Extraordinary Genius

Chapter 1398 – The new system is almost ready

“Boss, the lawsuit against Microsoft has started. But their lawyer seems to be going to drag it out. We have two options now. First, accepting a private settlement to prevent harming their brand image and received a sum of money. Secondly, we refuse the private settlement and get the courts to pass the judgment. The compensation amount will be lesser, but it will be a heavy blow to them.”

The first option is a win-win option. Although Microsoft might have to spend more, they get to retain their brand’s reputation. The Chinese will get lesser compensation in the second option, but Microsoft’s losses are greater.

“Wilson, I had said this before. You must persuade the Chinese Government not to accept a private settlement.” Feng Yu replied.

“I understand. We are confident of winning, and I will do my best to get more compensation. I even hired the two EU law firms that had sued Microsoft. The odds of us winning is higher!”

“Good job. I will keep to my words and pay you all handsomely.”

Wilson knows Feng Yu is very generous when he can finish the tasks given to him.

Wilson’s law firm is famous now, and he no longer accepts other cases. He only works for Feng Yu and hands other cases to his other lawyers.

“Oh, Boss. One of my partners told me that when Microsoft is negotiating a private settlement with another country, they found evidence of that country infringing their IP rights. They used it to threaten that country’s Government during the negotiation, and they didn’t need to pay anything.”

Feng Yu raised his brows and knew what happened.

In Feng Yu’s previous life, Microsoft had used this trick on China once. They discovered some state-owned enterprises and government agencies are using pirated versions of their operating system and software. This incident tarnished the Chinese Government’s international reputation.

But things are different in this life. When Feng Yu got Lenovo Group to distribute Microsoft’s Windows operating system, he priced it very low. The Government also conducted anti-piracy checks several times. The majority of the State-owned enterprises and government agencies are using the original version.

After Microsoft got back the distribution rights, their software and operating system are still selling much cheaper than other countries. They also gave corporations discounts to use their operating system to stimulate their sales.

But Microsoft slowly raises the prices of their products after that. The prices are about the same as in other developing countries.

Some “experts” have also cracked Microsoft’s operating system. Many people chose to install pirated versions as there are no differences.

Nevertheless, the number of pirated users is much lesser than Feng Yu’s previous life. However, this number will grow if no one does anything to stop it.

Luckily, Lenovo Kingsoft’s operating system is almost ready.

Microsoft is also developing its new operating system, VISTA currently. This is the version that flopped in Feng Yu’s previous life.

Other than the poor sales, the reviews for this operating system are poor because of compatibility issues between hardware and software.

Microsoft had used a hard approach by stopping the XP system upgrade and force users to switch to Vista. This approach failed, and they had no choice but to launch Win 8 earlier. After much trouble, they took three years to replace XP.

Microsoft had spent billions and five years to develop this system, but it flopped. This is a heavy blow to them.

Feng Yu is planning to use this gap to launch Lenovo Kingsoft’s operating system. He doesn’t dare to claim he can replace Microsoft, but he should not have a problem getting part of the market share.

Feng Yu’s instructions to Lenovo Kingsoft are that the system must be small, simple, and compatible with other software and hardware. This will let Microsoft users like and switch to their system.

But the new operating system modeled after Win 7 had failed because the hardware requirements are too high.

However, Lenovo Kingsoft developed another simpler system that meets Feng Yu’s requirements and has reached the final stages of beta testing. They planned to launch it at year-end.

Luckily Lenovo Kingsoft has the experience of developing HOS and knows how to simplify an operating system. But the HOS system is a smartphone operating system and is different from a PC system.

Lenovo Kingsoft had invested all their profits over the years and took loans to develop this simplified PC operating system.

Qiu Bojun and the rest are very confident. The Chinese formerly develop China’s PC operating systems, and Microsoft has nothing to do with it.

But that batch of software developers had either joined other companies or set up their own companies. The Leaders refused to invest funds to continue their development. They caused the Chinese operating system to be replaced by Microsoft.

Qiu Bojun was one of the most prominent Chinese operating system developers. He had always wanted to develop an operating system that is used by everyone worldwide.

Many people had objected when Lenovo Kingsoft is going to develop the smartphone operating system. Although the finished product has some issues, many users are still well-loved, and Wind and Rain’s S1 and S2 phones are selling well. They managed to suppressed Symbian developments and forced Microsoft to increase its development funds.

Since Lenovo Kingsoft’s HOS system can succeed, why can’t their PC system succeed?

Both systems are based on free Linux codes. It is an open-sourced system code developed by many software companies. It is also the system Microsoft hated the most. Qiu Bojun, Lei Jun, and the rest believe they can develop an operating system that can rival and beat Microsoft.

Most importantly, Feng Yu is supportive of them. They were worried about the development funds, but it is not an issue with Feng Yu’s financial support.

Manager Feng had said that if the company doesn’t have the development fund, they can set up a subsidiary and fully fund it.

This gave the shareholders confidence, and they supported Qiu Bojun and the rest. Lenovo Kingsoft managed to get loans from Min Sheng Bank with Liu Chuanzhi’s help and using Lenovo Group as guarantor.

Their operating system is almost completed, and they are waiting to see if users are willing to use it.