Remember this?
For those of you who do, you may recall how everyone figured that Microsoft would squash every other software company and there would be No Other Software But Microsoft.
This was the type of attitude that helped create the Open Source Software (OSS) movement -- kind of like Flower Power for computers. OSS seemed great until the big boys saw money to be made, and have been elbowing in ever since. The Anybody But Microsoft (ABM) people run as a subset to the OSS group. They want nothing better than to see Microsoft squashed like a bug.
Unfortunately for all concerned, market forces kept everyone unfulfilled -- sort of like a type of computerus interruptus. OSS really cannot succeed in their World Domination (WD) plans without the big boys (IBM, Sun, Google, etc.), but the big boys cannot seem to get their collective acts together. People still want that pesky Microsoft software.
The ABM types are drooling over the Sun/Google axis “killing” Microsoft. There is little chance of that, but the dreaming is fun. The reason there is little chance of success is that computers are now commodities, and it is hard to kill off an established commodity. No one company will achieve WD.
Six years ago, Microsoft was not quite as mature as they seem now. BillG was much more in control then and the testosterone level was much higher. Microsoft continues to push innovation to make its products seem fresh, when in fact all PC software has not evolved significantly in the last decade. The Internet has added new classes of programs, but you are just doing old things in a new way. Someone needs to think about what software will be in 10-15 years, and ask the questions about what do they need to do now to be there then. I see those questions being asked in very few companies, and certainly not in the computer press. When people speak of death and WD, I get the idea that they are likely clueless and have no strategy. BTW, a catchphrase like “Microsoft Everywhere“ is not a strategy, it is marketing.
I rarely pontificate like this (except concerning stupid weatherdudes), but the computer press continues its stupid, breathless comparisons of how the latest alliance will “kill” another company. Save us. You will not get such a response in a commodity industry. Companies are fighting for tiny slices of market share. The probability of one of the big guys going out of business is basically nil. Forget about the dreams and get over it.
Disclaimer: I have been an MSDN subscriber since the P1 version. I have been a Universal subscriber since it came out. I casually develop (see the subtitle above) and sell software for Microsoft operating systems. I find anyone as strident as the ABM crowd humorous and worthy of being ignored. This particular rant was sparked by a coworker -- it's his fault.