When Microsoft said it withdrew its offer to buy Yahoo earlier this month, many people figured the acquisition dance was far from over - that the withdrawal and the subsequent letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to his Yahoo counterpart were nothing more than a move in an ongoing strategic battle. It appears those people were right, as Microsoft just issued a statement regarding Yahoo.
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2007-05-20
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If there could ever be a prize for the more vague and puzzling business announcement, this one would win hands down. This Microsoft-Yahoo dance is becoming a mystery.
Member since:2005-07-13
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MS is just stirring the pot after Carl Icahn announced he may seek a proxy battle, and probably hoping that he gains enough shareholder support to place his own slate for the board of directors. They're basically dangling a carrot, is my guess, without actually committing to anything.
Member since:
2005-07-06
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Doing it this way would work out beneficially for both companies.
Yahoo would keep its independence, but still have the backup of the major corporation.
And Microsoft would benefit from an increased userbase / target market.
One thing however, Microsoft should stay away from trying to move the Yahoo email servers from FreeBSD onto Windows.
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2008-03-16
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"Microsoft said on Sunday that it had approached Yahoo, this time with an ostensibly narrower aim: a collaboration on Internet advertising. But it hinted that it could still seek a takeover down the road." ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/technology/19soft.html?hp )
Well, I'd say 'Sutor ne ultra crepidam.' Not being able to tolerate another company's success in an area where they are clearly superior, doesn't show much wisdom and it also doesn't seem a well thought out businness plan. While others concentrate on real development, these guys seem to still be on the if you can't beat it eat it wagon. I'd say the best way to lead would be by trying to be better. This tale is getting a bit stale 
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Microsoft has a real problem. Like it or not, the desktop OS is going away. Maybe not soon but within 5-10 years. Asus just announced that it will start shipping all motherboards with Linux flash OS's built in. If you can get online, check email, surf and watch/listen to videos, why would you need software? Software that can be virus infested, compromised, buggy. Microsoft knows this will happen eventually. Their problem is that to date, all of their online ventures have failed miserably. They seem to think that they can buy their way out of this problem with Yahoo. Maybe they are right. But, if I was the savior of the future of microsoft, I would want more than $40B.
Edited 2008-05-19 14:19 UTC
Member since:2005-07-24
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Indeed. Imagine this integrated with GMail and Google's office services.
I just watched the video here:
http://www.splashtop.com/
Many, many people would not need a hard drive or other OS, or the expense. (Other's would, of course.) But this looks to be far more significant than Dell's half-hearted Ubuntu preinstalls. Splashtop, its descendants, and other initiatives like it, are going to be *big*. An excellent application of the "less is more" philosophy.
Edited 2008-05-19 14:57 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
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Very impressive indeed.
Just the thing for a quick email... provided of course that the internet connection is picked up straight away.
Wireless networks are pants, but wired networks can also take a few minutes of authentication, so if the router is switched off too, there is no time saving gains to be made by not loading the main OS.
<joking> Next week we will see a version that has a cut down XP installed on it </joking>
Member since:2005-07-24
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[q Next week we will see a version that has a cut down XP installed on it [/q]
At a dollar less in price? ;-)
Not this time. Note that these "less is more" machines would not lend themselves to being vehicles for all those demo versions of crap that offset the OS license cost on more conventional machines. Any OS license would cost real money.
Member since:2006-12-05
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I just watched that video. From the video:
"No waiting three minutes for your traditional operating system to load, now the Internet is instant."
I'm sorry, but if you wait three minutes for your "traditional operating system" to load, you've got some serious problems with your system. Not counting the BIOS POST, which itself is maybe three seconds or so (not sure, it's normally done by the time my monitor wakes up from sleep mode), my machine running Linux (Zenwalk) takes around 25 *seconds* to load. When it was running Win XP Pro, it tended to be somewhere around 30-32 seconds, 35 max... not much longer. The real kicker? This is an old Gateway from 2001 with a weak (by today's standards) 1.7GHz Pentium 4 and a pathetic 256 megs of RAM.
Sure, it's typical advertisement... but they could at least get their facts straight. But then... maybe they were looking at it from the point of view of someone who shouldn't even have a computer, as they've got so much crap, viruses, malware, you name it, that it *does* take that long. In that case, I would say it's the owner's problem (but thanks to Microsoft for such a poorly-designed OS allowing such crap to get in!).
While I can see the usefulness of Splashtop for some people, I honestly don't see myself ever using it. I'll take a "traditional" OS any day. I go for features, flexibility, expandability, and in general, a *complete*, well-designed desktop environment. To me, Splashtop just looks like a joke. A mildly interesting one and one with potential, but still.
Member since:2005-07-24
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That probably covers the majority of their customers. Keep in mind that splashtop solves the virus problem. Those people will still have 5 second boots instead of 3 mintutes or whatever, and they won't be relaying the rest of us spam.
So while Splashtop might not be *for* you, it can still be of substantial benefit to all of us should it become popular. And I'm pretty sure it will. A diskless machine with Splashtop is exactly what my parents need.
Member since:2006-12-30
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I couldn't agree more with your comment.
We are heading towards a new PC concept: the internet PC. And Windows and Office will not play a main role in it.
Just think about it for a minute: free online services, free downloadable programs, free OS...+ cheap HW.
So where's the money??
Ask Google for the answer.
