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If MS Never Existed  (View post)

Rob [PersonRank 0]

Thursday, October 13, 2005
18 years ago

What, no open source without Microsoft?

Ichiro [PersonRank 0]

18 years ago #

If MS never existed I think we would be worse off. As much as they bully the compeitition, their ability to take something as simple as a GUI and successfully mass market it in a way that neither Apple nor any other company has ever done has unquestionably been a boon to the IT world.

MS's marketing success with Office has also been a huge addition to not only the IT world but to us poor college students who need a word processor with world class features.

I look at MS kind of like Walmart. Yes, they are stifling innovation to a point, and they are driving smaller (competing) businesses out but they make it easy for the average consumer to have access to good products.

By bundling programs like Windows Media, Fax, Word processing, calculator, internet access, the average joe can get setup to the internet (and listen to his mp3 collection simultaneously) in minutes.

I have tried using Mandrake Linux and I could not get it to work at all. I wish it were easy to use and setup like Win XP or 98 but it isn't. The average person does not know how to use these OS and I am pretty average.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

18 years ago #

> MS’s marketing success with Office has
> also been a huge addition to not only
> the IT world but to us poor college
> students who need a word processor
> with world class features.

Hmm, aren't poor college students better off getting a *free* Office suite like Open Office, than the MS one?

dxOne [PersonRank 1]

18 years ago #

theres sth like Microsoft Agil-something Academy for colleges and if school is member, students can have lot of MS products for free(includeing WinXp, Server OS, Visual Stydio etc). in Poland students, teachers can have Office for like 40% of OEM price.

i totally agree with Ichiro. MS is comapany which bring computers to home users. *nix systems didn't have easy setups, intructions, user friendly UI, wizards and ads. i'm not saying that MS did the best home os ever, but hey DID it. "basic skilled" user can buy it, install and configure for multimedia and intenet. they put all things people need on one plate, serve it in nice package and look when we eating so we don't choke.

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