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Dear Windows 7 Programmers, I Have a Few Ideas...

,----[ Quote ]
| Open-source software such as Linux is traditionally seen as the opposite of
| proprietary software from the likes of Microsoft and Apple. But that's a
| false dichotomy. Why can't Windows be proprietary, for-profit and
| copy-protected -- while at the same time be open for user control and
| inspection? If Windows were a car, you'd never be able to open the hood and
| see what was underneath.
|
| The software's "black boxness" was driven home for me once when XP was taking
| an excruciatingly long time to load, and even the best tech sleuths at
| Microsoft couldn't figure out the cause. Had I been able to look under cover,
| I might have seen, oh, that Windows was wasting 90 seconds looking for a
| nonexistent drive.
`----

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121252179249042275.html


Related:

Dear Mr. Gates: save Vista, open-source it

,----[ Quote ]
| Although Microsoft may claim otherwise, Vista, from both from a technical
| and business point of view, is proving to be a failure. Why not turn it
| over to people who have shown time after time that they can deliver
| the goods?
`----

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS2930812631.html


Windows is caught between Mac and Linux

,----[ Quote ]
| For the first time in ages, the sale of new PCs with Windows as a percentage
| of the PC market is declining sharply. The new winner is the Mac, but, while
| no one does a good job of tracking the still-new, pre-installed Linux desktop
| market, it's also clear that Linux is finally making impressive inroads into
| Windows' once unchallenged market share. Â* Â*
|
| [...]
|
| How Microsoft deals, or fails to deal, with this new challenge will determine
| if Windows continues to be the dominant desktop operating system. Distracted
| by its Yahoo buyout plans, its courtroom failures and its leadership changes,
| Microsoft is in trouble, and that means the other desktop operating systems
| have their best chance ever to knock Windows off the top of the desktop hill. Â* Â*
`----

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8541837412.html


Feeling the heat at Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that.
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http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat...tag=ne.fd.mnbc
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