On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 08:44:14AM -0700, David Kaplan wrote: > Ken points out that Best Buy, Office Depot and others are lying to people > about Linux so they only think to buy Windows 7.
Linux is not a revenue opportunity for the stores. Of COURSE they will only sell Windows. Just like Computer City, or CompUsa, or PC Club, or Good Guys, or ... (your favorite defunct computer store here). Do you see a trend, here? Microsoft revenue was down 23% last quarter. That means less money to peddle their nonsense. Layoffs. Fear. Which will lower next quarter's revenue even more. I don't think they are smart enough to downsize while retaining their lock on the minds of their users, with massive advertising and bribes to politicians. Death spiral. Is the trend becoming clear yet? The recession is not over - in fact, it is just getting started. August unemployment was reported as the highest in 24 years. Meanwhile, garden seed sales are at an all time high. Best Buy and Office Depot may not be here in two years. What "they think" will not matter. Meanwhile, our friends and neighbors will no longer be able to afford the "my PC has a virus, buy a new one" yearly cycle. They will be volunteering at Free Geek to get repair parts for their current machines. The Windows licensing model does not support that. People will learn to maintain their computers themselves. Easy with Linux, almost impossible with Windows. Smart people will stop looking for easy, and start looking for empowerment. Windows is entertainment. Linux is a survival tool. Linux is as easy as it needs to be. It can and should be easier, and some of us are working on that. Mostly Linux should be more empowering, providing survival capabilities to people who can't afford retail. Since geeks need to survive, too, we are more likely to develop and provide open and adaptable solutions than the proprietary folk. And if we keep our eyes open, we are more likely to find survivable niches when the money appears to be gone. If we want Linux to dominate in the future, we should stop trying to emulate dancing paper clips and learn how code, document, teach, run a business, and most of all listen. A new world is coming. I don't think it will have a place for a Microsoft monopoly. Whether it has a place for computation depends on us. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom [email protected] Voice (503)-520-1993 KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
