by r.e.ballar » Fri, 10 Sep 2004 22:04:56
XXXX@XXXXX.COM (phoung quoak) wrote in message news:< XXXX@XXXXX.COM >...
Micrososft has engaged in criminal acts to prevent competitors from
entering the market: http://biz.yahoo.com/msft/
http://biz.yahoo.com/msft/p15.html
Take a good look at any substantial http log (the record of every
visitor to a site) -- you will find numerous hits from "X11", or
"X11/*nix", or "Kommander/KDE". Many Linux applications also work on
UNIX, and vice-versa. If you can make the case that there are 20
times more UNIX WORKSTATIONS than Linux workstations, then we can
adjust the scoring, but right now the current indicators show that
Linux workstations outnumber UNIX workstations by about 20 to 1.
Still, let's assume that only 90% of the "other" catagory is Linux
systems - that puts Linux at 7% of the market.
That's roughly 70 million IP Addresses that use Linux as their primary
operating system. And this represents an increase of 50 million
identifiable IP addresses in the last year. That's almost as many
licenses as Microsoft will sell this year.
There are a number of ways to doctor the numbers. You can measure
hits, but if you count the effects of ActiveX controls (which can
triple the number of hits for a single page), that will skew the
survey in Microsoft's favor. If you count IP addresses, you have to
adjust for DHCP addresses (MSN, AOL, and other "IE Only" ISPs) vs NAT
firewalls (used by most Linux-friendly ISPs).
You can compare license fees, but the average license price for Linux
is about 1/10th the price of Windows, and many distributions can be
downloaded for free and burned into multiple CD-ROMS or DVDs.
Actually, we've been following Linux surveys for years, and have been
able to study the different ways of tweaking the numbers. We've also
watched Microsoft apply pressure against surveys which show Linux
favorably, including Gartner, Forrester, DataQuest, and IDC. Given
that these companies depend heavily on information from Microsoft for
most of their $5,000/repart surveys, they don't dare upset Microsoft
too much.
At the same time, you can compare different surveys and related
statistics and see that Linux user base doubles every 6-10 months.
The average annual growth is over 100% (double), and often exceeds
200% (triple). These are based on revenue and license statistics from
vendors.
From the DOJ/Antitrust Findings of fact:
http://biz.yahoo.com/msft/p22.html
<quote>
248. In September 1996, Microsoft announced the availability of the
"Internet Explorer Access Kit," or "IEAK." By simply accessing the
correct page on Microsoft's Web site and clicking on a box to indicate
agreement with the license terms, any IAP could download the IEAK,
which included a copy of Internet Explorer. With their technical
knowledge, sophisticated equipment, and high-bandwidth connections,
IAPs found it very convenient to download Internet Explorer and the
IEAK from Microsoft's Web site.
249. Using the IEAK, an IAP could create a distinctive identity for
its service in as little as a few hours by customizing the title bar,
icon, start and search pages, and "favorites" in Internet Explorer.
The IEAK also made the installation process easy for IAPs. With the
IEAK, IAPs could avoid piecemeal installation of various programs and
instead create an automated, comprehensive installation package in
which all settings and options were pre-configured. In addition to
ease o