M$ taking their ball and going home.

[ash]

Well, apparently, Ballmer (M$ CEO) has said that they may stop shipping Windows if they lose the Anti-trust case thingamajig.

Go Here

And here The register

for the story.


Very stupid, but it will get a Lot (several hundred million lets say??) of people on their side for the case, not wanting to have to find alternatives to Windoze. Not to stereotype, but most of them would be completely unaware that there are other OS's for the PC than windows.

I wonder how much of this is truth, that they cannot seperate IE from windows, and how much is just FUD and hardball threats??

[Calum]

Oh dear.

They will stop shipping windows.

I am distraught.
</sarcasm>

whoop dee doo! who cares if they stop punting their crappy windows?

It would be great! most software developers would immediately bring out linux versions of things, since the market would be split into mac and linux, and many developers already support mac better than linux. They would stop releasing new windows versions of things too.

This is the reason why it will not happen.
If M$ stops shipping windows, it loses it's stranglehold on the computing rank and file. It becomes just another software developer (and not too favourite a one in the public eye, not to mention not a very good one either) and has to compete with Adobe, Sun, Macromedia, Apple, Nullsoft et c.

Not a chance. it would be like driving out into the desert with no food and then shooting out all of your tires once you had run out of petrol.

It won't happen.

[lu666s]

Atta snivelling jerk Balmer is. Macro$uck commedy.

Wel, darn, can he start NOT shipping windoze tomorrow? That would so nice of him. He has all my support in this endeavor!                

[ March 05, 2002: Message edited by: lu666s ]

[dbl221]

Its just the posturing of a bully who got beaten by a better fighter thats all....ignore Baldballs....I mean Balmer.

[jtpenrod]

Here's another interesting statement Ballmer made during his temper tantrum.    

quote: The degree to which it requires documentation of internal interfaces, the degree to which it requires - what do they call that stuff where, you know, you can't degrade the performance of any body else at any time in any way on any interface...

They call that "stuff" honor, integrity, and fair play. But you wouldn't know *anything* about that, now would you - you FAT, BALD, UGLY, MONKEY-DANCING SACK OF SHIT.        

Yes, why don't you take your Windows and just go home? (I've seen four-year-olds with more maturity than this asshole.) And don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.        

Dare we hope?(!)        

[ March 10, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]

[ March 10, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]

[ March 10, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]

[Bazoukas]

ooohh noooo,,,i am in tears,,,,,,the feeeeear,,,,the paaaaaaanic.......oh wait,,,Linux will get a biger boost at all levels (dev wise) and will be shiped at every SW store in the world....

,,,ah ok,,,,doesnt sound that bad.

Umm when they gonna do that? Ill help them out to close their factory..i will i wiil,,i promise.

[TB]

M$ to stop shipping windows?? Shit, they may as well open source it too.........but we all know that's just a very nice dream.........

[Bateluer]

Hmmm . . . I have ISOs of all windows OSs . . . if they stop shipping it, maybe I can make some money?

[Tux]

quote:I actually think we would need to withdraw the Windows product from the marketplace.

I think thats the smartest thing m$ has ever said.
And you know the end is nearing with half assed threats like these ones.

 

quote: you know, this year there will be something like 120, 130 million people around the world who buy new computers with Windows, who use those to manage their day-to-day business,their home lives, deliver healthcare information. All of those consumers would be, of course, grievously harmed by the proposal of the nonsettling states.

Is this supposed to be a threat? If any thing m$ withdrawing their supposed "OS" would help more then harm, cause then people would have to switch to something that accually does what they want it to, the only harm is see from this proposal is to slick billys wallet...and i know he wont stand for that.

[ March 25, 2002: Message edited by: Tux ]

[Calum]

people could still use windows! (probably until about 2028 when we will find out that windows can't count past that year or something like that) and it would not be a big upheaval if windows stopped shipping! one by one, people would switch to free UNIX variants in businesses and then in homes. the fact of this happening would give the commercial unix developers and linux vendors the kick up the arse to make the stuff properly user friendly. (at the moment linux vies with windows for user friendliness, although it's far superior in most other ways)

It won't shock anybody either, because the first people to switch to unix would be the ones who kind of know what they are doing already or are willing to learn, then everybody else would just learn by osmosis, in a similar fashion to the way everybody learnt how to use windows.

Sadly, as i say, it won't happen. windows will continue to ship and the thing about whether or not unix will replace it is now in the hands of businesses, and then home users.

[Liquidog]

The question is, can windows be packaged without all the extras that the states want removed?  I'm not a programmer by any means, but I really can't see why a company with the technology and resources of MS can't figure out how to remove the cancer known as IE from their OS.  If anything, I would think that offering Windows with a greater amount of options, such as whether or not to have Windows media player, would only help MS.  People like to have the ability to decide what comes on their computers.  Customization is a big selling point for lots of gadgets, and computers are no exception.  MS should quit whining - I will not speculate on whether or not Ballmer was actually threatening anyone - and put some time and money into figuring out how to package a computer with a simple, bare bones style windows installation.  Saying that they can't do that is basically saying that they don't want to, because they have the resources to figure out just about anything that would help their business.  I know it seems wierd for MS to offer more than the usual options, (Get shafted a little or get shafted alot), but this is a golden opportunity for them to perhaps help their business, improve the quality of their product and enhance the image of their company by attempting to solve their problems rather than just refusing to even try.  Another thing, this Ballmer guy sounds like an utter retard in his statement.  As little as I know about programming and API's and all that, is it possible that he knows less?  I'm a hardware guy.  He's the CEO of MS, what's his excuse?

[Calum]

you see, Ballmer knows nothing about software because... he's the CEO of M$!

Also, i really hope M$ dig their heels in about this. Yes you are right, they can include or exclude anyhting they want in their so called OS, it's just a matter of whether they want to. By saying they can't they are once more assuming that the entire world is incredibly stupid. Nothing new there then.
BUT if they dig in and continue to say that they can't do it, i reckon people are NOT too stupid to say "wait a minute, they wrote the damn thing, now they say they can't change it?" and everybody will start disliking M$.
This is happening. Just ask some people what they think of M$. some people won't like them. Imagine asking the same question 10 or 15 years ago!
The next stage is for somebody to offer an alternative.
Apple Computer have their product too expensive, and Sun are possibly going to fall into the old Atari trap of releasing stuff that's too good, too early and not advertising it at the right time.
Linux is the thing, but the company who seems to be making the most inroads at closing the user unfriendliness gap, MandrakeSoft SA, are now going bust.
Who knows who will win the next round? place yr bets!

[Calum]

Just an amusing little aside here, nothing too big and serious...
http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=1983&" target="_blank">

quote:___ Verdict from Microsoft trial judge: 'No Acrobat' ______________

The district court judge currently presiding over the remedies proceedings hearings of the 'New York et al v. Microsoft' case told lawyers for both sides last week not to give her PDF files, alleging that Adobe Acrobat "doesn't work." Despite her personal judgment, PDF use is widespread in the U.S. federal court system -- including the judge's own District of Columbia courts.

[Brent]

There is of course, absolutely not reason why microsoft cant market a distro that is bare bones with no IE no media player ect. Except.. Is that what the general public wants?  What would the OEM"S do? Sell computers with the "bare bones" OS to little old ladies with no clue how to install the software they want, or load them up.
As far as open source of any description working as a replacement for windows, it will never happen.  I love linux too!!! But it is not now nor ever will be everyones OS.  I dont believe it was ever meant to be.  I know that virtually all of you will dissagree with me, but the biggest down fall as far as the general public is concerned is the fact that it is open source.  Unfortunatly, the mindset of a lot of people on here reminds me of the old sociallist saying. "If someone drives a cadillac and I can only drive a ford escort, instead of me improving myself and working harder so I can get a cadillac, Take away their cadillac and make them drive a ford escort! " Before Linux can be considered a viable alternative to windows, (not for you or I) for the general public, it has a long way to go.  There are many in the linux world who dont want it to get anymore user friendly for some reason. Many dont like GUI's for some reason. Some would sooner just use a command line.  There has to be someone, perhaps a linux equivelent of BIG BAD BILL take the helm and get some consistancy and order.  Idealism is great. Realism works.
It took me over 2 weeks to learn how to use Mandrake in the most basic way. I dont consider myself a stupid person.  Most of my aquaintences simply throw in the towel at first glance after its loaded.."what the fuck do i do now?" I had the patients to read the manuals, fuck up a few times, try again. I loaded mandrake 3 times before I finally got a version I liked (expert mode believe it or not} Mot of the general public doesnt have the time or patients to do that.  Everything has been said over and over and over on these forums. This is only a repeat of what someone else has said.  
Most people including me, dont live, eat, shit and breath computers. Ive been a bit more than usual lately, because im on days off and its colder than hell here.. And im bored.........

[Master of Reality]

they should let ms (or somebody else) make a special "DA" series for their OS, "DA" standing for dumbass. They can sell it to those li'l old ladies who dont know the first clue about anything to do with computers, it should come with a browser and word processing shit and include the necessaties.