DoctorScooby's Journal: blah

So the plan was basically to "cut of the air supply" of free software by wooing the developers over to Apple's platform, where the sublims would quickly make them forget about freedom and all that crap. They'd whip up a small app and NOT release it under a free license. They wouldn't even think about it, because their mind would not be their own. It would "feel good" to put it under a proprietary license.

"Cutting off the air supply" would slow the development of Linux, which is good for Apple and Microsoft, and it would strengthen Apple, which is good for Apple and Microsoft, since MS realizes it won't get many people back from Linux due to their bad reputation, and the most important thing is to keep devs improving proprietary software rather than free software. Both MS and Apple believe that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Ballmer basically said to Jobs, "If every Linux developer buys a Mac and you jump to 20% marketshare, we'd still be happy. Because all we care about is killing free software. Microsoft and Apple have always worked together, and we always will work together."

Of course, you'd think that dropping IE for the Mac was an act of war, but Apple actually were the ones to suggest it - they knew they could take Konqueror's rendering engine from the open source idiots for free, and that would a) give them some street cred with Linux users; b) free up Microsoft's resources to work on Longhorn, which will KILL piracy once and for all; c) make the two companies look independent of each other and put the Linux community's minds at ease concerning Apple; d) allow MS to embed IE even deeper into Windows. It greatly benefits both parties, and does nothing but hurt Linux. But that was the goal, so well done, Steve.

The second part of the plan was for Microsoft to dramatically improve Windows with 2000 and XP, enough to staunch the blood flow of developers out of Microsoft and into Linux. Make XP "good enough" that people would stop migrating, except for servers, which is pretty tough to stop due to cost - but inherent difficulties and purposeful incompatibility would still dissuade most would-be switchers. They'll end up sticking with NT on their server, like the one I seem to have access to right now. The sysadmin (if you can call him that) has a load of Linux crap on his 98 box, but he'll never switch. He's too busy checking his stocks on the net all day. If I were his boss, I'd FIRE HIS ASS!

Oh, well, I'm done talking, and since nobody's listening anyway, who cares. Bye. Keep your mind safe, the big boys are after it.