Windows 8, Now Microsoft Office Banned by China

jimbo45 said:

King Arthur said:

RBS7 said:

Some can be optimistic, but I wonder if we are witnessing the decline of a Roman Empire.

If we are, Microsoft certainly isn't doing a great job with the bread and circuses they are giving us.

Be careful for what you wish for -- at the end of the Roman Empire were several centuries of Nasty Viscious relative anarchy( "The Middle Ages"), no disease control whatsoever (The Black Death), almost no progress in any Human endeavour, total starvation etc etc. It took a long while until around 1500 for Europe to start progressing again and even then a lot of the time was spent on various nasty religious wars - the Inquisition, Protestants vs Catholics etc etc etc.

It amazes me how people are so eager to snipe at successful companies --perhaps that's why the general level of population is sliding backwards into rather mindless mediocrity and we aren't progressing forwards as a species in the way we should be doing.

Linux - while great for servers (and here only TWO companies really make up the bulk -- SUSE/NOVELL and RED HAT) isn't appropriate for corpoerate desktop users - simply due to the almost infinite numbers of different distros around -- imagine maintaining that lot !!!

Destructive criticism is easy -- but Constructive criticism is much harder -- all those ms haters please suggest VIABLE alternatives that will work in large offices / corporate enterprises. As a Home user nobody cares - you are free to use whatever you want -- even if you feel so inclined just enter your commands in Machine code -- but that's no good for running any sort of business.

I think most people given the choice of the relative stability and prosperity of the Roman Empire in its heyday would rather have lived then than during most of the so called Middle ages (from about 800 - 1400).

Cheers
jimbo

Very good summary of history. But you forgot the worst years after the downfall of the Roman Empire (the years 400 to 800). Those were the years of the people migrations (Goths, Vandals, Franls, Burgundiens and others) and the invasion of the Hunns (who triggered a lot of those migrations). Once they got to the year 800, there was at least some stability due to the empire of the Franks (Charlemagne) and the empires that followed.

They banned Facebook aswell, I can see them wanting there empire to be run internally internally.

China I think wants to keep their people in the dark as to what is really in the world outside of the country. They have banned many websites and strictly control news outlets. However the younger Chinese people are finding ways around the government sanctions and censorship.

I think its wrong.

The internet is an open place.

Are you talking about the U.S. ?

HerrKaLeun said:

So a dictatorship that censors the internet and other media, Monitors its own people with spies and technology, imprisons and kills people for speaking their mind now has the right to complain about possible security holes in Office?

How many legit copies of Windows and Office were actually sold in China over the last 10 years, maybe three?

How many legit copies of Windows and Office were actually sold in China over the last 10 years, maybe three?

There is a lot of piracy going on but the situation seems to improve.

http://redmondmag.com/Articles/2006/04/11/Chinese-Company-Founder-Buys-Windows-Licenses.aspx

That few million of dollars of sales in China isn't really all that much with the population they have.

Nice read.

How Much Are China Sales Worth To Microsoft ? - 24/7 Wall St.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: [COLOR=#0033ff !important][COLOR=#0033ff !important]MSFT[/COLOR][/COLOR]) says that the sales of Windows in China are about 5% of what they are in the US although each country has about the same number of PCs. Piracy is the reason. CEO Steve Ballmer pounded the table about the problem during a recent speech in the People’s Republic. Many foreign firms, particularly ones that rely on intellectual property, have complained bitterly for years about China’s tolerance of the sale of illegal knock-offs of their products.

Read more: How Much Are China Sales Worth To Microsoft ? - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/apps-software/2...#ixzz36WlfZlfb
Follow us: @247wallst on Twitter | 247wallst on Facebook

This is dated (2011)
Guess How Much Money Microsoft Makes In China Each Year | Business Insider
and shows China wasn't a big earner for MS. But what is interesting is that sales outside of North America are ~60% of total sales. Russia has also found an alternative and so could others. A large erosion of 60% of your sales is a large threat.

RBS7 said:

They can take a hit in a couple of markets, but not all of them. Some can be optimistic, but I wonder if we are witnessing the decline of a Roman Empire.

We are. MS has had it's Golden Age and while far from it being over, it's definitely in decline.

Without the MS monopoly and it's legal restraints on many all these years, it does make you wonder how far ahead some technologies really could have been by now.

As for China, I'm surprised they haven't already rolled out their "own" OS and software packages for both the government and it's populous. Pretty slack commitment to communism really.