wtf_man, yes you are right.. I was only speaking hypothetically. Put the conversation into context. We are talking about if Windows will become free. I doubt it and I said my reasons why.

A business model where MS would get revenue from advertising (like Google), for example, instead of charging for Windows should be viewed as experimental and imo, very risky for MS.

Also, Google's OS (Chrome) is a joke compared to Windows. Linux can never succeed on the desktop like Windows has for many reasons. I'll state a few:

There really is no standard Linux OS. Linux is just a kernel. Each distribution has a different setups and ways of doing things. That makes it very hard to support.

Linux suffers from a chronic case of 'dependency hell.'

Linux suffers from a constantly shifting software base. This relates to my first reason.. Standards are established and then quickly move and change. For example, the Linux kernel had some changes that immediately made ATI's driver incompatible. This almost never happened with Vista or XP to my recollection but happens regularly with Linux or Xorg or with compiz, etc etc.. Then Linux fanatics blame ATI for not updating the driver but the real cause was the kernel change(s).

Apple isn't going to dethrone MS until they can make a better OS that works on real PC's. Google isn't going to invest a billion dollars in an OS to rival Windows (which is what is needed).

Apple isn't trying to dethrone MS in the home computer sector. They are after a different market. It's a niche market that they do well in.

Apple? Not until they confront MS head on, on the PC.

That's not going to happen - ever. Apple limits the amount of hardware OSX has to support so they can concentrate on making it run smoothly on those limited hardware configurations (Sort of like game console OS's do, but obviously more than one hardware config).

Apple is a Hardware company, not a software company per se. MS is a different animal... they have to make their OS work with tens of thousands of hardware combinations, and support it.

It is something that PC gamers just don't get though their thick skulls, even when they build Hackintoshes. Sure, OSX will run with a limited amount of non-Apple hardware, but it doesn't have to be supported by the company. Don't let the Apple Vista bashing commercials and MS Laptop Hunter commercials fool you... Yeah they are in competition and jab at each other, but it's not at the degree that you may think. Microsoft actually owns Apple stock, and has worked with Apple to get OSX and MS Office to be Active Directory and Exchange more natively compliant.

LOL dangerdog. Nice idea but only an open platform could compete with PC successfully. I don't see why nvidia would develop an open platform. I'm not sure they even have the right talent to design a good general-pupose CPU. They'd be more inclined to use CUDA, and CUDA is "only available from NVIDIA" - wikipedia.

Isn't time we abandon x86?

That's what x64 is doing:replacing x86. Also ARM processors are doing well with the netbooks. Open platforms are the key, otherwise they eventually fail.

This comment was edited on Aug 21, 2009, 03:13.

Google and Nvidia team up, create a completely new hardware platform from the ground up with Google providing the OS. Nvidia can leverage their partnership with game studios to sway them into developing games for the new platform.

Isn't time we abandon x86?

It does seem like that is the direction but I'm not so sure Windows will be free any time soon. How are they going to generate revenue? By advertising? I'd much rather have MS working for me than some advertiser. That would be a conflict of interest.

I guess the thing to watch is to see if Google makes their OS competitive with Windows. Until then, it's all speculation and industry hype. All these new possible alternative revenue streams for Microsoft should be considered no more than experimental.

Apple isn't going to dethrone MS until they can make a better OS that works on real PC's. Google isn't going to invest a billion dollars in an OS to rival Windows (which is what is needed).

We need a list of possible contenders.. Who can rival MS Windows..?

Sony? Nope.
Dell? Nah.
Apple? Not until they confront MS head on, on the PC.
Bluesnews? Possible but Blue is smarter than that.
twogirlsonecup dot com - sure.

This comment was edited on Aug 20, 2009, 23:58.

I've got the feeling that this will be the last build of Windows that people will be willing to pay for. If MS wants to stay in the OS game they better start thinking of other revenue streams before Google and several other entities start rolling out their own free alternatives.