[ale] Re: This bites (was Re: [ale] More on Mozilla/Java)

[Thompson Freeman]

On Mon, 25 Mar 2002, Joseph A Knapka wrote:

> Thompson Freeman wrote:
> > 
> > On 25 Mar 2002, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> > 
> > > On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 05:40, Joseph A Knapka wrote:
> > >
> > > > And what's a "happy customer"? One who's so utterly overjoyed
> > > > to use the product that they actually take the time to
> > > > mention it to someone else. It takes a *lot* of joy to make
> > > > a customer that happy, whereas the amount of frustration it
> > > > takes to produce a "pissed-off customer" is fairly small.
> > > >
> > > > On the other hand, having millions of pissed-off customers
> > > > doesn't seem to be a problem for MicroShaft.
> > > >
> > >
> > > My definition of a happy customer is one who is not pissed off. OK, so
> > > that may be a bit circular. A happy customer feels that they have been
> > > involved in a transaction where they got what they wanted at a price
> > > that is acceptable. That is _still_ nebulous, I know. But quantifying
> > > happiness is not my area :)
> > >
> > > I don't know how M$ manages to keep pissing off so many people and stay
> > > in business. It must be the clout they have with their market position.
> > 
> > Possibly they do it by seldom selling directly to the end customer. If
> > memory serves, even back in the days of MSDOS Microsoft sold most of their
> > OS product to OEM's, who were also then obligated to the customer for
> > support. Even with Windows, I was under the impression that has largely
> > remained the same. Therefor, the aggrivated end user is not a Microsoft
> > customer, and MS has only indirect responsibility to them.
> 
> And the end user isn't really *aware* of having paid M$ for
> the privilege of being annoyed by their software, whereas
> people who make the choice to move to free software are
> almost always aware of the product they're using and complain
> about it in exactly those terms.
> 
> I wonder how much OEM Windows installation pushes up the
> price of a PC? I'd like to see some pro-open-source
> ads: "This is your PC: $500. This is your PC on Windows:
> $650. This is your PC on Linux: $500."

Assuming my memory serves me correctly (big if!) a local box builder told
me about three years ago that her wholesale cost on Windows was $80
dollars. No manual. Just the software liscence. Dell & others spend
somewhat less on a higher volume contract.


> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -- Joe
>   Using open-source software: free.
>   Pissing Bill Gates off: priceless.
> 

-- 
===========================================
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iacocca
===========================================
Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net


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