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Re: [PLUG] Fwd: CG: Windows XP warning
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> I guess the main factor is that there are competing hardware manufacturers.
MS doesn't make hardware so they don't make it any cheaper.
> But, what good is hardware without an operating system? The public has chosen (if that is the correct word) for the most part to use Windows. As more people buy Windows, more
Programs can run without an os. In the bad old days most oses were just
launching pads for programs.
> hardware is needed to run it. The competition to be the hardware supplier to fill the demand for PCs helps to drive prices down. As a result, that hardware can be purchased by Linux
> users at a lower cost, because Linux can run on hardware meant for Windows.
MS didn't start this competition.
> If special hardware is needed to run Linux, how much would it cost? Again, look at Sun, Apple, and old IBM.
They make the OS, they make the hardware; It isn't cheap. Now that many
MS didn't choose which hardware to run linux on. Again the effect is
assumed to be the cause here.
> companies make hardware that many OSes can run on, prices are lower.
> The competition also makes the OSes better.
Also, there are new technologies. Also, I'm starting to sound like a
broken record here, but a few companies made BETTER hardware, cheaper and
they went out of business. So by standardizing on MS, many features that
people who used the amiga took for granted (multimedia and a decent gui)
are finally coming to people in the i386 world. So I argue that if MS had
been any factor at all, it has been detrimental. Remember that apple,
atari, and commodore were competing with _each other_ was much as the ibm
based systems were competing with each other. So, I don't see why MS has
anything to do with this.
> If the world had only Linux,
> I hate to say it, but it would suck for the reasons mentioned above.
This presents a classic false dilema. A world in which we only had linux
and the one presented above. Then it draws conclusions based upon that
(impossible) world, which are not surprisingly bad. What people had
standardized on m68k? There were at least 3 oses which also ran on that
chip which many thinks is better. Also, linux runs on it. If there were
more oses which were accpeted then we wouldn't be stuck with .doc, which
is a nightmare even in the all MS world.
No, it would have been a much better world if MS went out of business. But
that didn't happen. Instead, it broke the law, which is why I said the
market wasn't efficient, it's impossible to have an efficient market when
people cheat. And inefficient markets hurt the consumer.
Fred
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