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"Microsoft Targets the Low End of the Market, X-box and More"

Has anyone been wondering what Microsoft is up to lately, I think they’re trying to take over the Internet once again. We all know that they’re the big boys who brought us the (love it or hate it Windows operating system), but why the moves of late such as:

The X-box ????
The £93 million pounds paid for a 24.6% voting share in Corel????
Microsoft’s ".net" project???
Investment in NTL (can’t substantiate this one, the guy installing my NTL connection told me by word of mouth)????

Well Im just beginning to see what a clever man Gates is, some people think that buying shares in Corel is a way of Microsoft protecting itself from the US Governments Anti-Trust Lawsuit...
Which really is a disgrace, lets be honest OK you like having Internet Explorer free as Standard with Windows. But look at Netscape ... before Microsoft came along abusing its Monopoly, they were kings of the world...their web browser was the standard, then Microsoft made its own version Internet Explorer and Netscape’s Value plummeted overnight. Now of course if Internet Explorer was not free with windows this would not have happened.??? If you worked hard for Netscape you would be rightly annoyed with Microsoft.
Meanwhile around this time Microsoft gave Apple a large sum of money, to drop their Lawsuit (Apple were suing Microsoft for similarities between the Apple and Microsoft’s new OS Windows). The bribe only had the condition that Internet Explorer was part of Apples new OS.

The Big picture, do you see it yet, well when I tell you that Corel’s version of Linux, is arguably the most similar to Windows in use and appearance, and that as a result of Microsoft 24.6% shares Corel now has to work with Microsoft on Microsoft’s .Net Project.

Well it seems its all healthy competition, not likely. Why would Microsoft buy shares in a company that had set itself up as a direct competitor to its OS, a company that believes in a free OS for all??? Bare in mind if Microsoft Sold its shares in the Company it will go bust....Not healthy competition???
One reason is possible Protection from the US Governments lawsuit. But in my opinion it’s more likely that Microsoft are now setting up to take control of the low end of the Market. Now I use NTL, its free and a good service no complaints there...but then the Americans have had free Internet access for years, in this case its just BT being evil....so I don’t mind that. I recommend NTL to anyone, it takes a while to get your NTL disc, but I have got no reason to complain about the service.

The low end of the Market is the Key, Microsoft wants control of the internet be it on your Dreamcast (Why do you think Sonic the Blue Hedgehog was seen lately on an X-Box Demo), on your cheap PC running Linux (i.e. Corel), Your Apple Macintosh, Or your Powerful PC running The Latest version of Windows, or your set top box Connected to your Television (i.e. NTL).
As long as Microsoft’s Software connects you to the Internet you see its content, its vision.

Microsoft has stated that in the Future it expects all OS and software upgrades to be downloaded, at a one off payment or on a pay as you use basis...
This is what .net is you download only the software package you want to use, i.e. Excel with the latest version of Windows but nothing else... No doubt there will be a discount for buying lots of software together. This is a clever vision, how can you be anti-competitive if Microsoft give you the option of only downloading the software you want, nothing will be bundled together in one package, you choose.

Microsoft is in effect with .net blurring the definition of Application software with the OS software.... Hopefully then they won’t get split into 2 mini companies.

Its unlikely to get split up if BUSH becomes president.

Anyway to the point, what browser are you using, does it keep asking for the latest downloads of Microsoft Virtual Machine??? Do you play your MP3s on Windows Media Player, and more importantly did it change the file associations to make it the default MP3 player when you installed it, without asking you??? Somebody out there must know what Im talking about, Come on Sony protect the Low end of the Market...sell PS2 games cheap NOW.. or in a years time the X-box will come out with the ability to play cheap PC games, and X-box will eat you alive...

We all love computers and Games, but I don’t want one company controlling the whole picture, once USB modems are cheap enough for everyone Microsoft will dominate because of .net. Microsoft’s Vision will download to your machine in minutes not hours, and it will be hard to stop.

A final point once you control the software most people use to view the internet the Website designers will have to use your software to make their websites look good with your browser. I like some of the thing Microsoft has done, I like my cheap Internet access with NTL. But I don’t want them controlling everything...

Buy Nintendo or Sony Gamers, Use Winamp to play your MP3's. Competition is Good, when its fair, I hope the X-box drops the price of Console Games but I don’t want Microsoft dominating the low end of the market, What do you think?????

I think your right many P3 Games could be reprogrammed to run well on a P2. All we can hope is that the X-box will be pushed to its limits, and so maybe we may get to see game ports in the other direction ( i.e. X-box to PC)...that would mean that PCs are pushed to their limits.

Did you know that in the States they can preorder an X-Box for a $10 deposit? Wonder how long they'll have to wait. The general feeling seems to be Autumn 2001, which seems reasonable.

With regards to chips, how many games out now for the PIII could not be re-programmed to play just as well on a PII? I think a lot is down to the graphics cards. Voodoo seem to be the market leader with Creative Labs a very close second, but they seem to switch positions on a bi-monthly basis. All the same, I think jumps in programming technique can still be made. Think about the analogy of BASIC vs Machine Code. Did the PII really get pushed hard enough or were there a few more jumps that could have been made?

Maybe this topic was prematurely ended, good points...Pentium 4 not good for Games, wow theres a first! Im sure that once the Pentium 4 becomes more mainstream (i.e. not so expensive or in short supply), that there will tonnes of great new games released for it. It will be interesting to see if the X-box can push itself to the limits, lets hope programmers dont just try to make a quick buck!

I don't believe that PCs will ever get over the hurdle of having too many different chips and cards to programme for. There are too many companies out there making a profit to worry about small things like compatibility with other people's hardware, and this means that programmers can never make a game that utilises the full potential of the PC unless they limit the amount of users it will have.

{everyone -"when are you going to get back on topic?"}

Okay, so the PC is not as 'hot' at games as it could be (although there are still some great games out there) but the X-box should have a lot of PC developers making new games and re-makes of current games, using standard hardware that they can try to make the most out of. Whether the addition of a (less buggy) Windows OS will mean sloppy port overs or not remains to be seen, but it should be interesting.

> do you know anything about the new Pentium 4's?

Apparenlty they're not very good for *current* games; I was reading this earlier...

http://www.geek.com/gaming/gaming.htm



It runs at a system bus speed of 400MHz, and has a bandwidth of 3.2Gb/sec, which incidentally is the same as the PS2.

I'm still in the process of reading up on it, but there's more info here...

http://intel.com/pentium4/launch/techspecs.htm?iid=P4PLaunchFlash+022&

Have fun, kiddies!

Is this some sort of Pun saying computers should be as simple as a big red ball???? But theyre not?

I saw a piece of art done by a computer the other day. Looked like modern art, you know, like nothing at all.

There's also a computer novel, yes, I am serious, but it's along the lines of: "The ball is red. The ball is round. Bill picks up the ball. Fatal exception error."


This story may have been slightly exaggerated for reasons best left unknown.

No, I'm still trying to get the most out of a ZX81, which is more of a reflection of my BASIC programming skills than anything else. (Machine code? What's that then?).

But I think this is an appropriate analogy, when does any career programmer get the time to really study and practise on a new processor? Hardly ever, unless they work at it as a hobby at home. This will be a continuing trend as far as my foresight can envision. Perhaps it's time to get computers to program the computers.

Thanks everyone for your comments, but as FantasyMeister said, onto the next discussion. Im going to take your advice and ask the question

In the light of continued Hardware advancement, eg Pentium 4`s etc...do programmers push our PCs enough???

Happy birthday FantasyMeister! :)


Nothing to say on this subject mind, sorry.