Microsoft in Chinese burn ENIGMA: Anti-trust agents' 'sudden visit' to offices Four of Microsoft's offices in China were "visited" by antitrust regulators on Monday, but neither the software and devices giant nor the Chinese government has explained why. "We aim to build products that deliver the features, security and reliability customers expect, and we will address any concerns the government may have …
"There was a visit from government officials to our offices," a Microsoft spokeswoman told The New York Times. "Given the sensitivity of the issue, I can't say anymore."
Sensitivity, the keyword.
Now, is it the Chinese that are stealing too much from MS, or is it that MS can't manage to steal enough from the Chinese.
Sherlock wants to know.
"We aim to build products that deliver the features, security and reliability customers expect, and we will address any concerns the government may have."
That's the greatest cover your ass quote of all time, even if horribly inaccurate.
1) Microsoft products have way more features than customers expect, or know about.
2) Microsoft products are way more secure than people have come to expect based on past performance. With the exception of IE, they're actually not bad, for being among the most attacked products out there. The issue is typically third party software.
Additional problems:
A) Microsoft won't price products at a level that customers can actually afford. See: VDA, SPLA, or the new "per core" licensing. Thanks, Oracle Microsoft!
B) Microsoft won't address any of the concerns that customers may have regarding their products*.
So a great bit of fluffy PR faffery...but ultimately means nothing.
*From soul-destroyingly bad UIs to tentacular omnishambles licensing through to privacy or even something as simple as guaranteed product lifespans to ensure that we don't get PlaysForSured in this increasingly Cloud First, Mobile First, Customers/Partners/Developers/Staff last world.
When the servers are turned off because they don't represent "ongoing shareholder value" for Microsoft, but you rely on them...what then? Hmm? And just who can see your data, under what circumstances? What is Microsoft doing to reduce that to "you and only you can ever see your data"?
If you don't like the terms, leave. It's really that simple. How much are you really going to make from a country whose culture doesn't fit into your business plan?
The Chinese government thinks that it can just let people steal operating systems forever just like it did with XP. Funny, but if Linux is free, why do they still want Microsoft?
Now that XP is no longer supported and all the more recent Microsoft products require activation over the internet, what can you do?
The Chinese government doesn't like XP end of life because somewhere, some politicians brother in law is not able to sell pirated copies at a huge profit like he did with XP. Worse, future implementations will rely on the "Cloud" (Big mistake Microsoft!)
The "internet" in China is already censored and getting worse. It is intermittent in many areas and the "Cloud" won't work well.
I'm also betting any Microsoft activation URL is already blocked by the great firewall.
...but if Linux is free, why do they still want Microsoft?
I only took freshman economics and freshman sociology to satisfy the core requirements in Mathematics/Engineering, and then I took them both waaaay too long ago, but my understanding is that it all boils down to peer pressure and opportunity cost.
Think of it like speeding. If everyone around you is speeding, you don't want to be the ONLY guy doing the speed limit even if you're otherwise law-abiding. Plus, if everybody's doing it, what's the likelihood you're going to be the one pulled over?
You can ask yourself: What HAPPENED along this stretch of road to make everyone speed so much (if you like: Why do the Chinese, specifically, seem so much MORE willing to commit this crime in contrast to folks in other countries)? And there might be reasons regarding terrain, time of day, and so on (perhaps: IP is a new concept in Chinese culture, and moreover, doesn't really fit in well with a socialist ideal at all).
Leaving China, also, may not even be effective in slowing down the piracy problem. Remaining may be the only possibility to remediate the situation.
I say "may." I don't know. I also get frustrated when Chinese jackasses sell children's toys covered in lead, and BS like that. But I'll bet the situation has complexities I haven't thought of, so offering a solution without knowlege may be jumping the gun here. I say "may" again.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
