Steve Case resigns as AOL Chairman

[Asher]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Asher,

What is your take on the rumors of MS releasing software from Linux.

Started by some idealistic nerd over at Slashdot?

I don't think MS will ever release software for Linux.

They're allowing non-Windows platforms to use Windows Media now (at half the price of MPEG4 too), and Windows apps can run on Linux (and MacOS) provided they use .NET, since Linux and MacOS will both have .NET runtimes...

[monkspider]

I'm glad that you aren't an AOL fanboy at least Ashie, it makes me think that you aren't totally without hope.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
You're saying that MS has no interest in the highly lucrative gaming industry? That they're investing billions of dollars in the Xbox just to head off a potential (and not too convincing) threat from Sony? Are you that naive? It's pretty obvious that MS is in the gaming industry for the money. Stopping Sony's digital hub plan in its infancy is just an added benefit.

Again, Drake, this is nonsense and I'd like to know your source for anything you've said.

Seriously, read Opening the Xbox. It's an objective book about how the Xbox came to be, including all of the bickering that went on between all the divisions and who made what decisions.

In short, Seamus Blackley (who no longer works at MS) and J Allard essentially pestered Gates for a year saying they should get into the game industry, because it can be highly lucrative.

Then the business relationship between Sony and MS went particularly sour and Sony began hyping up developers and everyone about how their PS2 is going to become an entertainment computer -- which could very well topple MS' marketshare on computer OSes, especially when Sony released Linux for the PS2. Ballmer noticed this, convinced Gates the reason to get the Xbox out there is to ensure Sony can't waltz right in and take the marketshare.

The Xbox is viewed as an expense internally at MS. It's a necessary product to get a presense in the living room in the event of Sony continuing the trend of making their Playstations more and more like computers and the center of the digital home.

Microsoft Game Studios, a subsidiary of MS, is certainly all about games and wants profit.

Microsoft, the parent company, just wants to protect its marketshare from emergin threats. The cost it took to launch into the world of home consoles is pretty miniscule compared to the possible consequences if they don't.

It's a trojan horse.

If you want to read more about it, feel free to get the book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

It's fact that MS didn't get into the market because they simply think video games are profitable. If anything, that's a nice sideeffect (it's still pissy compared to their Office and Windows divisions and far more risky too), but they're not expecting a profit on the Xbox until 2004-2005 at the earliest, if at all, and it doesn't bother them...

You may not be convinced the Sony threat is real, but somehow I'm thinking that industry analysts and the business executives at two of the largest corporations understand slightly more about the situation than you would. I don't see why you don't understand the threat. *shrugs*

[Ted Striker]

Well personally it is a tragedy that IBM picked Linux over BSD.

BSD is the most stable 386 OS on the planet. You can throw anything at it, hell even hit it with a sledgehammer and it won't break.

It also makes more of a business sense to develop on BSD because the BSD license lets you do anything you want with it unlike the GNU license, and the BSD OS is really tight and standards compliant.

That's okay though BSD will continue to hack out new versions while Linux gets all the glory.

[DinoDoc]

If MS wanted the market, the Xboy would have been released with the Xbox like J Allard wanted.

Nintendo would probably have been able to handle that given the wild success of the Gameboy though.

[Asher]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Nintendo would probably have been able to handle that given the wild success of the Gameboy though.

I wouldn't be too sure.

The NES and SNES were wildly successful, and Sony's playstation walked all over the N64.

The only reason the Gameboy is so successful right now is because there are NO competitors in the handheld market.

If MS had released Xboy with its backlit screen and li-ion batteries back in Nov 2001 (which Nintendo just got around to doing now) along with a much more powerful Intel XScale chip rather than the StrongARM in the GBA, I think they would have made quite a big dent in Nintendo's marketshare.

But there's nothing useful in it for MS in handhelds. It's hugely profitable (it's what essentially keeps Nintendo afloat), but it doesn't mean anything to MS because they don't see it as a threat.

[Drake Tungsten]

Seriously, read Opening the Xbox. It's an objective book about how the Xbox came to be, including all of the bickering that went on between all the divisions and who made what decisions.

Oh, I'll run right out and get that.

I waste enough time on Poly as it is; I don't need to waste even more time reading some MS stroke book. Why don't you find some internet sources, ok?

[Asher]

I waste enough time on Poly as it is; I don't need to waste even more time reading some MS stroke book. Why don't you find some internet sources, ok?

It's NOT an MS stroke book.

If anything it portrays MS as a disorganized chaotic company with all of the divisions wanting different things, and the execs as indecisive.

But that's okay, Drake, dismiss it without even looking into it because it would completely and utterly shoot down your point which doesn't even make sense logically.

PS: The Xbox was originally known as Project Midway internally. That came out in the book, doncha know. I don't think an MS stroke book would tell people about that.

[TCO]

What is BSD? Blue Screen Death?

[Drake Tungsten]

and utterly shoot down your point which doesn't even make sense logically.

How exactly is my point not logical, Fez?

1. Microsoft wants to make money
2. Microsoft sees lucrative gaming industry
3. Microsoft moves into gaming industry to make money

How is that illogical?

[Asher]

Originally posted by GP
What is BSD? Blue Screen Death?

Berkeley Systems Distribution is what it stands for (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc)

Very ancient but still very modern OS similar to Linux, but much better.

IMHO, BSD is the best server OS out there.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
Prices haven't changed on consumer Windows OSes in many years, people really need to realize that the reason Windows is in a monopoly position on the consumer PC is because consumers want Windows.

LMAO!

Is that why all these consumers have filed all sorts of class-action suits because they want Windows?

Oh, do you know that MS is trying to settle the one in California for $1.1b? Which means, of course, MS has gyped them for a whole lot more than that.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
How exactly is my point not logical, Fez?

1. Microsoft wants to make money
2. Microsoft sees lucrative gaming industry
3. Microsoft moves into gaming industry to make money

How is that illogical?

is right...

1. MS has lost billions of dollars on the Xbox so far and has yet to break even
2. At the earliest it will turn a quarterly profit in late 2004/2005, at the END of the cycle, and still results in billions of dollars of losses

In what area there do you see them MAKING tons of money???

That's why it's illogical.

If MS was about making money more than it was dominating marketshare it wouldn't have taken such huge losses on the hardware!

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
LMAO!

Is that why all these consumers have filed all sorts of class-action suits because they want Windows?

Because they're greedy bastards who want money back?

Just because people filed lawsuits doesn't mean a damn thing, Urban, you know better than that...

Oh, do you know that MS is trying to settle the one in California for $1.1b? Which means, of course, MS has gyped them for a whole lot more than that.

MS did settle that one. Where have you been?

And it doesn't mean that MS gyped them for $1.1B. Do you understand the legal system and what it means to settle something, Urban?

The $1.1B is in vouchers, mostly for Microsoft products, by the way.

[DanS]

Have to agree with Drake here, Asher. If any market is worthwhile to block, it would be MS's OS market. But you've got to think you'll make a good profit doing it, in the context of your whole product line, in order to do it.

An Xboy might not complement their other products like the XBox does. Remember, a PC and an XBox are nearly identical.