Would it be a good thing if Microsoft disappeared ?
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changomarcelo
Friend of the elves
If Microsoft disappeard thousands of people would become unemployed.
I think Microsoft must change its policy and the quality of their products, that's all.
I think Microsoft must change its policy and the quality of their products, that's all.
not every company is as aggressive and unfair as ms in their policies. for example cisco has had complete dominance over the router market for quite a while, and they have lots of proprietary technologies, and they go to great length to insure interoperability, unlike microsoft, which goes out of its way to exclude the possibility of interoperability. Sun also has created technologies like java NFS, and NIS that it wants to enhance interoperability between platforms, instead of restrict it.
on the other hand, there is a long list of technologies that came out of cupertino that were proprietary and used to further their own market share. lemme make a small list: appletalk and ethertalk, NuBus, ADB, ADC. on the other hand, they also created IEEE1394 (firewire) and opened that spec to the industry. so they haven t been too bad. they had a movement a while ago to open up lots of hardware specs to allow linux to be ported to their platform, but i suspect they mostly wanted to get the open source community to work on that for the sake of OSX. because they have since killed that policy.
anyway, someone probably would replace microsoft, even if it weren t apple. it most certainly would not be linux. even if linux took 99% of the market, the nature of the licensing does not allow the sort of greedy hiding of technology specs that microsoft uses. it is open source, and will remain so.
chemistry_geek
Registered
People wouldn't have to learn to use the command line. There are already several Linux-based PDAs on the market. You don't need to know how to use Linux to use one of those. The open source people need to get their priorities straight, build a consumer-friendly GUI similar to Aqua by Apple where the user doesn't have to learn to use Linux. Right now Linux is great for geeks and servers. It's getting better with the installers so that the above average Joe can buy it at Best Buy and install it on his computer at home and tinker with it. There are even a few games for it, I think Quake 3 Arena is available for x86 Linux. If just one of the distributions came out with something close to being user friendly, easy to install, the software base would dramatically increase as people started buying a PC with a lower cost (NO M$ License).
Hell, I've thought about getting a PC just for Linux.
chemistry_geek
Registered
The only problem I see using a Power4 processor from IBM is that it might increase the cost another $10K to $20K for a Macintosh, require some SERIOUS cooling components aside from the your typical garden variety cooling fan, and of course, power management...what is that? IBM puts the Power4 in its mainframe computers and servers, it will NEVER see the inside of a consumer desktop PC. And, AND, what about Altivec? IBM HATES Altivec. It would rather ramp up the clock rates like Intel does rather than do vector processing, though I do know IBM is playing around with it.
chemistry_geek
Registered
For info on what AltiVec (Velocity Engine) is:
http://www.apple.com/powermac/processor.html
http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.html
AltiVec (Velocity Engine) isn't IBM technology, it's Motorola technology. Many times manufacturers don't like to support other companies' technology for licensing costs, etc... M$ rings a bell.
Powermanagment is being nice to the environment by not requiring as much electricity to use, and hence less coal, oil, and nuclear fuel. Laptops notoriously conserve power by shutting down parts of their processors that aren't being used.
IBM puts the Power4 into mainframes and servers. This means NO ONE CARES about power managment whatsoever. The only thing the customer is concerned about is that the darn thing NEVER shuts down, breaks down, crashes, hiccups, coughs, wheezes, etc... you get the idea here. Basically, once it's up and running it NEVER goes down. And the only way to make sure the computer is happy is for all the components of the system be built with space-station-like specifications. Components are redundant; check out Apple's XServe to get an idea of what I'm mentioning here.
That is correct. To see what a company will do, you need only at what they company has done. Apple and Microsoft were both pioneers in the microcomputer revolution. Apple's main goal was to change the world. Microsoft's main goal was to own it.
Here, you are just plain wrong. Appletalk ADB, and ADC are examples of Apple's inventing technologies to solve problems where there were no comparible solutions available.
As for NuBUS, this was not an Apple technology. MIT developed NuBUS for AI workstations. The university farmed it out to Texas Instruments. Apple licensed NuBUS from TI for use in the Macintosh II. At the time, the PC compatible vendors were searching for a replacement for the ISA. Apple lobbied them to adopt join in its adoption of NuBUS. Instead, they developed EISA.
Microsoft would have you believe that the world will collapse without its dictates. However, those of us who remember the shape of computing before its dominance know better.
The buyer should have three concerns:
1. If I buy your computer hardware, will I get the support that I need? Today's market is much bigger than it was before Microsoft became dominant. Buyers of Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore, and the plethora of S-100 OEMs did OK then. There is no reason why a similar diverse group cannot be supported in the future.
2. If I buy your computer hardware, how will I commicate with computers and peripherals from other vendors? Today, we have numerous industry standard protocols such as TCP/IP, USB, FireWire, et. al. that allow transparent hardware communication. If you buy a computer that doesn't support these standards, it is not likely to survive very long.
3. If I buy your computer software, will I get the support that I need? Again, today's software market is much bigger than it was before Microsoft became dominant. If the software you buy is good, it is likely to be around for a while. Your real concern should be for sharing files having a variety of formats. Conversion filters exist to convert one format to another. Simply avoid products with closed formats.
Before Microsoft and Apple, there was no personal computer market. Yes, your Radio Shack TRS-80, Commodore 64 and several others existed, but only as hobbies to geekie adults and kids.
Before MS there was IBM, dominating the big iron server market. Companies were helpless to them, just as they are to MS today.
Cisco's founders developed much of their technology at Standford, then went off, formed their own company and stole it without any compensation. Not the best example of good business ethics.
Every big business is twisted and perverse in their own special way. If they weren't, they wouldn't be a big business.
It's a dog eat dog world. To get to the top, you've gotta screw over everyone above you, then continue to screw over everyone below you to insure your dominance in the market place. But before long, you're always going to make that one wrong turn, and another big business is going to slip right past you.
neutrino23
Registered
Nothing personal, but it would be an excellent thing if MS disappeared. It would open up a lot competitive forces in the market. Ideally, you would see lots of open standards for documents (like .pdf, png, .jpg) which could be shared across many platforms and applications.
Have a diverse computing environment would make life more difficult for virus writers. Not impossible, just much more difficult.
Actually, I think the shareholders would benefit if the government were to split up MS. Imagine an OS company, one or two applications companies and maybe a server OS company. Facing real competition and not having monopoly power they would have to get busy and crank out some useful products in order to stay in business.
Have a diverse computing environment would make life more difficult for virus writers. Not impossible, just much more difficult.
Actually, I think the shareholders would benefit if the government were to split up MS. Imagine an OS company, one or two applications companies and maybe a server OS company. Facing real competition and not having monopoly power they would have to get busy and crank out some useful products in order to stay in business.
edX
mac shaman
ok, everybody get a firm grip on your mouse because i voted no.
i wouldn't want to see m$ just completely go away. i would however love to see them become 'just another software company'. i would certainly love to see the demise of word and office and ie. i would like to see a standard format that all word processing apps use with companies differentiating themselves with features, ease of use, quality of interface, etc.
but let's be a little bit real here shall we - m$ isn't really creating the problem. well, they are, but the real problem is all the users who go along with it. without everyone forcing everybody else to use what they use, the problem wouldn't exist.
yes, i know the whole story and how m$ refuses to share and has pushed themselves onto the market place. but until the pc users wise up and break free of m$ on their own, m$ will continue to be the company that it is, no matter how many chunks it gets chopped into. (lots of slivers i hope!!)
i wouldn't want to see m$ just completely go away. i would however love to see them become 'just another software company'. i would certainly love to see the demise of word and office and ie. i would like to see a standard format that all word processing apps use with companies differentiating themselves with features, ease of use, quality of interface, etc.
but let's be a little bit real here shall we - m$ isn't really creating the problem. well, they are, but the real problem is all the users who go along with it. without everyone forcing everybody else to use what they use, the problem wouldn't exist.
yes, i know the whole story and how m$ refuses to share and has pushed themselves onto the market place. but until the pc users wise up and break free of m$ on their own, m$ will continue to be the company that it is, no matter how many chunks it gets chopped into. (lots of slivers i hope!!)
lonny
Fearless Thinker
Unfortunaltely most people are not computer litterate enough to understand what they're buying.
Computer market is different. It's a market where people buy something they can't use, nor understand fully. That's why companies like M$ find it easy to fool them.
Users need to be educated. But that's not going to happen.
Computer market is different. It's a market where people buy something they can't use, nor understand fully. That's why companies like M$ find it easy to fool them.
Users need to be educated. But that's not going to happen.
Annihilatus
Banned
Originally posted by xaqintosh
If microsoft disappeared, all those unemployed people could go work at Apple
Yeah I'm sure Apple has a few hundred thousand openings. A friend of mine was considering by both Nvidia and Microsoft for a job (he got the Microsoft job). Apple never even called. In fact, they never show up at our University's career fair.
Andre