It's not long until the public stops tolerating Microsoft.

[some_random_noob]

Look at the "Microsoft" section at Digg - it's all anti-Microsoft. About their court case which failed, how they're anti-competitive, how they ram DRM down everyones throats and also how Windows is now updating itself even when the user has disabled automatic updates.

Looking for angry people? Look no further! --> http://www.digg.com/microsoft

Surprise surprise, people seem to be happy here --> http://www.digg.com/linux_unix

We're also winning here --> ideastorm (http://ideastorm.com)

... looks like Microsoft is losing people's faith very quickly now. They'll go downhill even more, just wait until Vista takes over - the amount of pissed off people will spike. People are merely pissed off at the thought of Vista's restrictions. Just wait until these restrictions get put in place once Vista replaces XP :lolflag:

I can't wait to see Dell's Ubuntu PCs selling worldwide. Everything will be sanitized! I encourage everyone reading this to sign up to Digg and Ideastorm - they're great ways to be heard. I'm signed up to both, but I don't really use them. Still good to have an account on those sites though.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To me it looks like the public's opinion is changing. I don't think that the public will tolerate Microsoft for much longer.

What do you think?

[Mr. T]

Digg is full of kids. Kids who enjoy ranting. Kids who are geeks. Same thing with Slashdot.

Such sites are not represantative of the wider community of people. As for me, I'll tolerate Microsoft because that's where the commercial software is.

[Midwest-Linux]

I am not anti Microsoft, but their misguided attempts to push Vista as the only OS will be their biggest mistake. I think the public doesn't care about MS anyway.

All they (the customers) want is a system that works, if they buy a new computer and find it is slow as spit, half their programs do not work...belive me the public will look elsewhere....and that will mean more to the Linux arena and of course Mac will be a winner from this.

It was said that the real reason why Vista came with a DRM laden system was to satisfy Hollywood and to play new protected media.

Huh? I thought the whole reason a company makes or produces something new is....., for their customers who expect their computers to work properly, or better than the last new release...not worse! If the product is not popular, does not run correctly the company will suffer in the long run.

[kulturloseramerikaner]

It was said that the real reason why Vista came with a DRM laden system was to satisfy Hollywood and to play new protected media.

Huh? I thought the whole reason a company makes or produces something new is....., for their customers who expect their computers to work properly, or better than the last new release...not worse! If the product is not popular, does not run correctly the company will suffer in the long run.
I totally agree with you on this one, but I think the REAL reason why they've been so gung-ho about DRM is that they've seen their primary rival successfully set themselves up as a content provider (think iTunes and song downloads.) They lost BIG on that one, they know it, and now they want to force Apple and other competition out and set themselves up as people's go-to content provider. What better way, than to get people used to the limitations DRM will impose on them now, then begin to offer one of the few sources that will play as intended on their computer? I bet you that within the next 1-2 years they will announce something like the iTunes store, and offer movies, music, etc, and to get the "premium" stuff will require a Vista PC.

[karellen]

Look at the "Microsoft" section at Digg - it's all anti-Microsoft. About their court case which failed, how they're anti-competitive, how they ram DRM down everyones throats and also how Windows is now updating itself even when the user has disabled automatic updates.

Looking for angry people? Look no further! --> http://www.digg.com/microsoft

Surprise surprise, people seem to be happy here --> http://www.digg.com/linux_unix

We're also winning here --> ideastorm (http://ideastorm.com)

... looks like Microsoft is losing people's faith very quickly now. They'll go downhill even more, just wait until Vista takes over - the amount of pissed off people will spike. People are merely pissed off at the thought of Vista's restrictions. Just wait until these restrictions get put in place once Vista replaces XP :lolflag:

I can't wait to see Dell's Ubuntu PCs selling worldwide. Everything will be sanitized! I encourage everyone reading this to sign up to Digg and Ideastorm - they're great ways to be heard. I'm signed up to both, but I don't really use them. Still good to have an account on those sites though.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To me it looks like the public's opinion is changing. I don't think that the public will tolerate Microsoft for much longer.

What do you think?

I'd like you to be right, but I'm afraid it's just a drop of water in an ocean. just take a look at their 2006-2007 revenues...and you'll realize how long it will be until the public really stops supporting/tolerating MS.

[Mr. T]

I'd like you to be right, but I'm afraid it's just a drop of water in an ocean. just take a look at their 2006-2007 revenues...and you'll realize how long it will be until the public really stops supporting/tolerating MS.
You know what I think it will take? A highly publicized (and I mean "mainstream news" publicized) stuff-up that has an effect on a lot of people and causes significant damage. The WGA failure a while back was probably the biggest so far, but they need to stuff up even more.

I don't know what it would take, but it's like anything really - it takes a major disaster before people get the hint and actually DO something in response.

[Warren Watts]

From the information I could gather fairly quickly online, there are roughly 700 million personal computers in use world wide. Of these, roughly 644 million (92%) of them are running some flavor of windows. Linux and Mac share the other 56 million computers, split more or less down the middle at roughly 28 million computers each.

This translates to 23 personal computers running windows for each computer running Linux or the Mac OS. If only 12% of those windows users are unhappy with microsoft, that translates to three unhappy microsoft users for each Linux user.

Due to microsoft's overwhelming user base, even if only 1 in 8 microsoft user is unhappy with microsoft, those unhappy users far outnumber Linux's entire user base.

So yes, you do see a large number of people unhappy with microsoft, but there are a large number of microsoft users!

[karellen]

hm....for me it seems quite ok 4% market share for Linux. other sources indicate even less...

[Warren Watts]

I was being generous. Even with an exaggerated figure for Linux use, microsoft still has the overwhelming share of the market.

[karellen]

I know....but probably this won't change in the near future. I don't care that much about market share, even 1% means in fact millions of linux users, and that's something thinking of all ms monopoly and practices. not talking about the (I hope past) reluctance of the oem to support linux