It's the thought experiment we all like to engage in. What would life be like without Microsoft Windows? To listen to the free open source software crowd, the demise of Windows -- and by extension, Microsoft's hegemony over the PC universe -- would signal a kind of rebirth for information technology. Such thinking is naïve, at best.
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motters
14 years 12 weeks 11 hours 16 sec ago
Nice try, but I'm not buying it
It's a nice try. The title suggests that the article is going to be a tirade against Microsoft, but actually it's the reverse.
The author assumes that Microsoft brings stability and banishes "chaos". He seems to believe that the Windows API is some kind of sacred cow, and that life outside of Windows is a confusing and unruly hell of "hyperinnovation". Of course this isn't the case at all. What he's doing is generating the "F" in FUD, particularly amongst business readers, by suggesting that a life without Microsoft or the Windows operating system would be, if not unliveable then at least impractical and above all hostile to business.
lozz
14 years 12 weeks 3 hours 48 min ago
Positive side
If M$ died, maybe all those thousands of half-baked software patents would die along with it and Nathan Myhrvold would have to find honest work as a plumber, or something.
aboutblank
14 years 11 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago
Won't Get Fooled Again
The death of Microsoft would not signal a new age for information technology. On the event of MS's death, there will be a few gains for the for the free software community (some people will adopt our free systems, the loss of a major opponent of our community) but in the grand scheme of things, society will not be any more free than they are with Microsoft.
Society does not value their freedom. Instead, society values convenient and powerful software without respect to their freedom. There will be companies that will plot to attain the some of the power formerly held by Microsoft. These companies will deliver attractive, powerful and convenient replacements for Microsoft's systems. People will be attracted and society will remain helpless and divided.
Significant change will only occur when people start to value their freedom.