Amazon: Linux saved us millions

[Gordon Keegan]

Microsoft is where it is today because they
fanatically played on two key elements: 1> people are
lazy, and 2> pc distributors wanted to earn a profit.

Bill knew that people were very intimidated by pc's
and that if they could just get it setup and ready
to go instead of having to spend days or weeks getting
everything right, they would much rather do that.

He also knew that he could force pc distributors to
preinstall only windows by charging them $10 or $15
per copy if windows was the _only_ os they offered.
If a distributor preinstalled other os's, suddenly
windows was costing them $100 per copy.  They figured
out quick which side their bread was buttered on.

To a lesser extent, Bill has used the Crack Dealer
strategy (I hope I'm not offending any crack dealers)
by giving out your first copy for next to nothing and
then charging arms and legs for upgrades and other
support "services".

With XP's licensing/registration/hardware-id scheme,
I think people will finally be motiviated to look
elsewhere.


Gordon
"I went to my happy place and found that it had been
carpet bombed."  Anonymous

> Maybe Windows is where it is because they actually
> turn out decent products for the target that they're
> intended to. Maybe Bill Gates is a smart business
> guy. Maybe Microsoft is where it is by some
blatantly
> illegal activities that a government was too slow to
> see. Maybe Microsoft is where it is because UNIX
> splintered, leading to proprietary software running
> on proprietary hardware. 
> 
> It beats: "this whole condition is a reality fart of
> cosmic proportions."
> 
> Steve

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