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What if Microsoft Disappears

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by basithq

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What i have seen during my studies is that our curriculum is full of Microsoft Technologies. One big reason which i think is the ease of using these technologies. What i usually think is what will happen to us if Microsoft is no more there. What I think about this situation is that the development in windows OS will stop, customer needs wont stop and will keep on building up and a day will come when the OS will no more be able to handle the customer requirements.

17 replies

by thechas

When Microsoft disappears, it could be a good thing.

It will mean that:

A: They are no longer relevant.

B: They made a BIG mistake.

C: A hacker finally found the mother of all security holes.

Either way, there will be someone else ready to step in and fill the void if there is a market.

Most likely, Microsoft will have disappeared because someone wrote a new operating system that over-shadowed Windows.

The primary reason that your courses are full of Microsoft applications, is that Microsoft has become the de-facto standard for office computing.

Any school would be neglecting the needs of it's students if it did not cover and use Windows applications.

A real good school will also cover the alternatives to Microsoft products.

In addition to the various versions of Linux, there are a number of alternates to the Windows operating system.

Apple
Sun
Unix
to name a few.

Chas

by stuart_at_oz

But if someone creates a better (more dominant that is) OS, MS will just buy it and sell it as Windows Ultra!

Stu

by mrbill-

It is the user market that drove MS to the top. The major PC uses, Education, Business and home/entertainment to name a few, have developed their own strategies. Some of the other OSs you named are in use by Business users. Why, because the vendors cut deals with the Biz community to buy their systems. In education it?s worse, how many Macs are in the schools because Apple ?donated? systems to them trying to get the students hooked on Mac. Did it work? The home/entertainment market is where MS has the lead, how many games are ported to Mac anymore? Linux, Sun, or Unix? We want to believe that it was the IT geeks who created the PC revolution, but it was the gamer. The early gamers had to be geeks to get the programs up and running stable, but with the introduction of better user friendly Windows OSs any idiot can load and play the latest game. Or surf the web, do their taxes, write email, write letters, print pictures taken on digital cameras? Why? Because the program developers know they need to program to MSOS, the biggest dog on the block. They also know that all the drivers are on the system already. The user does not have to configure their system for each program or vis-versa. If a new Uber-OS comes along it will have to be compatible with current programs as well as any new ideas in the works or who will use it. The IT geeks would use it but then you would just have another Linux.

by andrewsbm

The main reason MS will never vanish is because of marketing and aggressive competition with its competitors.

Successful 3 step software Plan.

1. Give away freebee software with PC's then freebee downloads. When you have them using the software charge them for any upgrades or future releases.

2. Any competitors that come up with an original idea, buy it or include a slightly modified version in your own software then use step one.

3. Flood the market with feel good advertising.

If a law or a fatal flaw was found in MS and you asked the IT would to come up with a better idea I think you would be amazed at what variety of ideas and technology the world would come up with, rather than this controlled market where the dominate vendor directs and chooses what best suits their products and marketing.

by djent

I don't think MS would dissapear but I do think they need real competition to become honest. Remember they were twice convicted of antitrust violations. As for buying out competitors, they seem to have hit a brick wall with Linux. Linux is doing the same thing to MS that MS did to Netscape and others.

by basithq

I think that there are other things which are better than MS technologies. What I have seen in my surroundings is that people are either affraid of using java (because some say that java has lost its value in market), or they think that is difficult to use java( e.g. it is difficult to design the GUI of the application). what do u think of this perception.

by andrewsbm

I know of two in house development companies that are moving more towards java, as they see more scope in java than MS. These two companyies are selling software into US Military and British banks. If I know of only two companies that are making such an impact with java think how many more there are. MS seem to be pouring more money into the Xbox than they do the PC/Server platforms now. I think MS bubble has burst and we are starting to see the effect with open Source Software and Java starting to have an effect.

by jardinier

It is common practice to blame Bill Gates for anything and everything people don't like about Microsoft, including the software and market monopoly techniques. But Bill Gates is just one person in a major corporation which is running on major momentum. So here's another hypothetical question. What would happen to Microsoft if Bill Gates ceased to be? (e.g. was killed in accident).

by oz_media

"But Bill Gates is just one person in a major corporation which is running on major momentum."

An empire of crap that HE built. He may be only one guy, but look at what that one guy has done! Guys like that we could live without.

by jardinier

and obviously endowed with many talents. So I wait with bated breath for the release of the ultimate, fault-free OS -- OzMedia Mark I. If so many IT pros hate Gates and Microsoft, why can't some of you pool your talents and produce a better OS? If you can't do that, then by default you will have to accept that Bill Gates is smarter that the rest of you put together.

by jimhm

Ah if it would only happen - Better OS - Open systems - Secure computing - faster better cheaper software... Ah we can only hope.

But you have to be adaptive to the market forces.

Remember - the 3 truths of the IT World (OK there are more - but these will never change)

1) Data outlives the applications that used it.

2) Applications outlive Technology they were developed in and on. (COBOL, ASSEMBLER, FORTRAN, PASCAL, C, C++, IMS, QSAM, Mainframe - shall I go on)

3) Finally - Technology changes daily!

Your career has to be adaptive and ready for change at a momments notice - no matter what happens in the IT field you have to be able to change quickly.

When I started - mainframes where still using transistors - now we have desktop with more power than the Honeywell 1500's I started with.

Learn and experence more than just MS - otherwise your on a shaky boat - if it sinks or runs out of fuel - your career is dead in the water... and it will be costly to become adaptive at that time..

by oz_media

Sounds like eden to me. I despise Microsnot, Bill Gates, Redmond and Windows.

Life without Microsnot would be a happy, trouble freee existence to say the least. With any luck, people's computers would work and I'd get out of the industry.

Utopia, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

by mrbill-

If not Microsoft than someone else. I guess we all could be using Macintrash PCs, but the price would be double the current price of those pieces of s*^$. Everyone would be saying nasty things about Apple. You could only buy Apple parts, imagine how much that would run you without the competition.

The reason Gates gets trashed is that he had the gall to be a success, the nerve of him. The son of a dentist is one of the richest men in the world and everyone hates him. Just because he produces a product that works, not every time and has bugs, but it still works you have to hate him. Edison invented the light bulb, but it burns out after a few thousand hours, lets hate him. Ford created the assembly line for auto manufacturing, the cars only last a 100,000 miles or so, lets hate him. Are we jealous? Stop whining about someone else?s success, I will not get on your trash Gates train, I have more important things to worry about than petty jealousy.

Ok some of his business practices need to change.

Sorry for any toes that got stomped, but this is my opinion, live with it.

by pka

As others have said, MS won't disappear b ut they will drift to a far less prominate position. The increasing number of patent, copyright, etc lawsuits, as well as increasing proprietory codes are irritating users and limiting the use of the machines. Look for consumer demands to begin forcing more cross platform software and standardization of operating systems until the actual o.s. one uses will be as redundant as the brand name of the computer you use.

by djent

There are two main obsticals between MS and total market dominance, GPL and JAVA. They can't undercut GPL and JAVA just wont die.

by hal 9000

Wants to admit. At every MS Partner Meeting thet make a big deal on just who they have lured away from open source and onto Windows but they never mention all those that are switching to open source.

I can see a tim ewhen Microsoft is confined to the desktop and open source is on all the servers and the like and eventually making its way onto the desktop as well. This will start with Governments and Big Business and eventually work its way down the food chain to the home user but this is still a long way off and with MS marketing pratices they will keep it that way for as long as possible. Even the Budget shops who are supplying Open Source Products are being given offers that they can't refuse from MS to only use MS Product so while it is good for that business it is only holding back the flow to the home user which will eventually come.

So I think that MS was correct in their highly publisied court case about not necessarly being the market leader for ever but I'm sure that MS will fight tooth and nail to maintain their present market penertration and we may even see an open source product that comes under the MS banner just so they remain in the market.

Actually this would be a good idea as then MS could do what RedHat is doing and charge for updates/patches so we would then be in a user pays position with a constant income stream for MS over the life of the computer rather than a single one off cost for the initial installation.

by hal 9000

XML which is intergrated into their next generation Office product and is Microsoft's answer to Java.

Then there is the Microsoft attempt to make hardware like the X Box currently they are costing Microsoft about $150.00 per unit just to sell the things I know that MS is taking the long term view and God only knows that they have the money available but ultimelty there has to be a day of reconing when things are either dropped as being too expensive to build or the prices go up to actually reflect their true cost.

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