[Beowulf] small-footprint MS WIn "MinWin"

[Michael Jinks]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 10:35:40PM -0400, Robert G. Brown wrote:
> 
> Redoing the core kernel and obsoleting the knowledge of
> a whole generation of MCSEs is another huge risk, one that has cost big
> companies major market share in years past, since if you have to retrain
> in mid-career (when companies would just as soon fire you and hire new
> young cheap replacements) you're likely to retrain with something else,
> especially if it is something less likely to undergo that kind of
> traumatic rearrangment.

A few years ago a friend related a moment of "let's face it" candor over
lunch from a Microsoft "Windows evangelist" who'd been sent to
evangelize here.  To wit:

"Unix guys tend to be academics, hobbyists, people who are smart,
interested in this stuff, know a good thing when they see it, and are
going to have a relatively easy time adapting as things change.  Windows
guys are basically carpenters and bricklayers who found out that they
could take a few courses and double their salary without having to work
outside in the elements.  When the technology changes, they're going to
have to be retrained."

There's a lot you could say about that attitude, but if it's (still) an
accurate representation of Microsoft's thinking about MCSEs, they might
not think the big changes in Vista really risk losing them their unpaid
work force.  The rest of their business strategy is so geared toward a
"no viable alternative" mindset after all, and "everybody knows" that
"technology changes so fast" that anything more than a few years old
must be obsolete anyway...