On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 5:01 PM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 7:20 PM, Steven Peck <[email protected]> wrote: > >> It's an effective business strategy. Although it tends to piss > >> people off ... > > > > Yes, but it's not like Microsoft doesn't do this for no reason. They > > acquire technologies and often incorporate them into existing or expanded > > versions of product lines to customer benefit. > > And they often don't. Case in point, I believe they have > discontinued the Mac Virtual PC product. > > Or, I had a client who was heavily invested into Great Plains on > NetWare. Microsoft bought GP and overnight announced they were > dropping non-Windows support. Client was not pleased. > > Or, they used to offer IE for non-Windows platforms, for free, until > they achieved browser dominance and then lost interest in competition. > > And so on. I don't find GOOG's record to be any better than MSFT's, > but it's not like MSFT is everyone's best friend either. > Of course not, but when Microsoft does it, it doesn't really come as a surprise. > > Google does this too but their marketing feel is currently one of 'free > > offerings forever' which doesn't actually match their published words. > > That strikes me as a rather vague and supposing accusation. > It is true. > It's certainly the case that GOOG buys products and companies and > integrates and axes as they see fit for their business strategy. Some > things are free, some aren't; they change their prices as they see fit > for themselves. GOOG hasn't proven much different than any other > major company in this regard. "Don't be evil" is a rather elastic > motto, it would appear. > > > My point is there used to be a lot of celebration in some Open Source communities not to long ago when Google bought something because people thought it would become more available. I never thought that but there often was a lot of chatter/excitement over it. Google earned a lot of buzz/hype from effective marketing too. Unfortunatly some things didn't work out, got defunded, project ended, business desires/realities set in. I don't say Google is evil in this, merely that amoung some communities it seems to hit harder after their product falls and I don't think they were ever what various people assumed them to be. That's all. Steven Peck http://www.blkmtn.org ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
