Facing Free Software, Microsoft Looks to Yahoo

[acmavm]

By MATT RICHTEL
Published: February 9, 2008

<snip>


SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly a quarter-century ago, the mantra “information wants to be free” heralded an era in which news, entertainment and personal communications would flow at no charge over the Internet.

Now comes a new rallying cry: software wants to be free. Or, as the tech insiders say, it wants to be “zero dollar.”

A growing number of consumers are paying just that — nothing. This is the Internet’s latest phase: people using freely distributed applications, from e-mail and word processing programs to spreadsheets, games and financial management tools. They run on distant, massive and shared data centers, and users of the services pay with their attention to ads, not cash.

While such services have been emerging for years, their rapid adoption has been an important but largely overlooked driver of the $44.6 billion hostile bid that Microsoft made to take over Yahoo this week.

<snip>
For his English class last semester, he wrote a term paper about William Blake using Google’s free word processing software, even though Microsoft Office had come loaded on his personal computer.

The advantage of the Google program, he said, was that it allowed him to keep his information on Google’s servers so that it was accessible at any computer, whether he was working at his fraternity, a coffee shop, a campus computer bank or the library. The experience, he said, has persuaded him not to pay money for software.

-MORE-

edit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/technology/09free.html?th&emc=th

[Benhurst]

1. Thanks for the link.

[acmavm]

2. I always forget that part.

[Deja Q]

3. Internet apps and the ilk - seems ripe for malware and ID theft.

It's an asinine idea.

I'll keep my computer and my hard drive; using google's sytem - in theory - they could look at what they want and "innovate" like everyone else does.

I will be nobody's QC department. Therefore I'm nobody's R&D department too.

And all I do is graphic design, ad design, photography, and novel writing. :crazy:

[Greyhound]

6. Are you writing these replies with a M$ operating system? Using IE for your browser?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then you are, in fact, not only serving as their QC & R & D, but you've seriously overpaid them for the privilege.

Before the reign of M$, software developers had to write, compile, alpha and beta test software before release. These were well paid jobs, filled by smart people with families that contributed to the economy. Now we have click and drag script kiddies that only know how to use tools, and nothing about programming, that produces bloated kludge-ware that is knowingly released before it works and sold to people for outrageous prices who, in turn, then get to do the beta testing for the corporation and wait for months with a license to software that doesn't work until the inevitable patches are released.

If you're really concerned about ID theft, how about holding companies responsible for failing to secure all the data they so eagerly collect about us. If your identity is stolen, it is far more likely to be had from a server that has yours and thousands/millions of others records, not individual internet transactions.

[bean fidhleir]

4. Some people are truly unclear on the concept

They've grown up (if that's the term I want) swilling down the corporate koolaid to the extent that they can't even see corporations for the self-interested, utterly amoral entities they are.

They're the first to scream, though, the moment said corporation runs true to form and screws them.

[Fleshdancer]

5. I honestly don't see how Yahoo is worth $44.6B

I also don't see how buying Yahoo is going to realistically allow Microsoft to compete and win against Google.