WMT Wal-Mart Stores, Inc: 259,238,372,340 3.072%


MSFT Microsoft Corporation: 283,652,015,620 3.362%

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So then. Just to keep my explanation brief. Microsoft ALONE is worth more in terms of market Cap than wal-mart.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/dex/comp_f500.html

ok so for your five point bonus question, can you give a better reason than Glanz could for why microsoft stopped hassling walmart all of a sudden for selling PCS with lindows, mandrake and FreeDOS?

calum. i'll not be getting those bonus points im afraid.

i agree with glanz's view, it just really gets my goat when i read overblown/exaggerated/downright false statements (that frankly insult the intelligence of the rest of us) as a feeble attaempt to justify a point.

fair comment. i also agree with glanz, but because i have no knowledge either way about who's got the most money, i'll take anybody's word for it, but what gets my goat a little sometimes is when people say things like "that's a lie" or "no it isn't" on public forums without backing themselves up. i have to say you're in the minority of people who actually do back yourself up!

edit: NOW i'm even more confused! because Glanz says this:
????????????????????
why is it that one source can have such staggeringly different figures from the other?

sales is only a factor that makes up what a company is 'worth'. costs, industry prospects as well as the major one - profits should also be accounted for.

why i chose market cap as the comparison:

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/...talization.asp

so i think that accounting for all shares available which includes the family wealth glanz highlighted - multiplied by the current share price gives the overall worth of the company (how much it would theoretically cost to buy it all were it for sale today). thats why i chose to use rankings by market cap.

it is confusing to nail an absolute source for comparison tho i'll a agree with glanz on that.

anyhow, that is all getting waaay off track in a debate over the relative merits of linux and windows/MS!

i like linux and the open source commmunity personally - i find it all very refreshing, honest and open minded. throught on this debate i have tried to take a step back and see what factors are also important and i always find that i really hate the blind 'microsoft can do no good' sheepish attitude. im thinking of the establishment of computing with the masses to which microsoft should rightfully take much of the credit. they may be unintentional good deeds but welcome they are nonetheless.

i enjoyed the articles on MS Word too.

Calum I continually see you posting, asking people to back up their comments with some facts, but I've never seen you follow you're own logic. That quote you made saying Microsoft destroys families, and jobs.... Where are you're facts? I understand it wasn't your quote, but you quoted a quote, so back it up. I want examples! Show me families destroyed. Show me figures showing microsoft took more jobs than they created.

i quoted a quote?
you know what, what i am doing is trying to get explanations from people.
i haven't actually said anything either way, which is why i haven't backed anything up (nothing to say), i already said i know very little about economics, and basically i am just trying to get people to show me how two sets of reliable data can appear to show different things.

your remark about how i hypocritically never back up my own statements seems to be wide of the mark, it seems in fact that you are simply trying to take pot shots at me, how dull.

can you tell me some actual statement i have made that needs backing up please? i am a real loudmouth and would be happy to clarify anything i actually said myself or be proved wrong by somebody else...

edit: actually, here's the thread i am quoting from, why not go there and ask Glanz yourself what he means? I know next to nothing about it so i am a poor go between here.

I think my last post did name some things that I would have loved some more information on. And despite what you think, I don't care enough about you to purposely take "pot shots" at you.

You quoted Ralph Glanz, and added, (and I quote) : "...oddly enough i saw the perfect comment just 5 minutes ago. let me quote it directly for you..." I'm not trying to argue with you, I was just hoping to see some examples, since you saw it as the perfect comment.

well glanz puts things quite succinctly. i wasn't claiming his sources were perfect, that would now be in the realm of third generation agreeing with stuff, i was talking more about his delivery than necessarily his facts although from what little i know of his background i tend to put a bit of store in what he says out of hand rightly or wrongly.

i'm not trying to argue with you either by the way, and seriously go and ask glanz yourself, it'll take you seconds to register on promote- and glanz will no doubt be able to answer your question quite quickly himself.

as i said already, i'm lost amongst this economics and would rather step out from being middleman since i think i would just add more confusion than clarity at this point, especially since i am trying to get a little clarity myself!

alrighty then... I think I will ask him. I'll quote whatever he says here as well for those people that would also like to here the answer.

Calum when you post a link to that site it thinks I am you. And I can edit your profile, and I'm guessing when it posts it'll look like a post from you. Just givin you the heads up!

A fella with a flashy new truck pulled up the drive to the arena,
tagging behind him in a deluxe polished trailer was a thorobred bay gelding.
The horse had lineage and good breeding, and he had a impressive arena show record too.
The dude sized up the scene thru his truck window. He saw a group of cowboys and the arena
where a small herd of cattle stood quietly. He leaped from his cab and with a bit of frenzy unloaded
the huge bay and saddled and dressed him out in full prestige regelia.
Next the well dressed rider mounted the bay and briskly did a few turns of the paddock.

Sitting on the porch was an old hand, his boots was worn thru and his Levis could of stood a patch or two.
His hat was sweat stained and tattered. His hair was growing grey and surely too long.
The old cowboy was needed a good grooming, yet his hands showed the work.
Quietly beside him at the hitching post was a little pinto mare;
she had black socks black saddle over her flanks and a mostly white belly.
She was made up good but not too large. She figured to be mostly quarterhorse and maybe
she had a little Appaloosa was back there somewheres too.

To demonstrate his fancy steed, the dude took his decked out thorobred thru the gate
and into the arena where he demonstrated a good working knowledge of cutting cattle.
He sorted out three or four hard headed steers and even loosed a rope and slipped it gracefully over one steer.
The crowd of gawking cowboys allowed that the fella could ride, and he seemed to have a working knowledge of the task.
He slowed up and in a loud bousterous voice said:
"There is no substitute for breeding, and money.
This is the finest thorobred horse around. I bought it and I took lessons for years
at no small expense to be able to ride and cut cattle."

The old cowboy strode over and mounted the little mare, she sprung from sleep and was immediately at his beck.
He slipped into the corral and proceeded in twenty minutes to split out steer after steer from the herd
and they brung each one to a confused standstill. For fun, he roped a few as easily as you or I would butter bread.
and all the while the little black and white mare was more a part of him and his actions than anyone could phathom.
They worked as one, and she seemed to do as he wished without even a moments hesitation
and the pair were obviously the best rider and mount seen that day or, as the crowd of cowboys admitted,
most any day for that matter. The pair left the arena, and didn't say nothing.

The dude, seeing his efforts easily outdone, questioned HOW this old hand had learned the trick
and how much he had paid for that little mare and WHO gave his the lessons and knowledge?

The old cowboy hesitated and then spoke. "I raised up this little mare from a colt.
Took me four years before I could even ride her. Even then we spent several more years till she and me got
the idea of what we was doing. We learned to cut cattle from studying and working cows, hours in pastures,
figuring on their moves and just plain experimenting with what worked for me, and her. Now we can do it.
We may not be the best, and certainly not the fanciest. But, by golly, we can do it
and friend, looks to me like we can do it better'n you.

"What you call that mare?" the dude mumbled... the cowboy smiled and replied "I call her Tux".

the ~piratebiter~ hisself

right on!

rico,
odd.
now it says the article doesn't even exist
sorry, i don't know what's going on...

I think that people have forgotten the real reason people use Linux. (And the answer is not that it is free.) The reason that I use linux and the reason that almost all servers use Linux is that its hardware and software are way more compatible than anything Microsoft has ever made. The same hardware can run much more complex programs that a) will most likely never crash and b) give you more control over the program using the terminal. That is why (just about) every scientist ever uses Linux to model data, etc.

In other news, does anyone know a decent word processor for Linux? I'm in college and was forced into getting a windoze pc because there doesn't seem to be any good word processors for linux. email me with any answers: mahlstro@andrew.cmu.edu