Microsoft Shoots Own Foot In Iceland 476
David Gerard writes "The Microsoft Certified Partner model is: an MCP buys contracts from Microsoft and sells them to businesses as a three-year timed contract, payable in annual installments. Iceland's economy has collapsed, so 1500 businesses have gone bankrupt and aren't paying the fees any more. But Microsoft has told the MCPs: 'Our deal was with you, not them. Pay up.' The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are moving headlong to Free Software, taking most of the country with them. (Warning: link contains strong language and vivid imagery.)"
Or I will gouge out your eyeballs... (Score:5, Funny)
and BSOD you!
Re:Or I will gouge out your eyeballs... (Score:5, Insightful)
But seriously what the fuck is with the link:
Re:Or I will gouge out your eyeballs... (Score:4, Informative)
Kdawson.
That says it all really.
Re:Or I will gouge out your eyeballs... (Score:4, Funny)
...desperately tries to get head round the idea of fucking a shellfish...
MCP Glamour (Score:3, Insightful)
I bet they're proud of that Microsoft partner banner at reception...
WWBD? (Score:5, Funny)
What would Bjork do?
Re:WWBD? (Score:5, Funny)
What would Bjork do?
"Look, mom, this frog says my name when I squeeze it!"
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Re:WWBD? (Score:4, Funny)
My boss says I have to pay to replace this keyboard you selfish bastard !
And I don't like that feeling in the back of your nose after spewing tea all over the monitor and keyboard - but thanks :)
Re:WWBD? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:WWBD? (Score:4, Interesting)
From your comment I'm guessing that you are aware that such a thing already exists? If not, it's even funnier.
Search for Björk - Bachelorette (Alec Empire "The Ice Princess And The Killer Whale" remix)
This, I must say, is about the strangest combination of noise/music that I have ever enjoyed. Also, don't ever play this if you want to keep a good relationship with your neighbours. Holy shit, like.
Re:WWBD? (Score:4, Informative)
So I take it, you haven't listened to Aphex Twin's album "Druqs" then?
I recommend "Omgyjya-Switch7 [youtube.com]" (also known as the "zen music [youtube.com]" from Children of Men), ;)
and of course his promo video "Rubber Johnny [youtube.com]" (Warning: Do not watch this if you do not want to have nightmares!
Also recommended is the classic, and execptionally great "Come To Daddy [youtube.com]".
He's like Björk on very strange aggro-drugs. You have to ask: Does he write this stuff, or just slam the keyboard? [todayandtomorrow.net] ;)
Ze goggles! Zey do nothing! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh god, a 500 error! MY EYES! THEY BURN!
Re:Ze goggles! Zey do nothing! (Score:5, Informative)
Oh god, a 500 error! MY EYES! THEY BURN!
Here you go, ya' big baby! [209.85.173.132]
Re:Ze goggles! Zey do nothing! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh god, a 500 error! MY EYES! THEY BURN!
Are you kidding? This is Slashdot, a 500 error practically constitutes foreplay. Strong language indeed! :-)
Re:Ze goggles! Zey do nothing! (Score:5, Funny)
402; 416; 410
Re:Ze goggles! Zey do nothing! (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes [wikipedia.org]
402 Payment Required
416 Requested Range Not Satisfiable
410 Gone
Huh, what does it mean??
Or have I just earned a huge whoosh?
And what does it mean by "practically constitutes foreplay"?
Re:Ze goggles! Zey do nothing! (Score:4, Funny)
Just say "414" and waggle your eyebrows suggestively ...
Screw this (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what, I'm not even going to bother clicking on a link composed of obscenities, even if it is about Microsoft making another PR blunder.
I'd like some anti-Microsoft news that at least appears reputable, and not overly sensationalized "ZOMG Balmer blew up M$ eats babies" crap like the stuff I've seen here for the past few weeks.
Give me something to read, please, not something designed to assimilate me into another angry mob.
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Funny)
I agree. "Skull-fucking"? What kind of journalism is that? There has to be a report on the subject that includes some amount of class and professionalism -- especially if it's going to make it to the front page of Slashdot..
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Funny)
There has to be a report on the subject that includes some amount of class and professionalism -- especially if it's going to make it to the front page of Slashdot.
This is a joke, right?
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Insightful)
this article should have in giant letters at the top "WRITTEN BY A TOTAL ZEALOT!!!" in giant red letters, so those of us who would actually care about the facts wouldn't bother.
We already have that.
Posted by kdawson
Re:Screw this (Score:4, Interesting)
OO.o is just fine for home users that are only writing letters and occasionally making a little speadsheet.
yes.... what do you think most businesses using Word do? I find companies fall into 2 categories: those that use Word for writing little reports, maybe with a table, and lots of auto-generated formatting; and those who use full-on automation forms and scripted features who wish they could just write little reports.
But for business? I'm sorry but Calc is no way in hell comparable to Excel, and there are simply way too damned many businesses that live and breathe in Excel for this to be even a remotely viable solution.
We have an estimate spreadsheet in Excel like this, please please please let us use OO.o so I can dump the useless, awkward, difficult-to-use, I'm-sorry-Dave-those-figures-are-not-correct crock and get on with some work instead!
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Informative)
"I'm afraid you have reached beyond the red line of the BS meter. OO.o is just fine for home users that are only writing letters and occasionally making a little speadsheet. But for business? I'm sorry but Calc is no way in hell comparable to Excel, and there are simply way too damned many businesses that live and breathe in Excel for this to be even a remotely viable solution. I've tried giving OO.o to SMBs for evaluation. Most have positive reviews UNTIL they get to Calc. If he wanted to suggest that businesses just take the hit(and probably a huge cost in rewriting a shitload of spreadsheets) that is one thing, but saying OO.o is "superior software in every respect" to anyone who has used Excel is simply spreading the BS a little thick."
I make complicated spreadsheets, with lots of functions, cross linked between sheets, with very large data sets, and it works no worse than Excel. The only downside, is the lack of PivotCharts - they have a PivotTable equivalent, but no PivotCharts. Does this really matter to me? Nope - it's just a feature I really don't use, and can work around anyway.
I would say that 99% of business users would have their needs met with OO.org. If they don't use Excel macros (which have always worked for me in OO.org, but I can see it being a problem), PivotCharts or MS Access, I don't understand why it wouldn't suite their needs. Especially when making the switch from Excel 03 to 07.
If Sun tossed a few more developers into the project, I'd probably pay the same price as MS Office for a copy.
The greatest value behind OO.org is the fact it's free, I can download it from the Internet when I need it, and if I'm on a computer with no office suite, I'll have one by the time it finishes downloading. I make use of GoogleDocs in some cases, but it just lacks features, plain and simple.
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Funny)
I'd like some anti-Microsoft news that at least appears reputable, and not overly sensationalized "ZOMG Balmer blew up M$ eats babies" crap like the stuff I've seen here for the past few weeks.
You're new around here, aren't you?
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd like some anti-Microsoft news that at least appears reputable, and not overly sensationalized "ZOMG Balmer blew up M$ eats babies" crap like the stuff I've seen here for the past few weeks.
You're new around here, aren't you?
Or more likely, been around long enough to get tired of all the childish crap and instead want sane discussions about what happened and sane arguments over what to do about it.
Re:Screw this (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Insightful)
Aw come on now. If you call this childish, what would you say to that Cat Agreeing to an EULA story that got nearly 1000 replies.
At least that story was kinda funny in a perverse way. The thought of someone taking legalese nonsense and trying to respond with their own nonsense sticks it to the legal profession and pokes fun at the corporations trying to control software this way. The only thing that makes it kinda sad is that it went beyond a joke and is wasting real life legal resources.
Today's story on the other hand isn't humorous. It's just a childish profane rant demanding a megacorp give away their sofware.
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Insightful)
Software was originally given away freely. It's important to remember that.
Closed-source and/or for-profit software also has its place, but Microsoft might do well to (again) imitate Apple.
Also, in today's existence, it's difficult to not carry some measure of anger against the 'megacorp'. What have they touched that is not tarnished? What have they given us that is not tainted? Men have always harmed other men in pursuit of their own self-interest, but never is this more soul-less or harsh than when the ultimate goal of the organization is Profit.
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Insightful)
> Yeah, the world would be such a happy fucking place without corporations.
I'm a Reagan conservative when I'm not all the way out in Ayn Rand territory. And I'm starting to think the corporation, at least as we know it, is a mistake. As soon as the founder is gone some clueless twit with an MBA is given control over billions in capital without any clue how capital is made or grown, no responsibility if (usually when) he fails or commits a major ethical lapse and a golden parachute when he screws the place up so bad it becomes takeover fodder. Stockholders have no moral hazzard other than their financial stake, which is often traded purely on such a short term horizon that the corporation is forced, even if the CEO isn't an idiot, to do stupid short sighted things.
The public chartered corporation once served a purpose in that it allowed huge capital intensive projects to be undertaken in the nominally private sector. There is still a need for something that serves that purpose but the rules need to be adjusted such that only such big infrastructure projects will be attractive investments.
Just so you know what you missed (Score:5, Funny)
Here's my translation for ya:
[rumor] Microsoft [rumor] Economic Crisis [rumor] I can't confirm this but [rumor]. Open Office is better than Microsoft Office. [rumor] [bad logic] [rumor] [rumor] Pitiful prediction.
Re:Just so you know what you missed (Score:4, Funny)
And don't forget skull fucking. Lots and lots of skull fucking. I've always heard Icelanders are sexually liberated, but I had no idea.
Re:Just so you know what you missed (Score:5, Interesting)
I particularly liked the part about how, unless Microsoft permanently reduces the cost of all their software to zero it's an attack on Icelands sovereignty.
That made me giggle a little. And then depressed that the guy who wrote it believes it.
"Unless, and this is important: Microsoft can redeem themselves towards the Icelandic economy if and only if they immediately reduce the price of all of their products to zero, permanently. Anything less will be an act of non-compliance towards the needs of the Icelandic economy, and can be considered an attack on the nationâ(TM)s sovereignty. Such an attack will inevitably be responded to by the market by way of an across-the-board adoption of free software."
Puuuuke.
Re:Just so you know what you missed (Score:5, Insightful)
I particularly liked the part about how, unless Microsoft permanently reduces the cost of all their software to zero it's an attack on Icelands sovereignty.
It's not, however it's a good reminder not to rely on foreign companies too much.
As retarded as he sounds writing that, he might have a point: If they can't pay, they're likely to migrate to free alternatives.
Re:Screw this (Score:5, Funny)
This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
"Hey, I only joined the military for the free college tuition. I never said anything about shooting people!"
These MCP's were all happy to sign up, resell MS's products and take their cut for doing almost nothing. Now they're not selling and they don't want to pay their bill? Puh-lese. The cheese section is apparently in Iceland, along with the whine.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the complaint of the MCPs is Microsoft is demanding payment for product the customer isn't paying for. Specifically, my impression is that Microsoft wants to be payed for the full 3 year contract (over 3 years), even though the customer that purchased the software went bankrupt after the first year. It's a good deal from Microsoft's point of view ...
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Funny)
Don't bring reason or logic into a perfectly good anti-ms rant.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Informative)
The legal doctine in common law countries is Force Majeure [wikipedia.org]. If something sufficiently big happens, all bets are off.
The other business doctrine is that a big company shall not bankrupt the organizations selling their products:
No sales companies = No salesmen = No sales.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
However, who wants customers if they're not going to pay?
A non-paying customer moving to OSS is not a lost sale.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Interesting)
Mr. Chair Thrower, probably because of the hidden macho inside him, turned tables around and made it possible for guys like RMS to declare it is a war against commercial software. Thus OSS supporters would only need to use negative samples against incumbent commercial software, instead of positive samples of their own. If they were trying to get into a market, just only by benefits and positive aspects of OSS products, they would need positive samples of those. Again theory says that you would need (I might need a correction here, but...) from 10%-30% positive samples for a stronghold in the market. This is what they try to hammer in business schools to people: If you do no have a competition, market is naturally yours. If there is competition, every small gain made by new competitor(s) are bigger losses for the incumbent.
In my country BSA tried to claim, as a scare tactic, you can not have a license free software for office usage, and if you do not have a printed license then there is no license. They performed extensive computer scans in license free offices etc. This of course is complete BullCrap(tm). However as people (especially in rural areas) bought the idea for a while, MS hold the market in that sector of economy. But then one or two small companies started giving printed licenses with their OSS based products. They just sold licenses for one tenth or so prices of MS Office. You can guess the outcome. Competitor(s) made a small gain, MS lost ten folds of money.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Interesting)
In my country BSA tried to claim, as a scare tactic, you can not have a license free software for office usage, and if you do not have a printed license then there is no license. They performed extensive computer scans in license free offices etc.
And what, exactly, did the BSA give as a reason to perform these scans, I wonder? When they found FOS apps, were they acting on behalf of the free software's "owners" when they said you can't have a license if it's not printed? These BSA goons are insanely ballsy in my experience.
The BSA (I think) tried this sort of crap with one of my clients once. Some guys showed up at my client's office when I happened to be there. They were armed with a blue paper backed document that they told the receptionist was a warrant to inspect any computer and media for "valid licenses". The receptionist, thinking the warrant was valid, let them in but took it back to her boss. The business owner noticed rather quickly that the paperwork wasn't in any way a warrant but, instead, an "agreement" that once signed would grant permission to search everything in the office including personal cell phones. While she was reviewing the document, the goons told me to move away form he PC I was installing a hard drive in and started screwing around with the receptionist's PC without actual permission. The owner was pissed and called 911. The police were rather prompt in responding, too. I guess fake warrants kind of piss them off a bit.
I don't know what, if anything, ever came of it as I had to leave for an appointment with another client. The business owner said the goons left really fast all of a sudden. As best she could tell, a disgruntled employee reported "likely" software piracy. The sad thing is that this was one of the honest people ... some of my clients are knowingly using pirated apps.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Where's the line between Force Majeure and simply a regrettable business decision? Globally, lots of people in all walks of life are suffering from their decisions (whether sound at the time or not) made during better times that are haunting them in these rough economic times. What about this situation is unique to the MCP? How would the situation look if we allowed people across the board to declare Force Majeure?
As for no salesmen = no sales, it's commonly accepted that Microsoft is a de facto monopoly. If we take that to be true, then there may not be much cost to MS in hanging the MCPs out to dry. The MCP's customer still needs the MS product, and a new MCP undoubtedly will fill in the void when times get better.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
As for no salesmen = no sales, it's commonly accepted that Microsoft is a de facto monopoly. If we take that to be true, then there may not be much cost to MS in hanging the MCPs out to dry. The MCP's customer still needs the MS product, and a new MCP undoubtedly will fill in the void when times get better.
Exactly correct. Whereas there is an effective water monopoly in place as a supplier, resellers are infinitely replaceable. One man goes to the wall, another will take their place. No martyrs, only failures.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Informative)
If something sufficiently big happens, all bets are off.
This is incorrect - the principle of "Force Majeure" is that it has to be completely unexpected - that is, a reasonable person would be unable to forsee the event, and would not have taken measures to mitigate it.
Say I run a fishing company and all my boats are at sea and are sunk in a big storm. I can't really claim Force Majeure on your supply contracts, as it could be expected that, when fishing, one could encounter storms that might sink your fleet. However, if my boats were docked in a harbour with a narrow inlet with high cliffs and some construction work collapsed the cliffs and blocked the harbour preventing my boats from getting out, well that would fit under "Force Majeure".
In the MCP's case, one can get insurance for loss of business income, and if one is beholden to continuous payments to a third party, it's a good idea to get it. This is basic financial disaster management - plenty of businesses will sit down and think, "what would happen if the building caught fire?", but few will think, "what happens if my customers suddenly can't pay?"
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Interesting)
Having your bank's own bank accounts frozen by a foreign power (the main reason Iceland's collapsing so fast) probably does count as "completely unexpected"...
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
From a legal and short term financial standpoint, sure. However, the end result will be that established partners will themselves go belly-up, or that they'll try to find an alternative. So it is Microsoft's problem, in so far as it changes their future business prospects in the region.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, wait...
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
This remark is particularly insightful, IMHO. However, the goods WERE sold. The question is more along the lines of "why can't they simply repossess them?"
THEN you get to the "Oh, wait..." :)
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
In short, they can choose to have no money, or some money. They can't chose to have all the money though. Rationally, they should choose "some". In fact, they appear to have chosen "none".
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
They might still have a right to get money from the middleman, but doing so could come with some bad press. They could request enough that the middleman goes bankrupt as well, and they may get what money is currently there. Otherwise they could accept that the middleman pay at a pace they can possibly do without going bankrupt. In the end the slow pace may give them more money.
An interesting question is whether the middleman could just sell those licenses to other companies now. Microsoft would probably say that is not allowed. I don't know if the court would find a contract valid if it requires payment for a license that is only allowed to be used by one company that is now bankrupt. If they actually are allowed to resell the licenses to other companies, that could flood the market with cheap licenses, probably something Microsoft does not want. The easy way to avoid that would be to accept that the contracts can be terminated without payment in this scenario. The other ways are to claim it is against the contract, or make the company go bankrupt with Microsoft being the only creditor with an interest in picking them up (and valuing them a lot less than they originally were paid for them).
Of course I'm no expert in Icelandic law, so this is all just guesswork. I wonder if Microsoft knows Icelandic law well enough to predict how this would turn out.
But I can't see this being good for Microsoft's sale of licenses in this way in the future, which should matter a lot more to them than what little money they can get from a few Icelandic companies.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
Well... yeah! I know it's a bizarre concept in today's world trillion dollar bailouts seem the norm, but prior to six months ago, if you signed up for a three year contract you were required to pay for three years. Why should they be treated any different from other failed businesses? No one was holding a gun to their head making them buy those contracts.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
The country controls their own court system.
A company that's hostile to all companies in your country is probably not going to do well, regardless who is or is not right.
And it all comes down to: Honor contracts to a foreign company with a failing financial market, or ignore contract disputes and switch to Linux and FOSS.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:4, Interesting)
It really comes down to this: Honor contracts freely entered into and legally binding, or have a really hard time having companies being willing to sign contracts in your country. There's a lot more at stake here than just Microsoft - especially for a country like Iceland with virtually no manufacturing industry and heavily dependent on trade.
They made their bed (Score:4, Insightful)
They'll lie in it.
If some employees of their company go on to found a company that's not so foolish, they will have learned.
But the company that danced with the devil and doesn't want to pay? Why would you trust them now? Maybe tomorrow they'll decide the service contract you paid them for requires too much effort or cost to fulfill.
As we used to say back when I was in this game, a deal is a deal is a [expletive deleted] deal.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure they'd all like to be paying their bills, but when you set up a fiscal triage line, how important do you think payments to a multi-billion dollar corporation that sells software is going to be compared to say, keeping the lights on and paying the employees?
This is actually quite common in business. Just like how you or I would pay for electricity and food over our credit card bills if we wanted to survive.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Interesting)
If the flaming article is right, and if I've understood it correctly, that "cut" was negative: "Microsoft Certified Partners (MCP's), which are local companies that lobby the software, generally at a loss to themselves, as they know that Microsoft's lock-in is powerful enough that they can only get service contracts from the company if they offer a substantial discount on the Microsoft products." In other words, the MS licenses were a loss leader.
There's still a good argument that they're just like any business that gets stuck with unsold inventory when its customers get shot out from under it, but it doesn't sound like the MCPs were on a gravy train.
Of course, any other business whose retail customers disappeared could eliminate the bills from their wholesaler by simply stopping their wholesale purchases.
Re:This seems strangely familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
You have a point. Clearly MS is within their rights in terms of the contracts.
However a wise businessman in their position would be willing to "work with" their "partners" under such circumstances. Sticking to their rights here will blow up in their face, and cost them in the long run.
Which is really a good thing, anyway, both for Iceland and the world, if it results in increased Free Software awareness, usage, and development.
Business People ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Business People tend to remember the company that pushed them into bankruptcy. They don't forgive and forget easily.
I can't see everyone "just switching" to Linux, but this could create much motivation to try. Survival in business is a strategic imperative. If someone threatens that survival, then business people tend to connect the dots, and adapt accordingly.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
More correctly: Business People tend to remember the people they blame for pushing them into bankruptcy - their own failings they tend to forget.
In this case, the MCP seems to have forgotten they signed a contract saying they would pay.
Strong language and vivid imagery (Score:3, Funny)
Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request....
Ewww... i tought that i was prepared for any rudeness and strong language, but this? Slashdot should start putting stronger warnings in the articles, things like this could have adverse effects for the rest of your life.
xkcd (Score:5, Funny)
xkcd is everywhere...
Re:xkcd (Score:4, Interesting)
This is, of course, when he's not maintaining his circle jerk of shock sites [wikipediareview.com], like 'lemonparty.org', 'jarsquatter.org', 'yourmom.org', 'yellaface.com', and many others, not linked for your protection. What a scary, sad way to make a living.
Then again, he is a scary, sad [encycloped...matica.com] "guy".
Re:xkcd (Score:4, Funny)
Oh wait.
(That being said, there are some on WR, as there are on WP, who are a little too unhinged in their respective zealotries for general comfort.)
Maybe Microsoft revoked their license for IIS? (Score:5, Funny)
"The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."
Maybe Microsoft revoked their license on the webserver? Possible?
LOL.
Ah well, it seems somebody over there saw this article and decided to pull it to save grace.
Link to article (Score:3, Informative)
Optimism (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think it's rather impressive that Microsoft hasn't run out of feet to shoot. Nor bullets, apparently. Then again, they may have amassed an ample supply of peg-legs in their fight against piracy.
Actually, they're the legs from broken chairs.
Shitcan middle management (Score:4, Insightful)
From TFA: "So with the Navision thing going on the situation normally pans out like this: Company/institute X switches to Free Software nominally, installing Ubuntu and OpenOffice.org on all computers, except those of the top management who need to have access to Microsoft Navision Financials. The middle management then complains that theyâ(TM)re important enough to have Microsoft Office and that they feel devalued as employees for being forced to use the free, open alternative that doesnâ(TM)t suck. Eventually the middle management gets their way, and then the lowest employees start heaving the same sighs. Before you know it Company/institute Xâ(TM)s Free Software policy is a piece of paper rotting in a drawer somewhere."
Adapt. Improvise. Overcome. Fire the entrenched middle managers. If they don't want to liberate their departments from this morass, save their countrymen a pile of kronas, and just generally improve their situation, well...who needs 'em?
Time for them to head to the conference room where Bob Slydell and Dom Porterwood are waiting.
If you don't buy Windows 7 (Score:4, Funny)
We'll shoot this foot [slashdot.org]
Companies and countries without money... (Score:3, Insightful)
...looking for free alternatives to overpriced stuff. News at 11.
Nothing new really. We know Microsoft is going to die sooner or later. They've had their run in the industry but just like the RIAA their current models don't work well anymore in the current economies so they'll either adapt or die kicking and screaming in the courtroom. They chose the latter (just like the RIAA) because it seems to be the easiest way out (short term goals). The other way requires retooling and reshaping a lot of company structure, eliminating unnecessary management.
Wait, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are moving headlong to Free Software
Software resellers are moving headlong to Free Software? What is their business model supposed to be?
I'm going to assume this line is trying to say "The MCPs that don't go bankrupt in turn are going to bankrupt themselves for the Free Software cause, for no particular reason".
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
TFA isn't a masterpiece of unbiased discourse; but that part is fairly clear.
Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
From what I gathered from the article, most MCPs were selling licenses at a loss anyhow since that is how they could compete with the other MCPs - all with the hope that they could make that up in support contracts.
If that's true, then they were starting with a loss - and sold support.
Why not start at $0 and sell support?
Not exactly a balanced Article (Score:4, Informative)
OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office. This switch is easy because not only is OpenOffice.org superior software in every respect, itâ(TM)s also feature-compatible with Microsoft Office
Hm. no Can't agree with Open Office being superior. At the least a significant amount of re-learning is require. I know every time I use it I find it a frustrating experience.
And no if Word is the baseline then OO Writer is not feature complete. Once I learnt to use it the outline view in Word was the killer feature, which made editing large documents doable. Without outline view I could not imagine working on documents of a comparable size.
As for spreadsheets their are two keybindings I need. Insert current data and insert current time. Apparently their are third party macros for this. But tts something that's never available without additional effort when I try to use calc.
So no OpenOffice is not a simple drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. Then Again if it where a drop-in replacement then Microsoft would undoubtedly be suing.
I feel so sad for these poor MCPs... NOT! (Score:5, Insightful)
So let me get this straight; several MCPs in Iceland decided to dance with the devil, buying three-year software contracts from Microsoft for Office and some other applications. After purchasing said contracts directly from Microsoft, these MCP then turned around and sold the same contracts to other companies in Iceland, charging an annual fee to those companies while, I imagine, paying Microsoft on some type of installment plan. Now, when the economy tanks and the folks who paid last year aren't around this year when the bill comes due, these MCPs are surprised, shocked if you will, that Microsoft wants them to pay for the contracts they purchased directly from Microsoft? Truly, am I missing something here?
It doesn't take even a back-of-the-envelope calculation to see that, if you buy a three year contract from vender 'A' and sell it with an annual maintenance fee to customer 'B', you have in fact become a creditor for customer 'B'. It should therefore come as no surprise to these MCPs that, yes, Microsoft really does want them to pay for the contracts they purchased from Microsoft. I can't imagine anyone at Microsoft stuck a gun to their heads and said, "Sell Microsoft software contracts or die." If you dance with the devil, and willingly did business with Microsoft, than you'd better be prepared to pay for the software contracts you purchased from the company.
Perhaps I'm just not enough of a Microsoft-hater, but I fail to see the 'skull fucking' here. What I do see is an angry rant from, I assume, someone who's likely receiving calls from bill collectors in Redmond. I'm sorry that MCP thing didn't work out for you, and if you want to switch from plugging Microsoft products to promoting Open Source Software, than more power to you. But please don't ask me to overlook the poor business decision you made in becoming a de-facto creditor to your customers. If you don't like the way Microsoft does business in Iceland, you don't have to join their game. Take your marbles and go play in some other park with rules more suitable to your taste.
MCPs and Banksters (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't take even a back-of-the-envelope calculation to see that, if you buy a three year contract from vender 'A' and sell it with an annual maintenance fee to customer 'B', you have in fact become a creditor for customer 'B'. It should therefore come as no surprise to these MCPs that, yes, Microsoft really does want them to pay for the contracts they purchased from Microsoft. I can't imagine anyone at Microsoft stuck a gun to their heads and said, "Sell Microsoft software contracts or die." If you dance with the devil, and willingly did business with Microsoft, than you'd better be prepared to pay for the software contracts you purchased from the company.
You must have noticed the financial party we have been having for the last few years. Why should MCPs be any more sensible than the rest of us? Being sensible wasn't fashionable. The MPCs, like almost everybody else, have been busy buying into the mass delusion that boom lasts forever and recession is a thing of the past. When people are partying anybody being sensible isn't listened to and that usually doesn't change until the partygoers get a major reality check such as being arrested for drunk driving. In Iceland that reality check came in October 2008 in the rest of the world it will probably sink in more slowly.
Perhaps I'm just not enough of a Microsoft-hater, but I fail to see the 'skull fucking' here. What I do see is an angry rant from, I assume, someone who's likely receiving calls from bill collectors in Redmond. I'm sorry that MCP thing didn't work out for you, and if you want to switch from plugging Microsoft products to promoting Open Source Software, than more power to you. But please don't ask me to overlook the poor business decision you made in becoming a de-facto creditor to your customers. If you don't like the way Microsoft does business in Iceland, you don't have to join their game. Take your marbles and go play in some other park with rules more suitable to your taste.
What usually happens in a situation like this is that the distributor and the supplier reach an agreement where some of the debt is perhaps written off and the rest is paid back according to some sort of payment plan. The idea being that you as a manufacturer of a product are better off taking a hit which isn't good but results in the survivial of the network of distributors that you have built up over decades. If you don't do this the competition will swoop down and soak up your market share faster than you can say "negative EBITA". With a whole slew of IT people being unemployed you can rest assured that if Microsoft starts killing off MCPs, dozens of FOSS start-ups will pop up like mushrooms on a forest floor over the next few years to take their place and compete with Microsoft. These MCPs are companies with massive experience in selling MS products, servicing them and lobbying government into buying MS products instead of deploying FOSS. For Microsoft the party is over for the time being just like it is for their customers. Over the last few years Microsoft's corporate customers have become accustomed to burning through borrowed money as if it was firewood but over the foreseeable future that will change. Businesses will be lucky if they can get any credit at all and that, more than anything else, will make FOSS a more attractive option. I am not saying that FOSS will take over the European software market but Microsoft could lose some ground if they don't play their cards right.
Uhmmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
If I am a local grocer (the MCP) in a town, and I have just bought 10 tons of corn from the local farm (Microsoft) on agreement to pay for the corn over the next 3 years, but then suddenly all the area folks (other local businesses) cannot afford to buy corn from me anymore - what kind of nonsense suddenly absolves me of having to pay for the corn?
Sure, maybe Microsoft could be doing more negotiating on the contracts to help keep people in business - but guess what? They're a business too. Just because you don't like them doesn't make their contracts any less valid. Just because it's software and not a commodity doesn't make the contracts any less valid. If you take on the risk (the agreement to pay over 3 years, assuming you have revenue to pay for those 3 years), and your risk goes sour - you damned well better have to eat your sour grapes.
Incidentally, that's what is wrong with the bailouts in the US - the US goverment - ie, G W "Idiotboy" Bush and his Republican cronies told all the Wall Street CEOs - take on all the risk you want with other peoples' money, we got your back if it goes bad.
Only 350,000 Icelanders, make no dent on MS (Score:4, Insightful)
The population of Iceland is less than 350,000, barely as big as a medium-sized town. It's less than a single pixel on Microsoft's profit graph. I bet that not only do they not care about Icelandic MCPs going bust, but they don't care if the whole country - all 350,000 of them - does or does not use Microsoft software.
Chan chan chan....cha-cha-CHAANNNN! (Score:4, Funny)
MCPs: That was never a condition of our agreement... ...No.
Darth Bill: Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?
MCPs:
Darth Bill: Good, because it would be unfortunate if I had to leave a Ballmer here
Re:Link contains strong language and vivid imagery (Score:5, Funny)
"imagery" is the stuff you see inside your head when you read that strong language.
Re:Link contains strong language and vivid imagery (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Article text here. (Score:3, Informative)
Just because I hope to get modded up for a post containing the phrase 'skull fucking':
Microsoft Skull-fucks Iceland's Economy, Contracts Syphilis
Microsoft has made a business out of selling licenses to run software that can be copied at no marginal cost, this everybody knows. Essentially, they manufacture software, but their product isn't computer code, it's legal code. Contracts.
They make deals with companies, the most common type being three year non-exclusive non-transferable usage rights contracts for t
Re:Article text here. (Score:5, Insightful)
Quote "The easiest switch would be to go to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office. This switch is easy because not only is OpenOffice.org superior software in every respect ...".
Looks like a nice impartial artice.
Re:Article text here. (Score:5, Funny)
Looks like a nice impartial artice.
You had to read 13 paragraphs of an article titled "Microsoft Skull-fucks Iceland's Economy, Contracts Syphilis" to decide it's not impartial?
Re:Article text here. (Score:5, Informative)
And the rest of that sentence:
not only is OpenOffice.org superior software in every respect, it's also feature-compatible with Microsoft Office
Look, I like F/OSS software (and dislike MS) as much as the next geek but that's simply not true.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm at Convergence 2009 -right now-. Not a word has been mentioned of any Icelandic issue, though I doubt it would be.
I'm getting the impression that Microsoft is hurting for cash, however. They're heavily emphasizing expanding sales of their poorly performing products (Sharepoint) and have mentioned abandoning any and all endeavors to greatly improve or integrate the Dynamics line. Definitely getting the "Hold the Fort" impression here.
Which got my thinking: here's a room of a thousand MCPs, about to be ma
heh @ openoffice comment (Score:4, Interesting)
This switch is easy because not only is OpenOffice.org superior software in every respect, it's also feature-compatible with Microsoft Office, supports reading and writing of Microsoft's file formats Ã" even the ones that Microsoft Office itself no longer supports Ã" and is free to boot, both free as in freedom and free as in price.
To be fair, I used to think sort of the same thing - why use MS Office when OpenOffice is there and does most of that stuff?
Then I got MS Office at work - mostly to combat problems we had with compatibility with our clients sending us 'real' .doc files. OpenOffice would spit out something that didn't maintain the exact formatting, which pissed everyone off.
But the main thing for me is just the sheer awesomeness of the whole thing. I never used 2003 so didn't struggle at all with the new 'ribbon' thing, which I think is great. I find the whole Office package shits all over OpenOffice in terms of usability and performance.
I thought I'd get MS Office and only use it for stuff that had to be interoperable with our clients and use OOo for everything else - but I've switched to using MS Office for everything. Sorry, but it's better.
If you have to interoperate with anyone doing high-end Word stuff you might struggle to switch to OOo. But if you can make EVERYONE you deal with use it ALL at once and the formatting stuff isn't that big a deal - then sure, it'll work for you.
Re:slashdotted (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You have got to be new here. 5 minutes probably wouldn't make the top 100 fastest slashdotings of all time...
Re:slashdotted... but available on Coral Cache (Score:5, Informative)
Still viewable via ye olde Coral Cache: http://smari.yaxic.org.nyud.net/blag/2009/03/06/microsoft-skull-fucks-icelands-economy-contracts-syphilis/ [nyud.net]
Re:slashdotted... but available on Coral Cache (Score:5, Funny)
(Warning: link contains strong language and vivid imagery.)
Excellent way to get people to RTFA :)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
A bridge too far. Just as MSFT shares were relatively stale during the latest bull market (early '06?), they're likely to hold up during this bear market. Why? A hell of a lot of cash on that balance sheet. Were it not for that, I'd say, "Commence firing." But they have a sizeable cushion and flexibility from the war chest they amassed in the 90's.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm. On a per-share basis, they actually don't have much cash at all (9E9 shares outstanding, $20E9 in the bank, so their cash value is only about $2/share.)
And Ballmer has shown all the restraint and conservative business acumen of a recent lottery winner. "Gee, I think I'll use the company's entire war chest to, um, buy Yahoo! Yeah, that's it, Yahoo! I can has Yahoo?"
Sounds like a lot of downside, more than their cash reserves can cushion.
Re:Discussion point: time to short MSFT? (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, they don't really have any place to expand their revenue, unless they can get people in developing countries to start paying for windows, and with hardware prices coming down, they are going to have to start charging less in order to remain competitive, so they are looking at reduced revenue on multiple fronts, and not many places to increase revenue.
Would I short them? Heck no. It can take a long time for all of these to come into play, and as Milton Friedman said, the market can remain irrational much longer than you can remain solvent.