I can’t help but think that Windows XP will be the catalyst that topples Microsoft from its industry-leading throne. After all, people are fed up with Microsoft! The Justice Dept. is all over them (and rightly so), and the battle has just begun inthe courts. And in the fat middle of that mess, Microsoft concocts a Communist-like product activation scheme which assumes guilt and makes each and every end user prove that he/she may legally be using the software that has already been bought andpaid for ($$$$).
Their last OS was released only 14 months ago, and office suites are appearing just as fast. Public opinion of Microsoft is at an all-time low. Even with their Product Activation scam, their products keep rising in price (Mr.Gates, are you doing that to keep prices down or to satisfy Wall Street?). They continue to promise that the NBT will be much better than the last, with more user-friendly features and workgroup collaberation (whatever that means); all of which is meaningless to me, considering that most of my end users can’t send an email attachment without supervision.
Contrary to what many people think, there are alternatives out there. Although its hardware is proprietary, Macintosh makes a very stable, user-friendly product. Linux will run on almost any PC, and it’s free. Sun has a free office suite that is well worth what you pay for it…. and Corel has an Office 2000-compatible suite that is as good or better than its Microsoft counterpart (at half the price, product activation not required).
I really think Microsoft has screwed up. Bill won’t admit it; he has never backed down on a product release before and will bet the farm on this one, too. I just hope that those thousands ofprogrammers will find new jobs…..