"The more I think about Microsoft, the more I realise that they are, possibly for the first time, seriously cornered (or surrounded, depending on how you want to see it). A little history will clarify why I think so - and why I think that this might really be the beginning of the end for Microsoft."
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Member since:2005-07-18
In the future, OSS will be a play, but it surely won't the last man standing because there can not be just one in a free marketplace.
You are very correct that there can't be just one supplier in a free marketplace. But oss (actually F/OSS) isn't just one man.
Sun has seen the light and made Solaris open and there are several distributions of it being developed. And the GNU/Linux and BSD camps have been competitors from the start. And of course, even within GNU/Linux there are literally hundreds of competing distributions of which more than a couple are serious, for-profit endeavors.
No, we don't really need Microsoft in order to maintain a free marketplace, though like most commentators here, I doubt they're going to disappear anytime soon.
Member since:
2006-01-18
The writer assumes that companies don't adapt to change in free market situations. Even if OSS is "free" and MS can't use it, that doesn't mean that MS can't remain competitive. If they wanted to, they could totally reinvent themselves - and I am sure MS has many-o-plans to do such a thing. They will implement their changes when the time is right for them and not a moment sooner.
In the future, OSS will be a play, but it surely won't the last man standing because there can not be just one in a free marketplace.