"The words coming out of Microsoft are quite bullish, but the numbers aren't, at least according to Wall Street. The problem is those words won't match reality mainly because MS does not grasp the situation it is in. The problem, credibility, the solution, Google."
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Member since:2005-07-06
Mmmm. OSS actually has a shot. Because it's better or worse? Well, I'm not here to debate that.
It's got a chance to win because it's different.
It's like a virus for a particularly nasty metaphor - good luck taking it out. You kill Novell? It's still there. Kill red hat? Still there?
Corporate support is not a necessity. While Microsoft may not be wiped out by Linux/FOSS, Linux/FOSS won't be wiped out my MS. It's viral. It spreads extremely easily...It adapts easily. It can have almost infinite mutations in short periods of time.
Netscape was able to die because cash flow dried and the company was bought out. OS/2 needed to make a lot of money for IBM. It didn't.
With F/OSS it's about the people - and that's what's different. Are there disadvantages? Certainly!
Microsoft just won't 'defeat' what it simply cannot kill. Perhaps, for once, it can only hope to compete.
Member since:2006-04-21
Member since:2006-02-15
Microsoft will lose to their own success.
It is well documented in the electronics industry that the major players in technology generation X rarely survive to technology generation X + 1, and Microsoft is showing all the signs of a company unable to make the transition.
Nobody made a better supercomputer than Cray, ever. Cray is gone (although the name lives on as a joke.)
DEC dominated the minicomputer market. Ooops, no minicomupter market. DEC is gone.
Sun owned the workstation market. Hmm, workstation market? Sun's dying.
Microsoft owned the desktop operating system market. The desktop has saturated and the next big thing is going to be somewhere else.
It is not impossible to make the transition. (IBM, after all, has been around in one form or another for more than 100 years), but it is extremely rare, and Microsoft is showing all the signs of a company that won't.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-07-12
You're right. It's hard to compete on an unlevel playing field against a larger established opponent that doesn't respect the rules, especially when that opponent appears to have already at least partially bribed the referees into allowing it to continue to cheat.
If Microsoft's products were forced to compete on an even footing, they might still do well, but we will never know because that isn't even remotely similar to the actual situation we live in.
Member since:
2005-08-11
I've heard this so many times, it hurts my ears. MS will lose to OS/2, MS will lose to netscape, MS will lose to Java, MS will lose to linux, come on, enough is enough, wake me up when somebody comes along that can actually do it.