MS, Linux and the end of the world

From the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5359130.stm

The line I like is: Microsoft said it looked forward to constructive talks with the Commission.

Basically, MS is saying “We are looking forward to the EU rolling over and leaving us alone.”

There is also an IDC report [sponsored by MS] pointing out the benefits of everyone in Europe upgrading to Vista. It is analyzed here: http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000097

What it fails to mention is that most of the money spent on Vista leaves the EU economy, rather than circulating in it.

Say I started a company [eg, lapwing.org ;-)] that supported and rolled out FOSS systems to companies, schools, local government etc.

lapwing.org maintains, upgrades and builds new systems, either stock or bespoke; OK, you can get that with MS-supported applications.

However, lapwing.org would then release the systems upgrades under the GPL, another company in Germany picks it up and improves it in a way lapwing.org didn’t think to, you have in effect two companies supporting you, for the cost of hiring a local company.

This system upgrade gets a speed boost by another company in Italy, and you have three companies supporting you for the cost of hiring a local company.

A few bedroom programmers find the upgrade, spot some bugs and ways to improve, fixes them and releases it; you have four groups of programmers supporting you for the cost of hiring a local company.

Multiply this a few hundred times across Europe and you get all those programmers supporting you for the cost of hiring a local company.

Multiply this a few thousand [even tens of thousands] to include all the FOSS activity in Asia, America, Africa … you get a complete, enterprise grade OS for the cost of hiring a local company.

And the best thing about this FOSS industry is that if you don’t like lapwing.org’s support, you can hire another company, or the company in Germany, Italy, Japan or whereever, and still get the enterprise grade OS for the cost of hiring a local [ish] company.

Try that with MS.

As mathematicians would say at the end of a derivation, QED. :-)

Update: This is assuming that no one blows the world up first