They can see when somebody doesn't like something. Maybe 10,000 people uninstalled AbiWord because it doesn't do tables. Maybe they might decide to fund tables for AbiWord.

Here's where free (as in both beer and speech) takes on commercial value. The software company with real customer relationships uses some of its income from those customers to pay for exactly those improvements to free software that the customers want.

This

Now you might be thinking that's no big deal. But it is. Microsoft has nothing like it. Apple doesn't either. Nor do Dell, IBM or HP.

What Click-N-Run gives customers is a direct relationsihp with a software vendor.

But it is.

It would be nice to do internet service and Click 'N Run warehouse just once. Pay an extra $X.95/month for subscription software.

ISPs can't do it. If you're an ISP, you want to own hardware with moving bits, not moving parts: routers, DSL provisioning equipment, stuff that lasts indefinitely. Not stuff users can kill with a cup of coffee.

remember 3270 and VT100 display terminals. it;'s a type of computing that hasn't gone away.

IBM

Wht are the prognoses then for the distro vendors? I see no sign that Red Hat or SuSE has any interest in selling a bargain-basement Linux. Quite the contrary. That leaves Debian and Lindows, which leverages Debian. As does Xandros.

There will be plenty of peer-to-peer support. If you feel competent to run your business on Linux without sending $500 to Red Hat, Debian is a good option.

Companies like SuSE and Red Hat have limited resources. The ROI on continued Linux development is high. The ROI on sales calls in buyer's markets that are still spending >95% of their desktop money on Windows machines is still low. If continued Linux development, especially in device drivers, delivers a better ROI, cool.

He can afford to charge vendors some upfront fee to install unlimited quantities of LindowsOS, because some percantage of those customers will turn into $99/year Click 'N Run customers.

Questions:

1) Can Windows make an OS experience that's an order of magnitude easier than Windows?

Free sorftware can help here because most barriers to ease of use are legal, not technical.

2) What is the relationship that they are building wiht the customer and how is this a good thing?

There is no other interest in doing desktops.

I wouldn;'t want to have dot com pin my name raising capital.

Family filtering

Virus

expect 50% of computers to have filtering

embracing digital distribution in a big way

The days of 85% margins in software are waning. There isn't another industry out there with anything like that.

Michael's minute. 130,000 peoiple on the message board.

My mom doesn't care if she can read the source code or not. But she does care about what she has to pay. The days of 85% margins in software are waning. There isn't another industry out there with anything like that. Linux is bound to lower those margins. - Michael Robertson