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It's good for you, and bad for a distributor...
We'll leave aside that Quickbooks Pro isn't Microsoft software and that it runs rather well under Crossover anyhow and concentrate on your real point. Many distributions do run non-FOSS and you ask, "Where is the harm?"

The harm is in a proprietary vendor saying, "Your offering of _______ is rather weak. Let us make _____ for you (the distributor)." They allow the distributor to become dependent on ________ to boost sales and when negotiating time comes around, the threat becomes "Do what we say or we will stop producing _________." The technique worked with Apple and Apple's shares and profits would rise and fall depending upon whether Microsoft agreed to continue producing Office for the Macintosh or not. Such manipulation is effective and should Microsoft be freed of their antitrust sanctions would require yet another Federal case to stop.

That's the danger in a nutshell. The Oracle alliance is worrisome enough. What pressure would an alliance with Microsoft, who is well known for such tactics, bring. A good guess would be the marginalization of Redhat; they can only grow as large as Microsoft wants them to.
Posted by: John Le'Brecage   Posted on: 05/10/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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In other news...  DebianDog | 05/10/05
Not shocking  Yagotta B. Kidding | 05/10/05
Well, they do have piracy in common.  Anton Philidor | 05/10/05
While..  vdraken | 05/10/05
Interesting.  doe_z | 05/10/05
They are really only trying to figure out how to fight this animal  DonnieBoy | 05/10/05
Bill Gates's explanation sounds plausible.  Anton Philidor | 05/10/05
but when msft speaks there's...  Arm A. Geddon | 05/10/05
Sounds like Microsoft is trying to find out more about this animal.  DonnieBoy | 05/10/05
A Microsoft-Red Hat warming trend?1  Loverock Davidson | 05/10/05
Microsoft is just gathering information for the attack.  DonnieBoy | 05/10/05
And who says  Michael Kelly | 05/10/05
True, Red Hat is no slouch, and MS knows they can't destroy the source.  DonnieBoy | 05/10/05
Another thing, RH does not want to throw the first stone at a sceaming  DonnieBoy | 05/10/05
I have no problems with that  Loverock Davidson | 05/10/05
The probem for Microsoft, there is no Linux to kill.  DonnieBoy | 05/10/05
I wouldn't be surprised ...  George Mitchell | 05/10/05
Let's think about this ...  Henaway | 05/10/05
John Lennon  Yagotta B. Kidding | 05/10/05
Good point  John Le'Brecage | 05/10/05
That will never happen  thetargos | 05/12/05
Quick!! Get Matthew Szulik to a doctor!!!  Xunil_Sierutuf | 05/10/05
Its Microsoft's new strategy ...  George Mitchell | 05/10/05
This could be good  nightshade0143 | 05/10/05
It's good for you, and bad for a distributor...  John Le'Brecage | 05/10/05
Sounds good for the user, too.  Anton Philidor | 05/10/05
I believe that's what I said....  John Le'Brecage | 05/10/05
Acknowledging a point...  Anton Philidor | 05/11/05
WMAD: all paranoia, all the time...  John Le'Brecage | 05/10/05
Right on John!  George Mitchell | 05/10/05
patents I do believe is the magic word!!  Arm A. Geddon | 05/10/05
How bout DRM and multimedia codecs  osreinstall | 05/10/05
Redhat needs to explain this  matrixdomain | 05/10/05
Ya done matrix, Great article from Fortune  Squawkbox | 05/10/05
there's more  matrixdomain | 05/10/05
year 2007  michael-t | 05/10/05
Analysis  ash_hooper@... | 05/10/05
Business is Business  jorwell | 05/10/05
Now how many of you had heart attack just over the headline  FilledOut | 05/11/05
Mike Cox is standing on the railing of a bridge somewhere  archerjoe | 05/11/05
their = there  archerjoe | 05/11/05

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