[Sussex] Re: Kylix and now PHP!

[john]

Which was the exact same point that I was trying to make Steve. M$ try to hold 
on to the grossly inflated prices irrespective of how much they sell, though 
every now and again, when they think that a big enough part of their market 
is threatened then they go some way to appease the growing number of 
refusnik's with some goodies i.e. the freebies brought about by the last 
round of restrictive licencing.

I also feel that your  last paragraph has hit the nail on the head and IMO the 
only way to make them change their ways is the same as experienced by 
Macdonalds and the reasons for changing their menu - loss of revenue. It's 
about the only thing that major corporations understand!



On Friday 06 Jun 2003 8:33 am, Steve Dobson wrote:
On 06 June 2003 at 00:28 john wrote:
<snip>
The "more you sell, the cheaper it gets" attitude often found
in business does not seem to apply, when it comes to software
of a proprietary nature (especially when the proprietor is M$),
but about nailing you down and screwing the last drips of cash
 that they can manage.

 I've snipped down to the one bit of you posting were I disagree
 enough to post myself.  I think M$ is no different to any other
 super-corp. with a monopoly.  IBM where much the same back in the
 '60s (or so I'm told).  One only has to look to the price fixing,
 and other illegal activities that cartels go in for from time to
 time to see that M$ is not the only one to use such tactics.

 M$ would be a much more customer friendly organisation if there
 was good competition.  It couldn't pull of licensing stuns in the
 ways it has or is customers would move over.  At the moment
 Linux is not perceived as ready or the flood would have started.
 I've got the feeling that the actual readiness is not the issue,
 but the perceived readiness that matters.



regards

John