Comments on: Microsoft: It's a scary world out there without us

Microsoft wants to make consumers fear to try the Mac, arguing that choice is expensive.

[ppgreat]

The really frightening thing about Mr. Brooks is the amount of product he's putting in his hair. :)

But seriously, MS is making a lot of noise lately against a company that has a slim share of the market in comparison. Their business model is set up to maintain their monopoly. They have no impetus to truly innovate, as much as they love to throw the word around.

Their reputation as a clueless monopolist who makes bloated software in a vacuum is well earned.

[ClarkWells]

- PPGREAT -

At least he has hair...... **Cough cough Steve Jobs cough cough.**

[RDWNUR]

I'm glad to see that I was not alone in finding Mr. Brooks' argument without substance. As I read his comments I couldn't help but suspect desperation. It is reminiscent of hearing one who is hopelessly caught in a lie, backed into a corner and just throwing out whatever comes to mind. What is most troubling to me is the simple fact that MS has the resources to move in the right direction but persists with their campaign of misinformation rather than improving their offering. I guess some things may never change. For the time being, I and others remain perfectly content to pay a small premium for the better experience that comes with using a Mac. I suspect Apple knows all too well that they will never win over the bargain hunters. Maybe they look at it the same way I do about my own business. If someone is willing to exhaust themselves trying to serve that portion of the market then I salute and thank them.

[Ian Kirkland]

Nicolae Ceausescu sounded much like this on his balcony in Bucharest just before the end!

[johnwest72]

*** SHUT UP ALREADY! ***

You'd be banned from any other forums for being a troll. That you actually get to write such off-topic, biased garbage at all is amazing. I've posted about you several times, but I've tried to keep it pointed, and yet respectful. I'm losing my ability to garner any more respect for you.

I'm sorry that Sharepoint is beating your Alfresco-The-Open-Source-Product-I'm-VP-Of. But stop using a position Cnet gave you regarding open source to bash your competitor nonstop!

Monopoly tax??? Let's seee... um, people can choose Linux for free if they want. They can choose Apple if they want. The fact that Microsoft charges anything at all just irks you to no end. Me, I'm glad capitalism still exists, where people get paid to create products. All you can do is bash Microsoft, without realizing that no one else can make a desktop that can run on millions and millions of computers of all different types and sizes with a consistency that would be unimaginable if it was so taken for granted. Sure, they have their issues because of all this legacy support they have to keep within their product, but they should still be respected.

Matt, find a blog that's meant to be biased, and set up roost there. Stop using your "Open Road" blog to continue to rant and rave about your competitor.

John

[jrepenning]

If a "troll" is someone who says things just to cause controversy, there must be a word for someone who reads blogs just because they know they'll disagree with them, right? I just can't think of the word ....

[protagonistic]

You really are clueless, aren't you? From the moment I switched to a Mac five years ago the savings in not having to pay the Microsoft tax have continued to add up. How you might ask? (well you would if you weren't clueless).

1. I have not had to spend as much upgrading my system. In fact I managed to skip what would have been a new system purchase as my present system works great with Leopard. Vista would have required enough hardware updates to make a new computer the more economical path with Windows.

2. Since Windows does not come with the software that I would need for audio/video editing I would have had to buy that. That software came as part of the package with my Mac.

3. And the biggest savings of all is that I have spent less time fixing problems with OS X in five years than I typically did with Windows in a month. Maybe your time is worth nothing, but mine is valuable to me.

[odubtaig]

Funny, on a page of 10 posts I see one negative post about MS, one positive post about MS (and Viacom) and a lot of open source stuff.

You're outlandish exaggeration exaggeration asides, this is not your personal space and you don't need to be here so if it offends you so much then leave.

"Me, I'm glad capitalism still exists, where people get paid to create products."

Ah, you're one of those 'Linux is Communism' idealogue whack-jobs completely ignoring that millions of people are paid to work on F/OSS software and that capitalism requires competition, not Soviet State style monopolies.

Of course, for those dependent on the MS ecosystem I guess it's grating to face to possibility of having to actually compete instead of gently coasting on a placid lake of vendor lock-in with the oars pulled in.

[andrewrm]

Why is MS spending all this money? They have such a huge market share that many people aren't going to bother to "make the switch" based on many issues. However Mac needs to be around as a viable platform if for nothing else to keep MS on its toes and keep on inovating regardless if it is copying Mac or not.

[kelmon]

To be honest, there is an Apple Tax associated with switching from Windows to the Mac (if you don't already have a Windows computer then this whole conversation is moot) but that doesn't mean it isn't worth paying. That people are switching in increasing numbers (and I'd love to see stats on the numbers switching back) should be worrying to Microsoft and should be countered with good products rather than FUD.

Of course, we all expect Microsoft to say this. When respected independents come to the same conclusion then that is the time to sit up and take notice.

[Republic512]

"It's called a free market, and costs inevitably fall in truly free markets."

LvM!

[jjbraunius]

I've been running on the scary alternative ( OS X) for 3 years and couldn't be more happier. For work I fix Windows machines but for home when I want something that just works - I stay with Apple.

Recently I also tried Ubuntu and Xandros (Linux distros) and both worked out of the box - Linux is also making a huge headway on the desktop so the alternatives have never looked better, especially with Vista being such a dud.

[mavalos88]

LOL
Linux is making a huge headway on the desktop? LOLOLOLOL

I want to see someone with no computer knowledge try to use Ubuntu without giving up after 1 minute...

[odubtaig]

I had my superbly cumputer illiterate dad on SuSE a couple of years back, the only problem was the support for the slightly obscure printer (and I don't have to live with that forever). Retraining him on Windows was an eXPerience; I swear I didn't even know it was possible to split a table row across two lines in Word and separate it from the rest of the table... damned vendor lock-in.

[Get_Bent]

And then there's the Microsoft tax, as in taxing my patience with all these $#@%& patches and bug fixes every month!

[protagonistic]

Well, to be completely fair OS X has a lot of patches and bug fixes as well, but at least they don't normally bring the system to its knees when you happen to get bit by one. :-)

[Dalkorian]

Linux has patches too. It's because software is written by these eternally flawed creatures called "people". The difference is in how vulnerable you are with each system. both before and after patching (and of course whether or not the patches work to begin with). There's a reason people started calling the newest M$ offering "fista".