From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

Good Lord the shock...

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/article.php/3662806

"For some time Microsoft has been showing signs that things aren’t
going well. Vista was late, and they had to delay it even more to ensure
that Dell was not unfairly advantaged. From Dell’s perspective, Dell was
penalized because they had a model that was more efficient than its
competitors and they believe that Microsoft contributed, with intent, to
them missing their quarter and having to both fire their CEO and bring the
founder back from retirement.

To suggest that Michael Dell is upset with Microsoft would be to vastly
understate the situation. Livid would probably be more accurate. And as we
rolled to the launch, Dell in particular was becoming more and more upset
that Microsoft was not listening to them and certainly not being responsive
to their needs.

When Vista arrived it was incomplete. Key parts remain missing, the
promised marketing plan doesn’t appear to be effective, and sales are not
meeting the requirements of the OEMs who were depending on it to
significantly drive up hardware sales. Microsoft lengthened the period of
time that Windows XP would be supported, against the OEMs’ wishes. "

"As a result, Dell, and other OEMs, now view Microsoft as a problem,
and increasingly a competitor they have to deal with, and each is trying to
come up with a way to do that individually. At some point I do expect them
to organize and address this issue in some kind group fashion. Until then
they appear to be trying to help create a competitor to Windows, and since
Apple won’t license, Linux, ready or not, is the next in line."

As usual though he can't help with the FUD:


"Linux isn’t really ready for the desktop. It isn’t better than
Windows it is simply different, and seems to morph between limited
easy-to-use client and non-compatible headache in large numbers. While it
is improving it doesn’t yet interoperate as well as the MacOS does in
Windows desktop environments."


Interesting semi-admission though...."It isn’t better than Windows it
is simply different".....it used to be "Windows all the way Linux
hasn't a hope etc.etc."

Adam

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