By what measures do you judge the success of the FSF’s public advocacy campaigns, and how do you think they have been doing?

Below is my reply. Comments, as always, are welcome.

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Dear Mr. Sullivan,

First of all, congratulations in your new role.

You asked for comments and criticism on FSF campaigns, so here is it.

How do I measure a campaign’s success? Does it result in market share change? Is there positive brand recognition? Does the general public come away thinking good thoughts about Free Software or are they lost in scary geeky confusion?

With the rest of this letter, I will discuss several FSF campaigns and mantras. Where the FSF does well and areas that could do a little better.

I would like to see The FSF to be a beacon for all of Free culture. Specifically, work more with obvious allies like MediaWiki, Archive.org, Xiph.org, and Creative Commons. I loved the film “Patent Absurdity” and your collaboration with the Software Freedom Law Center. Any time you see allies, I want to see FSF to think Win-Win as I saw in that film.

I want to see FSF to not hold such harsh criticism to those who use semantics that you do not agree with. You can gently continue to remind people who say “Open Source” or “Linux” without the GNU. Refusing to go to events or help projects by people who do not use your language is a missed opportunity to gently make your point. The current posture is elitist and “my way or the highway.”

The “GNU/Linux vs Linux” argument is the very reason that I was convinced from 1999-2009 that the FSF wouldn’t even want me to be a member. Eventually I became a member anyhow since my freedom is much too important.

It is cool that the FSF continues to use “GNU/Linux.” Depending on the audience, or the level of specificity I need, I will say “GNU/Linux” too. But, when talking to the general public I say, “I use Linux.” I get two typical answers to that “Oh, my friend uses Ubuntu!” or “Gee, I’m not a computer wiz like you.” I’m sorry but “GNU/Linux” is not brand-recognizable in the world domination scale.

In this day in age, it is difficult enough for products based on the kernel such as Android or WebOS for me to shout from the mountaintops “Linux is winning” let alone, “GNU/Linux is winning.”  Some desktop distributions such as Fedora have dropped the word “Linux” purposely from their product name. Would the FSF rather that no one would say “Linux?!?”

Furthermore, would you rather people who say “Open Source” not become FSF members? We spend so much time using of neutral terms such as “non-proprietary” or acronyms such as FLOSS so that we don’t offend the Free Software Foundation’s hard line. When someone does say “Open Source” instead, a pedantic argument ensues, making both sides of the argument look childish to someone who has not yet committed to freedom. By the 20 times effective frequency theory, the “Free Software” brand nor the “Open Source” brand will sound appealing, even after they’ve heard it 20 times after all this negativity.

I actually jealous of those whose native language isn’t English because they are less likely to hear the “Open Source” bashing. We all get enough FUD from proprietary software, and our great foe Microsoft. Free Software has won in emerging economies such as Brazil and powerhouses such as France, Russia, and China.  It is time we focus on what is important.

I would rather the FSF focus on unity. I loved the “working together” campaign. Build on where we all agree. Politely say, “excuse me ‘Free Software’” when someone says “Open Source” and move on. Check out Open Respect. There is a respectful way to assert your point of view so please for heavens sakes, drop the anger. I know we can all be friends. Really.

Finally, a conversation about The Free Software Foundation’s campaigns would not be complete without mentioning “The Party of GNO.” Yes, I agree that Windows 7 is “sinful” and that iPhones are “defective by design.” I understand these things because I am I freedom loving person. Someone who does not yet understand freedom yet sees the FSF as a group of judgemental purist freaks who make Free Software sound non-fun.

I would rather campaigns that promote the advancement and use of Free Software. Software Freedom Day is awesome. Funding GNASH as a high-priority project is great. I want people to want to use Free Software because it is the most beautiful, the most useful, the most fun software out there. No one should have to compromise their freedom for that one application or driver. Sadly we are not there yet, but we are oh so close.

Please focus on bridging gaps where there are not great Free Software options and the celebrating success of outstanding Free Software projects. That is the the Free Software Foundation I want to support.

Thank you for taking the time to have this discussion with your members. I’m really looking forward to your thoughts after your Mid-May contemplation.

Sincerely,
Beth Lynn Eicher

For those wondering the answer: What will we use if Microsoft is not the majority market share?
The answer is iOS and Linux. Apple and Google Android tablets will be the back to school computer of choice as of this summer creating a devastating trend for Microsoft.

Microsoft is unable to buy market share at top Computer Science universities such as Carnegie Mellon. Despite a 20 million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Foundation, desktop users still prefer Linux to Microsoft Windows. Inside the very house that Gates built, you will not find a single Windows computer in their labs. Red Hat fixed that by funding computer labs there.

I will personally pay a visit to the Red Hat labs at Carnegie Mellon University on Monday March 7 – and you are welcome to join me. Just sign up!

What will we buy?

To answer this question I took to the malls earlier this week.

A Microsoft Windows Mobile 7 phone?

There a Windows Mobile 7 ad was a placemat in the mall food court. The same ad was on the mall doors. Even if I wanted this phone after seeing this add, this product was hard to be found. Only the AT&T store seemed to be selling the Microsoft product. I visited the store and saw one sales person who was aggressively standing in the mall coordinator to attempt to invite shoppers into his store.

What will we buy instead?

The Verizon store was too busy selling Apple iPads, 7 inch Samsung
Galaxy Tab Tablets with Google Android, and the “Droid” line of
Android phones. The T-Mobile Store was too busy selling the Galaxy Tabs
and other Android products. The Sprint store is enjoying sales of the
4G Evo Android phone and the HP Palm WebOS (Linux) phone. RadioShack, a
store that sells phones under many carriers was not selling any
Microsoft phones.

The Barnes and Noble were selling their Android color book reader called the Nook. Even though this product has impressive hardware for an eReader, it unfortunately lacks access to the Android market.

Sears had three Android devices to sell this weekend: The 10 inch Viewsonic G-Tablet, the 7 inch Pandigital eReader, and the Velocity Micro 7inch Tablet.

But what about those Windows 7 netbooks which are subsidized cost by Mobile Wireless plans?

At the Verizon store there was a line to touch the Galaxy Tab and the iPad. Once I got my turn, I snapped the photo to the right. Note that there are two netbooks positioned above the Galaxy Tabs. To the right, not pictured, was the line to see the iPad. Nobody was here to buy the Microsoft netbooks. Everyone was here to lay their hands on the tablets.

Sears is also selling the 7″ Sylvania netbook with runs WindowsCE, a 15 year old operating
system from Microsoft. This device is sure to disappoint customers as it lacks full Flash functionality for YouTube and Facebook games.

OK commenter. What will you buy this holiday season?

A. A Microsoft-powered phone/netbook/tablet?

B. An Apple product which uses iOS such as iPhone, iPad, or iPod
Shuffle.

C. An Apple product which uses MacOSX such as the Airbook.

D. An Android-powered phone, tablet, or eReader.

E. Waiting for stores to carry an ARM-powered Ubuntu or ChromeOS device.

F. none of the above…. Please explain….

I am a shareholder of your company. The world is still waiting for your Q4 FY2010 report so that we will know how much money you made as of June 30, 2010. We are all on Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein’s schedule. Mr. Klein, you rival Red Hat posted their FY 2010 report, what is the hold up?

Since I have yet to receive a personal invitation to your shareholders meeting on July 29, 2010. I have several more questions for Microsoft which I will ask from here. I welcome any answers from leadership or the floor.

What is your mobile strategy in a post-PC world? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may try to deny it. The fact is that PC desktop sales have been on a decline, 23% down as of last year. Bill Gates has nothing to do with the day-to-day anymore and it shows.

Your attempt to reach the youth via smart phones was an epic failure. KIN has been pulled by Verizon in a matter of weeks. Anonymous purported employees claimed that the IP you bought acquiring Danger are now wasted and call it as embarrassing as Microsoft Bob. Joe Wilcox correctly predicted Kin’s failure as you fired the leadership of the Entertainment and Devices division just before the Kin product launch. I too predicted in November 2009 that Kin, then code-named “Pink,” would not live up to Mr. Ballmer’s nor Mr. Gates’ vision. How could releasing the Kin under the circumstances be profitable? Why would anybody buy a Kin? Android and the iPhone have cameras, Facebook, Twitter, and more… how could you proceed into the market with less?!? Sure you can say I don’t get it because I am not a teenager but still how can you make a social phone without a calendar? Sorry, the Microsoft brand does not equal cool with whatever crowd you expected to buy Kin.

You bought the wrong smartphone IP. Last year bloggers advised you to buy Palm for their Linux-based WebOS, but you let that HP beat you to it. Now HP plans to ditch Microsoft for WebOS on tablets netting a double loss for you. There goes Mr. Ballmer’s iPad killer. Your excuses come from Mr. Klein who complains that tech mergers are hard to do. Is this fiscal leadership?

With all of the Kin ads you bought, did you once stop to notice that Windows Mobile lost market share to Google Android Linux? Developers are not chomping at the bit to write apps for Windows 7 Mobile but they were so eager to do so for Apple that WWDC2010 sold out. Developers favor Android over Apple’s iPhone OS which makes any platform you put together a third class even before product launch.

What is next, Microsoft, yet another round of layoffs? No wonder Business Insider is saying “Microsoft’s Business Could Collapse in 2010.” First Google ditches Windows on security concerns. Next, IBM names Firefox its web browser standard. Microsoft apologist, Ina Fried reports that Microsoft is now forced to offer no-cost Office options in order to compete with OpenOffice.Org and Google Docs. How does firing people now help you make products that actually sell?

Microsoft, I can not say I did not warn you as I have been warning you of your demise here at whatwillweuse.com. I do not stand alone as Computer World is ready to admit: Linux could become the world’s most popular operating system. Come June 30, 2011, Microsoft, you will lack majority market share. What are you going to do about it?

Sincerely,

Beth Lynn Eicher

What Did I Buy

20 shares of ARMH- the low-power microprocessor behind Apple iPhone 4 and most Google Android phones. Since they are positioning to bring netbooks and thin-clients running Ubuntu and/or Google’s ChromeOS/Android, ARM processors will kill the PC. Microsoft will regret their decision not to support ARM on Windows 7.

7 shares of RHT- the Linux distributor Red Hat already has impressive enterprise server market share. As applications shift to the “software as a service” model, Red Hat will profit as green penny pinching IT managers look to the cloud. With their entrance to the virtualization market, they will capitalize on customers who want a single finger to point. Virtualization competitors Citrix and VMware do not make a guest-level OS, putting Red Hat at the cloud market advantage.

1 share MFST- the software giant is imploding yet I bought a single share. I welcome Microsoft’s glossy pamphlets which deny the epic failure that is afoot.

What we will buy affects what we will use.

Microsoft may be left behind by the growth of the tablet market.

In a few years, Apple has managed to make a space for itself at the center of the smart phone market. While Google’s has joined the fray with the Android operating system more recently, their results so far are impressive and they’re on track to carve out a good market share for themselves.

These are two touch-based operating systems that are now building a customer base that’s comfortable with their interface, and a large market of apps designed to work with them. Where’s Microsoft? Even Steve Ballmer has admitted that they’re well behind in the battle for customers in the smart phone market.

The real problem for Microsoft is that this isn’t going to stop at smart phones. Apple has already begun selling the iPad – a tablet PC that uses the same iOS software that runs the iPhone – with great success. Recently, both Dell and Acer have announced that they intend to produce and sell a new line of tablet PCs.

What operating system have they chosen to support them? Android.

This isn’t the first time that a company has tried to make a market for tablets, and all the previous attempts failed, but that was partly because no one was doing a very good at creating the touch interface required. Now that both Apple and Google have successfully done exactly that, the tablet PC has a real chance of becoming commonplace.

More importantly, the iPad is attempting to build on the success that Amazon’s Kindle has had in persuading consumers to accept the idea of ebooks. With ebook software already available for Linux, it’s likely that Android-based tablets are going to do the same. This means that there’ll be an entire product niche of tablet-style personal computers that are designed to do well at displaying text. It won’t be a large jump from there for users to expect to have rich capability at creating and editing documents as well.

There’s still time for Microsoft to mount a meaningful response, but there’s also an opening here. If Microsoft’s Office doesn’t become the office software of choice for the tablet market, another company could grab a decent chunk of market share away from them.

Before Apple’s “I am a Mac and he’s a PC” ads, long before Microsoft’s “I am a PC and Windows 7 is my idea,” Red Hat Inc. had released a campaign in 2004 “I am Fedora.” To Red Hat, Fedora is commitment, not a gimmick. Fedora is both a living community and a Linux-based operating system for those who love freedom.

I, Beth Lynn Eicher, am Fedora.

Here at “What Will We Use” we discuss Ubuntu bug one: Microsoft will lose majority market share come June 30, 2011. Some may be surprised then by my announcement of the title of this post, “I am Fedora,” as some people assume that one can be loyal to only one Linux-based operating system. I am here to explain why I love Fedora, and last weekend at the South East Linux Fest, I joined the Fedora Project. It was a long journey to join a project which produces a Linux operating-system. Still, it feels like I am finally home.

Back in 1999, my employer, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center put a Red Hat Linux system running an Alpha processor on my desk. From there I was supposed to do write parallel code for a Red Hat Linux beowulf cluster. It was tricky without some basic desktop tools. The default install for the Alpha lacked a browser, let alone an office suite. There was no Internet Explorer for Red Hat Linux… there still is not. If you used an Intel-based Red Hat system, you could get Netscape. The Mozilla Project, which beget the Firefox browser, was still very new and no one had compiled and packaged the source code for the Alpha. Despite all of these frustrations, I liked that I could use other tools such as Openssh, Gcc, and Ghostview. I came home to my Windows system, I missed the software at the office. While Windows alternatives existed for these applications, they were expensive. Sure, Cygwin existed back then but I did not know about it.

I saved my entire paycheck for several months to be able to afford a Linux box from of my own. The vendor was “Explorer Micro” who agreed to ship the system with a copy of Red Hat 6.0. The order took over two months which was this vendor’s M.O. Once the system arrived, it was painful: The operating system was not installed, the CD-Rom drive was defective, the modem was not US-Robotics, the sound card required a driver that was not in the Linux 2.2 kernel. Still, with the help of Western PA Linux User Group, I was up and running happily.

In 2001 I went to go work for Carnegie Mellon at the School of Computer Science. There, my job was to support the now defunct proprietary UNIX operating system, IRIX. Many UNIX-based platforms were used as a desktop with the fastest growing being Red Hat Linux. Before long, I was a Linux system administrator too.

Most of my days involved building systems. I knew and lived the pain points of Xfree86, isapnp, usb, and sound cards that would not support midi. Even though we could download the software at no cost and install off a floppy, I would still buy the boxed sets. Loki Games came with Each Red Hat Linux 7.2 only in the boxed set since the software was not open source. Still, I looked forward to each full number release with fantastic excitement. In 2003, Red Hat Linux 9 was simply glorious with Open Office and Mozilla – that was “the year of the Linux desktop” for me.

In 2004, that all changed with Fedora. Red Hat Inc. was no longer going to release “Red Hat Linux.” Instead, customers could buy support contracts for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or use their new community-based Linux named Fedora. Being at a non-profit university, the “per employee” model of support that RHEL sales contract tried to make us buy was not going to cut it. Fedora on the other hand was at no cost but would a distribution with an aggressive 6 month that welcomed volunteer code. But would Fedora be any good? Red Hat Inc. made Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science ask “What will we use?”

Much was going on in the desktop operating system market also during the same time: Microsoft Windows XP was the most popular Windows yet, Novell had just bought SUSE, Lindows (aka Linspire) was looking suave, Apple’s market share was picking up as MacOSX matured… In the end we chose to support Fedora  from day one. We figured that it would be the most familiar to our large Red Hat Linux user base.

Also in 2004 I became a major contributor to the Ohio LinuxFest. This will be important later.

After we started deploying Fedora, I did like it. I must have installed it over 1000 times for professors and graduate students. In 2005, I went out to the CPLUG Security Conference to do a talk. As a speaker, Red Hat gave us some really nice swag including a t-shirt that said “I am Fedora.” Even though I had used and installed Fedora just as much as some Red Hat Inc. employees, I did not know how I could make such a bold claim.

I am Fedora?!? I did not commit a single keystroke to the operating system product known as Fedora.

How could I ever be Fedora as a systems administrator? This question troubled me. Heavens knows I wanted to give back. I was giving back by organizing the Ohio LinuxFest for a solid year by then. Still, I could not wear the “I am Fedora” shirt, since surely it meant for someone who contributes code… not me.

After about 9 months after receiving the “I am Fedora” shirt I pondered what my Fedora-specific contribution could be. Installing un-vetted packages was risky business. The Fedora that we deployed at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science was fairly customized with OpenAFS, a distributed filesystem. I wanted to build a repository of .rpms that the user community at the university enjoy. Hopefully other universities that used similar dependency issues could use the repository too.  Unfortunately, we turned off up2date because the default Fedora kernel did not include the “tainted” openafs module. (Due to legacy issues, OpenAFS is distributed under a free software license but it is incompatible with the GPL.)

Building and maintaining the repository would have entailed more time than I had. Meanwhile, Fedora was so popular I was deploying several computers a day. I proposed the repository idea to the management anyhow. Regretfully they decided to keep their packaging of the in-house codes in depot format. My rpm repository idea did not support the almost moot system types such as Solaris and IRIX system types that depot treated like a generic UNIX-like system.

Still, I regret not trying harder. Users were downloading their own .rpms from Fedora, Fedora legacy, rpmfind, and sourceforge without any care if it broke something distributed by depot. The users wanted fresher packages than what the depot maintainers could provide and did not care what was considered “supported.” It was my job to clean up the rpm vs depot conflict mess. Meanwhile, the official stance was depot only or be darned.

Instead of just deploying a stealth rpm repository or arguing it out, I decided to leave the university. Sure there were other reasons for me to go including my suspicions of the Carnegie Mellon’s Gates Center of Computer Science which was funded from Bill and Melinda Foundation. Ultimately, I resigned for another job in September 2006. An opportunity to really do something for the success of Linux occurred with a system administrator opening at the Linux-embedded support company: Timesys Corporation.

While at Timesys, I supported the computers that ran the business and not the product. For the first time in my then 8 year professional career, I was supporting both Linux and Windows. The funny thing is the systems running Kubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and CentOS required about 5% of my attention. The rest of my time was working with proprietary firewalls, closed-source PBX-es, Microsoft Exchange, viruses on Microsoft desktops, and Blackberry support. To this day I can not understand how a company who sells the cost-savings of software freedom can insist so much on a proprietary infrastructure for their day-to-day business. With all of the proprietary support, there was very little time to work with the Linux operating system I loved. Still I was producing the Ohio LinuxFest in my spare time. In 2007, I left Timesys for my current employer. There is not much I can say about what I do now but I am happily supporting Linux.

2007 was an exciting year for both Fedora and the Ohio LinuxFest. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) was shipping with a Fedora/Sugar base. The Buy-Two-Get-One OLPC project was a little too successful. Yup. I bought the two. Meanwhile I had finally felt like I was part of the success of Linux doing not for pay work for the Ohio LinuxFest. There I was working with dozens of open source projects and for-profit companies to create an excellent expo. The icing on the cake was Fedora’s community manager,Max Spevak, keynoted at that year.

Still I did not feel right saying “I am Fedora.”

Why not? I did not want to publicly show preference for one distribution for another.

Meanwhile, I was running both Ubuntu and Fedora:

• Ubuntu to test so that I could support my friends who were using that distribution.
• Fedora for the freshest free software and drivers out there.

People would see me at user groups using Ubuntu and make assumptions that I was “just a Ubuntu person.” Instead of asserting preference of Ubuntu or Fedora, I proclaimed neutrality. I really did not want anyone to assume that I, as Ohio LinuxFest officer, would direct the conference to be too much of one distribution or another. Heck, I will defend to the ends of the earth that the Ohio LinuxFest has room for all of free software, even non-Linux distributions like FreeBSD and Haiku.

Freedom to choose from many excellent free software options means more free software for everybody.

Until last weekend at the South East LinuxFest 2010, I kept my allegiances to myself. There I joined the Fedora Project Documentation Project. Later I will post why documentation and why Fedora for my first free software project endeavor.

Even as I take my Red Hat out of the closet, I have no intention of snubbing anyone for what they use. Moreover, I will be sure to write more about Red Hat, Fedora, and Ubuntu in the next twelve months.

I am not a Mac. Nor a PC. I am Fedora.

My copy of Microsoft Disk Operating System, circa 1984

In the 1980′s IBM, convinced that there was only money in hardware, licensed the operating systems for desktop computers to Microsoft Corporation. The PC was born. Software was shipped as a  boxed set with disks and manuals. Want more software? Want newer software? You had to buy it for hundreds of dollars from a licensed distributor, either at a store or through a sales person. Buying  the software then opening the box locked you into an end-user-licensing-agreement contract. If you try the software and you find it inadequate, you do not have the source code so your IT department can not fix it. You may call the company who made the software for help but they are likely to charge you as much as a physic hotline. There are no refunds on the software itself or support bills. If you are a home customer, you are at the mercy of user or “hobbyist” clubs who may provide some help on a volunteer basis. These hobbyists might even have some free software which matches your needs even better than the boxed software you bought for a couple hundred dollars. You might be lucky enough to have a geek somewhere in your family or circle of friends but in the end it is all just a hassle.

Why can’t the software be brought to wherever the computer is? All sorts of applications should be available by type by search-able key words. It would be a store that free and for purchase software would be side by side. Large companies and small businesses should compete for your business in the true American entrepreneurial spirit. Software should be vetted publicly. Each software product would have customer reviews from early adopters (IT people, hobbyists, and geeks) so that you can choose only the best software for your computer. The software should be intuitive yet inexpensive. Payment for software should only a few dollars or less. All you should have to do is one click and the software should ready to run in a minute without any additional action on your behalf. Software by easy button.
The software store I describe is not science fiction. This is reality for Apple “App Store” for Ipad/Iphone, the “Ubuntu Software Center” for Canonical’s Linux-based desktop operating system, the Google “Android Market” for Android Linux-based phones, and Palm “PreWare” for WebOS Linux-based phones.

Ladies and Gentelmen, the platform-delivered software store is how distributed in the 21st century. Unfortunately for Microsoft, no such thing exists for Windows. 

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer doesn’t get it.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs does: The PC is so over.

What will we use come June 30, 2011? Not boxed Microsoft software.

From ieteam's flickr stream under Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license, open the code Microsoft, or else...

March 2010 will prove to be a critical month in ending Microsoft’s chances of having majority browser market share. All of the sudden, people world wide will be asking themselves, “What will we use?”

I believe that every person should be free to choose a browser. How did I choose not to use Internet Explorer?

On my first internet computer, I used Mosaic as a web browser in 1993. In the 1990s I also tried AOL’s browser but Netscape Communicator was my favourite. By the end of the decade, I was using Mozilla on Linux causally. Through the mid-2000′s Windows 9x would be my primary desktop where I used Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox until my husband gave me an Apple.

Admittedly, I have not used Opera and Safari since 2003. I was using MacOSX on the desktop at the time and there was no definitive browser king for that platform at the time. I tried Internet Explorer and Firefox for the Mac too. As I recall, I ditched Opera because its no-cost product was Adware. Commercials would display in a panel taking up valuable screen real-estate and bandwidth. On that system, Safari was my favourite browser for a few months because it was the only one with tab support. Soon after, Firefox released tab support and I was back home with the Netscape/Mozilla based browsers. There were no features with Internet Explorer worth holding my attention. For the most part since 2005, I have faithfully using Firefox.

I do want to tip my hat to two other browsers: Safari and Opera.

Apple products, Safari is no exception, have aesthetics in mind. I’m sure some people appreciate its integration with Itunes. Due to it’s lack of Linux version, however, I have not even tried the Apple browser since 2005 when my MacOSX system died. Even so, I understand why people enjoy Safari. While the entire Safari browser is not open source, the core components known as Webkit are open source. have been re-implemented as Konquerer and Epiphany by KDE and GNOME. Quite honestly, I wonder if these browsers are mistaken for Safari in market share counters. Either way, Apple benefits from the code they do write and the code they did not directly sponsor to make the Safari product.

Are you paying attention Microsoft? Since you do not sell Internet Explorer as a product, why do you hold onto the code? Learn from your competitor Apple. This is how you can leverage open source to maintain relevance now that your browser is no longer holding the majority of market share.

Microsoft does not have a monopoly in the proprietary browser space. Opera, the browser that I have not as much as blinked at since 2003 is alive and well. Apparently, they are the fastest mobile web browser – a market where Microsoft suffers. Business at Opera is good since they have figured out how to monetize. Also paying the bills for Opera is Nintendo who have partnered web browsing product for Wii and DSi called the Internet Channel. While Microsoft makes console browsing difficult, Nintendo keeps their customers happy  Too bad for Microsoft who can not get past the vaporware stage when it comes to launching their own portable game system, let alone porting IE for it.

While Microsoft is teasing us with the idea that they MIGHT think about working with open web standards when they release IE9, Opera has been pushing for open standards for quite some time now. Recently, the Opera folks have gstreamer and promoting .ogg which is a huge win for anyone who believes in free content.

Seriously, Microsoft, people do not prefer your browser. This has been true for years. Web developers don’t want to support IE6 as of last March. They’ve banded together to bring down IE6 and now Microsoft has to listen. With end-of-life as of June 2010, Microsoft can no longer count IE6 as part of this market share. Even with NetApplications which continues to claim majority market share for IE, take out the IE6/5 and Microsoft only has 36.09% browser market share. Users will not upgrade from IE6 to another Microsoft product. Your market share tanks at the rate of 3% a quarter. Now that Europe is given a choice, Microsoft does not have a prayer of holding onto significant browser market share. Its all over this March for Microsoft web browsers, Google said so.

Whatever Microsoft ends up doing about the browser, all I can say is, “it is your funeral.”

Come June 30, 2011, Microsoft will lack Office Suite and Operating System market share.

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