Topic: Microsoft faces a serious open-source press
radiorahim
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2777
posted 17 October 2005 01:48 AM
quote:If there's one thing I learned from my recent sojourn into the depths of Microsoft Corp.'s future vision, it's that the concept and popularity of open-source software has shaken Redmond to its core. Much of this new vision is the direct result of how Linux and open-source have galvanized the company's management team. This is why Microsoft has upped the feature ante on so many systems at once: to overwhelm customers with new technologies you simply can't get from open-source.
The upside is obvious. Flash as much glitz and glamour at customers from as many angles as possible, then implement the same selling tradition that has worked in the past: Interlink the sexiest features so that they bridge product lines. One product wants another, which wants another, and so on. Customers not only spend more; they become inexorably tied to Windows.