Microsoft is hiring a "linuxman"

[Gilles Gravier]

Hi!

On 04/01/2010 14:42, Odd wrote:
> Gilles Gravier wrote:
>   
>> Hello!
>>
>> On 04/01/2010 14:18, Odd wrote:
>>     
>>>> I'm confident that whatever Microsoft puts behind this effort (we
>>>> can think of many things, not all of them nice and fair) they
>>>> still will not win against open source.
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Not until they give away Windows for free. It has been speculated 
>>> about Microsoft doing so, and earning money on support and ads 
>>> instead.
>>>
>>> Btw, scroll down to competition: 
>>> http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar09/10k_fr_bus_01.htm
>>>       
>> Yeah. So they know their competition... :) Doesn't mean the company
>> can handle it.
>>     
> True.
>   
>> It's very hard to move from a license to a services model. And
>> building it mandatory in the product would not necessarily work. For
>> example, ads in enterprise deployments would be promptly rejected.
>>     
> Yeah. I'm assuming they would rely on support in the enterprise
> sector, not ads.
>   
Yeah... *IF* that were to be the case, I imagine too.
>> So it would come back to mandatory service... i.e. not really free.
>> Linux CAN be free if you can afford your own support staff. Windows
>> probably never.
>>     
> Never say never. ;)
>   
Agreed.
>> And they would have to do that for MS Office as well...
>>     
> They are already making a free web version of Office, to counter
> Google Docs.
>   
I have yet to see that. Where is it? I see an announce that they "PLAN"
to make that available in 2010...

Now, on the announce, which I see here :
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/hosted/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218500034
, I notice something...

The web version is supposed to be free to all... but one of the
paragraphs says : "Microsoft also announced that businesses that
purchase volume subscriptions to Office will receive access to the
Office Web apps at no additional charge."... So does this mean that it
will actually only be FREE for non commercial use? Then of course, we're
still not competing with OpenOffice.org which is free for whatever-use... :)


>> I still think it would take them too big of an effort.
>>     
> MS has the money to do almost anything they want to.
>   
They do.

But keep in mind that whatever Microsoft does... it's to make lots of
money from it. Not to give out to the world.
> (Don't take the above as I'm endorsing MS. I'm not.
I understand you. No issue with that.

Gilles.
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