Guardian Technology today carries an interesting article by Glyn Moody
who I respect as a journalist, so I actually read it........
'Why falling Flash prices threaten Microsoft'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/06/opensource.olpc
Initially I had passed it by because on the face of it I saw nothing
interesting from the headline. But there is maybe a suggestion of most
unpredictable things to come, and the arguments lead finally to a
conclusion which gave a new slant some recent events.
The rise and rise of small cheap laptops of good quality is recognised
and discussed, along with the Belle of the Ball - Linux. The low, and
further reducing, prices of Flash memory set the scene for MS (and
others) having cause to be concerned about future income and profit
margins.
Moody points out that the MS move to buy Yahoo will be a cash drain
for MS at a time when all its markets are under great pressure with
reducing prices - OS and Office for example. This pressure looks like
it may continue. Mary-Lou Jepson (ex OLPC hardware chief) thinks a 75
dollar system is 'within reach'.
The conclusion is as follows:
'......... these systems will almost certainly be using open source,
but Jepsen doesn't see the zero price tag as its main advantage: "The
true and large value of free [software] is the ability to change and
customise it."
In other words, Microsoft could give away its software, and it still
couldn't compete with the truly open, customisable nature of free
code. It seems that the only way Microsoft can hope to get people
using its software on this new class of low-cost, ultraportable
machines is by going fully open source itself.'
I read that with some surprise, and recalled that I had recently read
about how MS was offering trust and cuddles to some, and also I had
read about Singularity too. The licence is nowhere near GPL, and the
words leopard and spots come to mind.
However, Moody's conclusion echoes.
--
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391
