Alternate operating systems

[MICHAEL]

* The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly Known as Nina DiBoy':

Sure it costs more, JJ. MS is a business and needs to deal with
inflation just like the rest of us. Besides, they haven't fed this cash
cow (desktop Oses) in 5 to 6 yrs. They want to make up for time not
bringing in money.

Microsoft was "brining in money" regardless. They recouped the money
spent on XP a long time ago, and only needed to spend money on
maintaining XP (updates and service packs), and of course, the development
of Vista. The Client (Windows), Server, and Business (Office) divisions of Microsoft,
made about .60 cents for every $1.00 in revenue. That's incredible.
Windows and Office make about .75 cents for every $1.00... that's phenomenal.
These ratios have been rather steady throughout the years.

The two things that drag them down, Entertainment and Devices Division and
Online Services Business. Although, the E&D Division actually made a little bit
of money last quarter (thanks to Halo 3). Their online services lost them about
$264 million last quarter. Of course, Corporate-Level Activity (lawyers and lawsuits)
cost them over a billion last quarter. Overall, their profit as a percentage of
revenue was about 42% last quarter.... amazing. Historically, they average
over 30%. However one looks at it, Microsoft makes a ton of money.

In comparison, last quarter- Microsoft earned more than Apple had
in total revenue. Apple's profit as % of revenue was about 20% last quarter.
Last year it was around 10%.

http://money.cnn.com/quote/financials/financials.html?symb=MSFT
http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY08/earn_rel_q1_08.mspx#Balance
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/114.html
http://money.cnn.com/quote/financials/financials.html?symb=AAPL


-Michael

 

[The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly]

* The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly Known as Nina DiBoy':


Microsoft was "brining in money" regardless. They recouped the money
spent on XP a long time ago, and only needed to spend money on
maintaining XP (updates and service packs), and of course, the development
of Vista. The Client (Windows), Server, and Business (Office) divisions of Microsoft,
made about .60 cents for every $1.00 in revenue. That's incredible.
Windows and Office make about .75 cents for every $1.00... that's phenomenal.
These ratios have been rather steady throughout the years.

The two things that drag them down, Entertainment and Devices Division and
Online Services Business. Although, the E&D Division actually made a little bit
of money last quarter (thanks to Halo 3). Their online services lost them about
$264 million last quarter. Of course, Corporate-Level Activity (lawyers and lawsuits)
cost them over a billion last quarter. Overall, their profit as a percentage of
revenue was about 42% last quarter.... amazing. Historically, they average
over 30%. However one looks at it, Microsoft makes a ton of money.

In comparison, last quarter- Microsoft earned more than Apple had
in total revenue. Apple's profit as % of revenue was about 20% last quarter.
Last year it was around 10%.

http://money.cnn.com/quote/financials/financials.html?symb=MSFT
http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY08/earn_rel_q1_08.mspx#Balance
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/114.html
http://money.cnn.com/quote/financials/financials.html?symb=AAPL


-Michael

Hi Michael.

There is no question to what you say. I was just pointing out that MS
hadn't been milking the OS cash cow as much as they could, so in their
mentality, why not milk the unsuspecting public for Vista to make up for
it a bit.

The online services part doesn't surprise me either. They are digging
themselves in deeper and deeper trying to complete with the likes of
Google and Yahoo.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

"Fair use is not merely a nice concept--it is a federal law based on
free speech rights under the First Amendment and is a cornerstone of the
creativity and innovation that is a hallmark of this country. Consumer
rights in the digital age are not frivolous."
- Maura Corbett

 

[NT Canuck]

However one looks at it, Microsoft makes a ton of money.

MS is number 3 firm in usa, exxon oil is number 1, iirc

not that I can find the worst firms (.gov included)

Should be a seperation somewhere for MS branches
as in windows, xbox, games, etc

 

[rgs]

Well, truthfully, I doubt MS's recent announcement will be taken seriously
by the fanti-boi's.

I'm having fun tonight reading through Apple's Leopard discussion forum.
Gosh, too funny! The same kinda complaints as when Vista first shipped.

"My dock is sluggish." "Wait for indexing to complete."

"I got so far in the upgrade and now I've been staring at a blue screen for
30 minutes. How long should I wait?" (Too many answers to generalize an
answer here...)

And... I am -not- casting aspersions on Apple or Leopard. I hope to have my
own mac mini before the new year. With Leopard. It just cracks me up that
folks get -so- bent out of shape about an OS, whether it be Vista or Ubuntu
or OS X or something else. They're just OSes.

Lang

Apple is pretty cheap too!

When I tried to install Leopard, it locked up my machine and I couldn't get
to the desktop. After calling the support center and doing a hard boot from
the DVD, I got it to install, only to have my computer lock up again the next
day.

Subsequent attempts to reinstall Leopard failed and the error messages
indicated that I had damaged my hard drive (around the 9gb area). I finally
repartitioned my hard drive to drop the first 10gb and was able to reinstall
my original Panther (10.3) operating system.

Now the bad news - since I "opened the package" Apple refuses to take it
back and reimburse me.

Leopard does NOT work with the IBOOK, and should never be sold as an upgrade
for a machine that cannot use it. And shame on the company that won't accept
the blame when their product is not compatible as advertised.

 

[dennis@home]

Apple is pretty cheap too!

When I tried to install Leopard, it locked up my machine and I couldn't
get
to the desktop. After calling the support center and doing a hard boot
from
the DVD, I got it to install, only to have my computer lock up again the
next
day.

Subsequent attempts to reinstall Leopard failed and the error messages
indicated that I had damaged my hard drive (around the 9gb area). I
finally
repartitioned my hard drive to drop the first 10gb and was able to
reinstall
my original Panther (10.3) operating system.

Its virtually impossible to damage your hard drive using software.
You can't even do a real format using the common stuff.

If you have a disk that is failing SMART should pick it up (Macs do support
SMART these days don't they?).
You should scrap the disk if it is growing defects as it will fail and
probably at an inconvenient time.

Now the bad news - since I "opened the package" Apple refuses to take it
back and reimburse me.

Leopard does NOT work with the IBOOK, and should never be sold as an
upgrade
for a machine that cannot use it. And shame on the company that won't
accept
the blame when their product is not compatible as advertised.

What do you expect from a company that deliberately adds code to prevent the
OS running on models it doesn't want to bother with?
Its not that the OS won't run on the machines, its just that Apple don't
feel the need to support them when the user can buy a nice new Mac from
them. It does run on some iBooks according to the net.