Re: HBS WK: Who will win Microsoft or Linux?

Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
> "Anderson, Kelly" <[email protected]> writes:
> 
> You say this:
> 
> 
>>How does it benefit Microsoft to have a lot of poor people using it's
>>systems? They make the argument that it does, but I just don't get that
>>one.
> 
> 
> And then you say this:
> 
> 
>>The thing that makes or breaks a particular operating system is how many
>>applications run on it.
> 
> 
> So you've answered your own question: MS benefits by having poor
> people use its OS because that tends to lead to having more
> applications run on it.

I don't think that poor people increase the number of applications
running on it.  Where they do count is in the "network effects" column,
meaning that they create and consume content in the standard MS file
formats, gain expertise using MS systems, and so generally contribute to
the success of the platform.  They may not be paying money to MS, but
then again, if they didn't have much in the first place, better to at
least get them hooked on the file formats/user experience than have them
 forced off to some alternative platform such as Linux.... right?

-- 
David N. Welton
- http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/

Apache, Linux, Tcl Consulting
- http://www.dedasys.com/