With all of the news last week on Bill Gates departure it got me thinking about good old Microsoft. While those that know me are aware of my numerous, and strongly held opinions about Microsoft, the question that kept coming to me wasn't negative. The question was, can Microsoft survive in the OS business over the long term against the *ix's (Unix, Linux and...Mac-ix)?
The main focus of the question was the scale of humanity that MS employs to write EVERY aspect of the software. Due to the proprietary nature, if they want it, they got to write it. IP stack, calculator, Directory, Mail server, programming frameworks, etc. As word came out of the Apple WWDC regarding SproutCore and the compilers, the world is paying more attention to the fact that Apples OS has a lot of non-Apple stuff in it. Geeky users like myself have been compelled by the *ix nature of OSX for years, but I'd hadn't thought about the increasing amounts of work that Apple doesn't have to do because of the compatibility with Linux. This seems huge in that it let's Apple reprioritize their development resources to the places that add value.
With the success of the iPhone and the move of the iPod to OSX we have millions of non-geeks carrying *ix as a matter of course. In this world can Windows last with such a structural cost disadvantage over the mid/long term?
Happy Independence Day
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