Re: Free software & commercialisation (was: Re: [Fsfe-uk] BECTA discriminate against FLOSS?)

[ian]

On Sun, 2004-01-04 at 12:00, Alex Hudson wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-01-04 at 11:32, Chris Croughton wrote:
> > MS seem to be very into the "meetings culture" and against people
> > mixing much between teams (one hand not knowing what the other is
> > doing).  So I've heard from people who have worked for them both in the
> > UK and in the US.
> 
> I heard they were quite competitive internally, but I always thought of
> it as a great place to work. Although I have heard the meetings culture
> thing too.. but I did think that one of the things MS got right was the
> way they treated their staff and made it an enticing place to work.

When you make 85% profit margins you can afford to. The main management
problem for MS is that its a large role culture like all big companies
and role cultures find it difficult to change. Add this to a relatively
cushy existence protected by the monopoly and I would guess there are
some vulnerabilities particularly if real competition emerges. IBM lost
about 10 billion in one quarter in 1993 on a similar basis so no doubt
it could happen again to another company but in the short term its more
likely to be a fall in profit margin than an outright loss with MS.

-- 
ian <address@hidden>