Re: Why Microsoft should make windows open source

[Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu]

On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:53:32 EDT, Simon Smith said:
> I think that anyone who thinks that Microsoft is near an end is being
> unrealistic. I think that they are going to have to contend with the
> challenges imposed by open source operating systems and OSX, but they are a
> software giant. Also remember, Windows is not the only thing that Microsoft
> makes. They have their hands in a lot of different pots.

Plus, they got like US$40 billion *cash* in the bank.  that means that even
if they screw up so badly that they lose a billion dollars a quarter, it will
*still* take them over a decade to hemorrhage away just their cash.  Then they
still have to burn through all their non-cash assets (the value of stocks,
selling off the office space in their campus, etc).

If I haven't botched the math, they can stick the $40B in banks earning 5%,
and be able to lose like $400M/quarter, and *still* show an overall profit.

I really can't foresee *any* scenario that has Microsoft disappearing in
under 20 years - except global economic upheaval where the survival of
Microsoft will be the *least* of our worries....

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