I wonder how much money down? If $0 down, then I guess they are trying to sell against the SaaS vendors who only charge a monthly fee. Also isn't this how the real estate industry in the US got into so much trouble? Wonder what the bad loans will look like on their balance sheet going forwards.

Its a simple case of hold on to market.

If it starts slipping they could be in real trouble. Its not like the OS market is going that great for them.

Interest free is just a way of delaying free from winning out. How long before they offering Windows 7 interest free.

@ oiaohm :

Vista is on 250 million systems, Windows dominates NetBooks, I would say the OS market is going very well for Microsoft.

"I would say the OS market is going very well for Microsoft."

So why has the MSFT share price been in the toilet for five years? Here's a reference you and your friends might put to use Andre:

http://www.lindsaybks.com/bks7/extr/index.html

My comment also applies to the BizSpark promotion...

Considering that it doesn't cost much to produce additional copies of the software, does it really cost Microsoft anything if the companies go out of business and don't pay up?

Services and hardware costs probably make up a small portion of that and the hardware can always be returned.

If anything, the fact that this cuts into the revenue of MS competitors during the economic downturn could be sees as another benefit of both programs.

In the OS market 2008 Microsoft have sold more copies but made less profit overall compared to 2007.

So it not going well.

Mac sale percentages are up. Linux is doing ok in the netbook market.

So its not going well. There is even a risk that MS may have to give windows away for free to stay in market.

Holding a large percentage of a market is pointless if you cannot make a profit from it because you are force to under cut your prices because of competitors.

LOL Cuts into revenue of MS competitors sorry no it does not. Most of MS competitors already give there software away for free and sell support. Some of them even sell support for MS products.

Profit is a Profit of course. Open Source model of free software + paid support model. Or free software + paid for extras that you can have coded to suit your needs. Is the mode MS is competing with.

MS is basically stop gapping.

@Oiaohm:
Spot on. The problem is though, that even if MS gives away its product for free, its still the same product. Its that product which is turning people to Mac or Linux.
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If the Windows platform was decent, I wouldnt mind paying and having it, as Im not against proprietary software.
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Fact is its not, and even for free, Windows, IMO is the platform that would be last on my list of considerations if I was choosing a new OS.
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I think the next year is going to be an interesting time for MS, I wonder how many of the new schemes that MS is working on currently are even going to be remembered this time next year?

So much for NAFTA huh Joe. Anyway getting back to Andre. Windows XP Home dominates on the netbook. So if you have a leading application that makes use of the new Vista features then no luck there. If your application requires XP Pro features. You know like active directory and stuff like that. Then you're out of luck too. And given that hardware requirements are equal for Pro and Home I see no reason to limit netbooks to XP Home. Once again a case of Microsoft limiting your options.

Linux servers and laptops and netbooks are not limited in that way. You can have Active Directory in Linux through Samba and without the limitations of CALs. A netbook with Ubuntu 8.x installed has the same features available as a cuad core 64 bit workstation with Ubuntu too.

Of course if your business depends on a software stack from Microsoft what I say makes no sense. And this brings me back to Joe's article. Jumping on the Microsoft Dynamics bandwagon now might look tempting. But don't expect prices to stay low for long. There is no such thing as a free lunch and clearly Microsoft is putting its cash to work just as it is doing with Sun.

Once on the bandwagon things will become increasingly more complex to move out from and more expensive to upgrade to.

It isn't the cost of making CD's that is the cost of the product. Its the cost of paying/maintaining the MBS division with development/QA/PSG/Support/etc. This division has been a parenial money loser and heavily subsidized by the Windows/Office monopoly. MS has often given away the Dynamics products in order to sell the MS stack they sit on. Besides being anti-competitive and subject to anti-trust review, its causing MS's books to look quite bad.

If MS starts to get serious about making the individual business units stand on their own two feet and not just rely on huge cash injections then this will probably be a long term negative for the Dynamics line.

I sometimes think that Andre just slips in these comments in the hope that nobody here will comment. If he can get the last word with one of his adverts, then I suppose it helps the scam he's trying to pull off.
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I am quick to bite at Andres comments, but his last one here was so silly and so obviously wrong, I didnt need to. I knew nobody would believe it.
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Keep posting them like that Andre! I think the only place your opinions are not challenged are on the Windows 7 FAQ, and thats only because its Microsoft asking and answering the questions.
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How about answering some FAQ you get here?

Keep a eye on the freeipa.org project.

With it in time there will be no need to connect the Linux boxs straight to the ads server. Instead connect them to a Linux server. This gets more than interesting if your file server for windows is a Linux box.

Unless you pay for commercial connect tools a MS ads server really cannot control Linux or Mac OS box's well at all. Freeipa is being designed from the ground up to control Linux and Mac OS machines.

Next bit is Samba is getting close to releasing there own ADS server.

Postpath from cisco systems is a exchange replacement that is more stable than exchange. As well as cheaper.

Sharepoint's open source clone alfresco is also more stable and cheaper.

The Dynamics is basically stop gapping. MS needs something new to keep vendor lock in. Since its 3 most key ones are in trouble.

Really does not make migration any harder. The old problem was really needing 2 servers. These days with virtualisation its not a issue.