Tag Archives | Microsoft

Several folks have contacted me to let me know of the change to the EULA and Ken Levy’s statements at various conferences. Thanks, folks.

Ken Levy’s words are not Microsoft’s contracts, and Microsoft (and all software vendors) ought to have their licenses available for inspection. Thanks to my friends and readers, I’m better informed (as will others who might Google this post), but public viewing of licenses ought to be standard practice.

In a recent column, Ed Foster asked, “Would software licensing terms be any less nasty if we could read them before we made our purchase decision? It’s an interesting question, and one I think is going to be answered in the not-so-distant future.”

2004: A year of high-tech changes. “The year 2004 defied predictions: IBM sold its PC arm to a Chinese competitor, Oracle managed to swallow PeopleSoft, and — perhaps the most dramatic of all — Microsoft and Sun Microsystems aligned to make their products interoperate.” Source: InfoWorld: Top News. So begins the end of the year summaries, flashbacks and punditries. Brace yourself for two weeks of reviews.

In one of his high-flying and far-ranging columns, Cringely offers his theory for the strategies and tactics of IBM’s move to sell its PC business to Lenova, Microsoft’s plans for xBox2 (is it true you need to develop the games on a G5-based Mac?), why Sun and Apple don’t matter, and how Microsoft will take over the world:

With its continual need for more revenue, Microsoft will by then have already finished its destruction of the world software market, will have sucked all the profit out of the world hardware market, and will discard its hardware OEMs like HP and Dell and compete with them head-to-head.

Sometimes insightful, sometimes delusional, Cringely is always worth a quick read. And a large grain of salt.