The Home Fighting Club wasn't entirely without other uses. For instance, Huang He received news that the four major consortiums were preparing to unite and pressure him regarding Microsoft.
This was within Huang He's expectations, or rather, it came a little later than he had anticipated, given how severely Microsoft's market share had been eroded.
China aside, Microsoft's market share had already dropped below 10%. Furthermore, all newly listed computers in China came pre-installed with the Lingyun system, signifying that Microsoft was essentially finished in China.
This was especially true since Fantasy Computer's largest market was domestically. Once a recall was initiated, over 70% of computers in China would directly switch from the Windows system to the Lingyun system. Coupled with strong support from the highest levels, retaining even 10% was considered quite good.
However, in another two to three years, this 10% market share would likely disappear completely.
Yet, the Chinese market wasn't Microsoft's biggest headache. Microsoft had been preparing to lose the Chinese market for three years. Their true concern lay with the entire European market. As long as the European market held strong, Microsoft would remain an industry leader.
However, the situation in Europe was dire. While not yet as bleak as in China, the market had been thoroughly disrupted. Lingyun system's market share had reached 32%. Although Microsoft still held a two-to-one advantage, the problem was that Microsoft was in decline while Lingyun was on the rise, and market share could shift at any moment.
The initial reason for this situation in Europe was, of course, Fantasy Computer's recall action, which had introduced over 40 million Lingyun system computers into European households.
Despite Microsoft's extensive use of its connections to suppress the issue, European countries had indeed directly intervened and terminated the recall.
However, Lingyun system's foothold was established, and a direct confrontation ensued.
Initially, Windows system held an absolute advantage, primarily due to its comprehensive professional industrial software, which was Lingyun system's biggest weakness.
But Lingyun system also had its own advantages: more efficient interaction with terminals, and superior cost-effectiveness and user experience compared to Windows. Thus, in the competition between the two, Windows system gradually fell behind.
More critically, major industrial software developers worldwide had sequentially released their Lingyun versions, which was one of the reasons for Microsoft's despair.
Microsoft's original plan was to stifle professional industrial software, preventing these companies from releasing Lingyun versions. However, Boss Huang's strategies were unconventional and he never hesitated to spend money. When most of the Jiangnan employees and these industrial software companies failed to reach cooperation agreements,
Jiangnan Group resorted to its usual trump card: if you don't develop it, we will.
Jiangnan Group directly invested in and established several small software development companies through various means. Then, they poached core programmers from industrial software developers at high prices.
Why poach entry-level programmers?
Naturally, it was because these programmers were not only cheaper but also truly possessed the company's core technology.
Anyone who has worked in a large company knows that while from top to middle management, everyone appears impressive, often developing programs, finalizing models, and overcoming industry challenges, it seems as if all the company's technical breakthroughs are accomplished by these middle and senior management.
However, apart from a very small number of individuals, most middle and senior management are merely waste who are responsible for accepting tasks, then dumping them onto their subordinates, and setting impossible deadlines for completion.
The vast majority of the company's achievements are accomplished by these entry-level programmers. The middle and senior management, and the so-called technical elites, simply seize the credit for themselves.
When you poach them into your company, apart from bringing some so-called international corporate wolf-pack culture to mentally abuse employees, they possess no other skills.
Conversely, the cheapest programmers are the ones who truly possess core technology, and they are easily poached.
As a result, the boards of directors of these companies that refused cooperation instantly found themselves losing one-third or even half of their entry-level programmers.
Initially, they were not worried. These were just mere coding tools. As long as those with core technology in middle and senior management remained, the entire company's development could quickly recover.
The outcome was that despite the confident boasts of these middle and senior management, the development of new products came to a near standstill, and sometimes they couldn't even maintain old products.
Even more alarmingly, after a few months, they suddenly discovered a new competitor. This competitor's industrial software not only duplicated their functionality but even surpassed it in certain areas.
Even more terrifying was that these competitor industrial software programs could read their proprietary program formats.
This characteristic was the most fatal for industrial software. Large industrial software developers often achieved monopolies through their file formats.
Take CAD software, the most widely used, for instance. Their products have over sixty different file formats for completed designs.
While there might be many display software programs online that can read these formats, if you wanted to edit these files, you could only use CAD software. This was because the format was exclusively developed by them, with many application technologies held by a single entity.
More importantly, the compilation methods of these formats were patented. If other companies dared to develop software to compile these format files without authorization, they would face ruinous fines.
Therefore, almost all industrial software has its own exclusive development formats. Once a certain industrial software achieves a monopoly in a particular category, after waiting a year or two, almost all software developed by other companies would adopt that industrial software company's exclusive format.
Consequently, all other companies that cooperate with that enterprise would have to possess the same software, otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to open or read its formats.
Over time, the entire industry would develop a tacit understanding: everyone would only use that specific development software. This was because only by doing so could the created files be read and used at the lowest cost. Otherwise, would each company have to purchase licenses from several industrial software companies simultaneously?
Then, the situation that made these industrial software developers' scalps tingle occurred: the software developed by competitor companies could perfectly read their exclusive formats. This meant that the foundation for software monopolies had vanished, and users no longer faced the hefty costs associated with switching software.
And finally, the most crucial point was that the software developed by these competitor companies was entirely free.
Generally speaking, an industrial software from a major manufacturer would sell for around 200 to 300 Chinese Yuan to individual users.
However, when sold to enterprise users, the licensing fees were staggeringly high. Since only enterprises had a large-scale need for these industrial development software, if calculated per person, a large company could incur tens of thousands or even millions of Yuan in software licensing fees annually.
But now, a competitor not only launched similar programs but could also read almost all file formats on the market, and it was free, usable by all individuals and enterprises without charge. This was truly explosive.
Once these software programs were released, they began to fiercely encroach upon the market share of paid industrial software, causing many companies to go bankrupt within two to three months.
These companies became desperate and chose to report the cases, as such actions were indeed illegal.
However, all the companies developing these software were small. When they tried to track down these small companies, they were astonished to find that after launching their new software, most of them promptly went out of business.
Since the infringing companies had gone bankrupt, prosecuting the infringement became meaningless.
Even more critically, although the companies collapsed, the programs they developed remained active online, and users could download them for free through various channels.
Typically, an industrial software version could be used for over ten years. Therefore, for the next decade, there was no hope for paid software to compete with free software.
Previously, the funding had caused headaches for every corporate director. Finally, they received highly confidential information that Jiangnan Group was behind everything. If they wanted these things to disappear, they had to release their proprietary programs in Lingyun versions, or they would be driven mad forever.
Thus, at this point, everyone knew that Jiangnan Group was undoubtedly orchestrating this. These companies had no choice but to obediently sign and accept their fate.
Ultimately, it took only one year for the Lingyun versions of major industrial software to be successively released, and the Lingyun system officially entered its complete form.