In the News-Microsoft and Yahoo

[Uncle Al]

Ok, all you 'computer geeks' out there, what is your
opinion of Microsoft buying Yahoo? Doesn't Bill Gates
have enough already? Will this Buy-out/Merger/whatever,
cause/create any problems for you? I'm not a MAC person,
but I've been considering a Linux system.
Pro's/Con's about Linux, anyone?

Uncle Al
Duncanville, TX

[Ian.MacAllan]

1. I think MS' motives are the usual mixture of pride and greed. Gates dislikes being second to anyone, and right now, in web search technology, MS is a distant third behind Google and Yahoo.

2. It's an anti-competitive move, surely, but what specific effect it will have on me I can't yet guess.

3. Bill Gates will never have enough.

4. The pro's of Linux:
better stability
better immunity to malware
multiple sources
adequate functionality for most purposes
low cost

The con's:
need to learn new ways of doing some things
some functionality not yet available
hostility of some hardware manufacturers

.

[SFCRick]

:butt:oop:

[jordanjm]

I will stop using yahoo altogether, like I do MSN if this goes through.

[Larry124]

:butt:oop:

Aye, me too.

[Coemgen]

As a free-marketeer, I feel that there should be lots of competition, but I'm also in favour of businesses doing what the want without much hindrance.

In other words, I agree completely with both sides

[Jerry]

I think that Bill Gates is "Yahoo" enough without buying it. I do not think we need someone who will sell you a product, and then say it is no longer valid because you had to repair a broken computer should have any more of a monopoly than he already does.

[Chef]

MS has been only marginally successful with it's online ventures, when compared with the Yahoo and Google, and Yahoo has not figured out Google's formula for success yet either. Other than the fact that Yahoo's advertising prices will probably go up, I doubt it will have a great effect. If fact I would imagine that at least initially there will be more people heading to Google's services because of the rather high anti-MS sentiment that exists.

[Rampant Lion]

The only thing that I'm worried about is how many service packs/updates I'm going to have to download so that Yahoo continues to work right.

[James MacMillan]

MS doesn't need to buy Yahoo!

The learning curve for Linux can be steep, but once mastered can be the best most stable platform around. That's what I use. Oh and ubuntu will send you a disk for free if you go ..here..