"Here's a little thought experiment to take into the New Year. Not as difficult as Schrodinger's Cat, but thought provoking nevertheless. Imagine that you woke up tomorrow to a world without Microsoft. Not a world where Microsoft never existed, but one where it hit some hidden critical corporate mass and imploded, or it was discovered that the Windows source code was actually the DNA sequence for red cabbage, and all the directors disappeared to a hidden undersea stronghold. Whatever really... Microsoft existed and now it doesn't."
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Member since:2005-07-06
It would be world chaos.
Your world view entails a universe running on Microsoft, isn't it?
For one, all the Nix machines would be unaffected. The existing Microsoft installs would be legacy overnight, but still run. After market support and extensions would pop up, but the platform is dead.
Intel and AMD would make sure that their commodity chips would be able to run old Windows software for some time to come. Slowly other platforms that are still able to update and innovate (not a monopoly of Microsoft) would slowly push out the old MS systems.
Eventually, the likes of Adobe, SAP, Oracle, Corel, etc. would (gasp) move their cash cow applications off of Windows and on to the next platform. Most likely something like GNU/Linux or OpenSolaris, because the hangover of the implosion of the proprietary empire would make people wary of closed source.
The Internet would be teeming with idiots on all sides, screaming some ridiculous predictions, but overall the world wouldn't stop turning and software would still be written without Microsoft.
Edited 2007-01-01 23:44
Member since:
2005-07-06
Alright, well in that case, as I said, I have no imagination but I will try and play the game...
It would be world chaos. And that's it. That's as far as my feeble imagination can take me with this because now we are left with a closed source operating system with no hope of advancement ever and that is it. Everyone would panic because now they would have to migrate onto other OS platforms and software products that meet their needs (or likely DON'T meet their needs) and continue on from there. The stock markets would collapse (or perhaps they did and that caused it) and the world economic powers would drop into a depression.
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Did you even read the article description?
This is if Microsoft were to just have disappeared today, not never existed.