"Adam Albright" <AA@ABC.net> wrote in message
news:6up544588gtj61go3tkposmsire7i4q4o0@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:27:39 -0500, Charlie Tame <charlie@tames.net>
> wrote:
>
>>Microsoft does need to recognize that Linux IS getting much more user
>>friendly, and is therefore a viable alternative for many of these older
>>machines that MS and the OEMs want us to replace with Vista machines.
>>They will not all get thrown away, and many that get "Salvaged" won't
>>have the OEM XP disks with them so when the OS breaks, there's a
>>perfectly usable free option. In some ways having the Vista specs too
>>high to run on them may be a bad thing for MS.
>
> What I don't get is why Microsoft seems so dead set on killing off XP.
> There's nothing wrong from a business standpoint of offering both...
> as a choice. People that just got to have the "latest and greatest"
> could go with Vista then buy some expensive hardware it needs to go
> with it, others wanting a new machine, but a basic no frills model
> could opt for XP. Sounds like a win, win to me.
>
> From where I sit one of the biggest problems Microsoft faces is
> Ballmer. He's not that well liked on the street (Wall street), he's
> lost tons of respect from institutional investors for screwing up the
> Yahoo deal and most smaller investors think he's a Bozo, and who can
> blame them?
>
> When you own stock in a Fortune 500 company and the CEO dances around
> on stage like he's having a bad LSD trip, why would you trust him to
> lead the company in the right direction? The guy doesn't even know how
> to close a deal for a much smaller company (Yahoo) which by now, if
> Microsoft really thinks they need it for the future could have started
> a hostile takeover bid and be well on the way to closing the deal. But
> no, instead Microsoft's stock continues to slowly slide South.
>
> If Microsoft wants to get some respect back, get rid of the Ballmer
> clown.

That would be a good start. But more will be needed. While you and I can
load Linux, most of the users out there would have problems loading XP from
Microsoft in that they would have to do their own XP integration to
downgrade. Which, makes them stuck in Vista. And if stuck in Vista and not
happy about it, waiting 2-3 years for Win 7 isn't going to do Microsoft any
good.

Microsoft should revitalise the driver sets for XP, and offer down grades
for $10 S&H.