Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: A World Without Microsoft

Author:Tom Neff
Posted:6/8/2000; 9:30:51 AM
Topic:A World Without Microsoft
Msg #:17649 (In response to 17642)
Prev/Next:17648 / 17650

"A World Without Microsoft" is not going to happen, because under the terms of the judgment, we get more Microsofts, not fewer.

If there really HAD been a world without Microsoft, computing as we know it would have gone just fine. Microsoft's peculiar fate has been to grow enormously wealthy and powerful without actually inventing anything that matters to world computing. In this they are analogous to Sparta, say, or better yet Carthage: built to win and to enrich, period. When it was finally razed and salted o'er, the gods shed no tears.

For at least five or six years now, the creative "juice" in computing has all flowed from non-MS sources; Redmond has nothing but an installed base and a propensity to acquire, strongarm and sue. On some level I think they have always understood that if Windows (or any specific MS product, really) were required to compete on its own terms, it might lose. Well, Judge Jackson is attempting the experiment. I think the results will be interesting. There are definitely healthier ways to structure a computing industry, and we might get to experience some of them.

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