Comment 281 for bug 1

This bug is even more common on laptops than desktops, and much more on desktops than servers: while is it possible to buy a server without MSWindows from any manufacturer, I have never, ever seen a laptop without it (or Apple's OS) for sale in Switzerland's or France's popular shops: there must be some, but they are not carried by the main distributors.

Ubuntu has it right to make things simple to casual users, which is the right challenge. There is still plenty of work to do about it, if I rely on my current experience: I am installing Ubuntu on my brand new laptop I bought from a local manufacturer (precisely in order not to pay for MSWindows), and neither the CD-ROM nor the WiFi work... and I have not tried the USB yet! This is really where the chicken-and-egg challenge is, as we all know: the manufacturer, not MS, tested their product w/ Windows, but they did not with Ubuntu...

Fortunately, MS is helping resolve the bug by making its own products always slower and, above all, impractical. To be honest, I care less than the average in this community about paying for the software; the only thing that matters to me is its quality. The reason of my move to Linux, and to Ubuntu in particular, is the constant regression of MS software's quality since W2K: I hate system administration, but I hate coping with flourishing bugs in MS-Word or MS-Outlook, or waiting for MSExplorer to do tasks I have not requested, much, much more.

To me, MS's current situation looks very much like IBM's in the 1980's: prices were high, technology was lagging, and only reputation and installed base kept them afloat... until they suddenly crashed. The momentum now clearly stands with companies like Ubuntu, Google and, to some extent, Sun or Oracle. It is my impression that Ballmer's more financially- and less technically-focused management than Gates' was greatly increases the opportunity for the leaders of the Linux world to do significant progress in the resolution of that bug.