if you can order them from the Wal-Mart web site?

[Master of Reality]

http://www.stenchofwindows.tk/ claims that walmart has preinstall lindows... me thinks he has been into the cocaine, Lindows isnt even out yet.

[Master of Reality]

ummm.... ignore my last post.... looky here:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=41937&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937

All their Lindows PCs
All Mandrake PCs
I like Walmart  

[ July 17, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality / Bob ]

[HibbeeBoy]

I can save my company money already. I can spruce up a few of the older PC inventory, slap Linux on there and I have just saved $1000.00+ on a new PC and who knows how much on support etc. IBM are hawking Linux on their midrange servers and have given me Ximian Inc as a source for "Office" type applications for $49.00. The anti M$ is gathering momentum, I can feel it.

[voidmain]

I think W-M may have screwed up here.  Why is it that they only sell Lindows on an Athlon and you can't get the Mandrake system preinstalled on an Athlon?  They only offer Mandrake on the Intel chipsets and the Duron. That's fooked up.  Oh well, I would just buy the Athlon PC with no OS and install RedHat anyway...

[HibbeeBoy]

Re Wal-Mart. This is what we want, a choice.

[Calum]

a choice is certainly what i want, and as voidmain says, walmart also sell hardware with no preinstalled software too. HOwever most would WAnt the software to be preinstalled for them. And from what i have heard lindows may just be a worse blow to the linux world than Microsoft, in a lot of ways. It distresses me that so many people have been making noises about it maybe being a good jump on point for linux and so on. I think your first linux OS should be totally free and that's it. No ifs, no buts. and you go from there.

[Master of Reality]

Lindows is still better than windows. As long as we dont let it become a monopoly

[nino]

all we do in our business- life, is playing monopoly.

in the computer branch its hard to play with, cause every step you take you have to pay, allways to the same oppponent who owns all the fields...

if microsoft would begin to produce stuff which is worth to be bought, people would pay for it.
i understand everybody who needs only a fragment of the system and copies this crap.
if they would sell only really useful, small-in-disk-size, compatible systems i would buy it to, if special, personalized add- ons were offered for free.

i look forward to the matrix...

  :rolleyes:

[HibbeeBoy]

I am not sure about the "free" inclusion of Linux on a PC distributed by a retailer such as Wal-Mart. I think there is always going to be a cost associated with loading a PC with the OS so that's understandable. But say the consumer goes to a retailer and says "Gimme a PC loaded with Linux ABC 5.5" then that Linux distributer is going to charge. I don't really have a problem with that because I assume that I am also purchasing documentation and some kind of support. And that's the up side of so many flavours of Linux, it should be price competetive with other distributers. As you say Calum, most people want the OS loaded at time of purchase which is why M$ has the home consumer by the gonads. They don't have to think about it and they don't want to and the "tech" guy at CompUsa doesn't have a f*****g clue either. Just give the punter a box and get them to the checkout ASAP. Th epunter doesn't know what he has bought. But given the choice between a box running M$ bollox at $1000.00 and a box running Linux at half that, then I think we may be onto something.

[choasmaster]

hell yes i want to buy one, cuase they put linux on it. well, yeah, and i don't think i would barf up as much as mine does. suprisingly my redhat hardlocks every day, its shitty hardware, cuase the pentium 60 hasn't crashed yet/*once but it was my fault for plugging in a broken mouse*/. i do have releife though, cuase the third os that i am running/*can't test ChoasNETOS's stability at these things, im still compiling the lib's for it*/ does not crash. it is godly,