Microsoft is dead!

I just came across an old web page that I read in Feb 2003 that is relavent to this thread.

Well worth looking at: http://www.aaxnet.com/editor/edit029.html

 

That guy is a genius Mushroom, he is correct, M$ uses the worms and security problems to keep folks on the upgrade treadmill. The Russian mafia and Microsoft work together to keep folks buying new boxes, they are good for the industry, not so good for computer users.

Same thing I have been telling folks.

He is much smarter than me though, I think he is almost as smart as Shawn

 

Oh, he's a genius all right... scroll down that page a bit and look what he is pushing as an alternative to Windows... yes, folks... OS2. And that's just for starters...

Bill Gates must be shaking in his boots about now...

*yawn*

 

I don't know Minstrel, looks like he is claiming much more than that.

In fact Owlcroft one of the brightest members here has always told us that OS2 is great, he is no dummy.

Below are the boring details that the genius mentioned.

What Alternatives Are There?
Linux - Desktop & Server - Now Number One on Microsoft's enemies list, Linux is eating server markets Microsoft expected to be theirs, and increasingly threatens their desktop monopoly. Linux is an updated, more user oriented version of Unix. It scales from wristwatch to supercomputer. We have a lot more to say about Linux below.
Disadvantage: many specialized business applications don't run on Linux, yet (but many do and more are coming).

eComStation (OS/2) - Desktop & Server - IBM's OS/2, offering the most usable desktop environment on PCs, is now updated, enhanced and distributed by Serenity Systems as eComStation (by contract with IBM). It's economical, secure, free of worms, virus, trojans, crackers and license raids. It's easy to use, and plays well with other systems (Windows, Linux, etc.). It can be outfitted to run Microsoft Office for light usage.

At Automation Access, we run our business on OS/2 (including building this Web site) and have no intention of changing - anything else would be less stable and cost a lot more. eCS / OS/2 also makes a fine client to Linux or DOS based accounting systems.

Most OS/2 users are larger organizations that depend on critical information systems (banks, insurance companies, airlines, grocery chains, etc.).
Disadvantages: IBM wishes it would go away because something that doesn't break doesn't generate service revenues (why IBM Global Services loves Windows). Support for the latest cameras, scanners, etc. may be slow coming out, so most OS/2 based offices keep a Windows machine around for that.


Apple Macintosh - Desktop & Server - Heavily used in publishing and advertising, the Mac also sees use as a general purpose small business system (A5). Apple's OS X (an Apple user interface running on a BSD Unix operating system) has caused renewed interest in Apple computers. Microsoft Office is available for OS X.
Disadvantages: you are tied to Apple's hardware, and the selection of business software is relatively small (though growing, especially since Linux software is easily ported to OS X).

Novell NetWare - Server - Often used to support networks of Windows workstations to provide greater security, better performance and lower costs than with Microsoft servers.
Disadvantages: no desktop environment, and a shrinking pool of techs who understand NetWare administration.

VMS - Host, Server - DEC's (Digital Equipment Corp) VMS dominated the minicomputer field when minicomputers dominated, VMS is still considered by many to be the "One True Operating System", and it is still widely used.
Disadvantages: DEC was bought and dismantled by Compaq, which preferred to sell Windows. Compaq was bought and dismantled by HP, which would rather sell Windows and Linux.

Unix (Commercial) - Host, Server & Engineering Desktop - Whether supporting "green screen" terminals, thin clients, or Networked PCs, Unix is the workhorse of the server room, and runs on Sun, Intel, IBM and many other platforms, Unix is also the platform for thousands of specialized "vertical market" software packages. It runs the McDonalds restaurant chain, your local telephone switching system and most of the entire Internet, as well as many small business accounting systems. After many years of trying, Microsoft is unable to move its HotMail service from Unix to Windows.
Disadvantage: why run Unix when Linux is a more modern version, costs a lot less and is easier to support?

BSD Unix - Server, Host & Development Workstation - BSD Unix is most used by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and by software developers. The several varieties of BSD Unix each serve a different audience and each has a separate development group with unique goals. Several versions of BSD Unix are free and open source.
Disadvantages: Little known to the general business community - otherwise same disadvantages as Linux

QNX - Desktop, Industrial controls, Automobiles - QNX is a Unix like operating system used for applications requiring fast "real time" response and which absolutely must not fail, ever. It is highly modular so no unneeded components have to be installed. IBM has selected QNX for its automobile navigation system. Microsoft likes to think Windows CE competes with QNX, but that's hardly the case (A21, A22).
Disadvantages: not for the general purpose desktop.

IBM iSeries (AS/400) - Host/Server - scaling from small business to major enterprise, iSeries is for businesses that require the highest level of reliability and solid performance. For many years, Microsoft's deepest darkest secret was that their business management and accounting ran on AS/400, not Windows. iSeries is now much more flexible since it can run Linux alongside its regular tasks (or Linux only) for server consolidation and expanded application availability (A7).
Disadvantages: few small business people are aware of it.

IBM zSeries (mainframe) - Host/Server - for system that must support thousands of users, thousands of transactions a second, Terabytes of data storage and NO downtime. Mainframes are now more flexible, since they can run even thousands of instances of Linux alongside their regular tasks (a "Linux only" version is also available).
Disadvantage: you've got to have some really, really serious transaction and storage demands to justify the cost - this is not a small business platform.

Supercomputers - Compute Engine - Once the province of highly specialized computers costing millions, most supercomputers are now large clusters of low cost computers running Linux. A few traditional supers are still made for applications requiring truly linear processing.
Disadvantage: you have to need a really, really serious compute engine to justify the cost.
The prominence of Linux in every one of our "reasons" categories, and its appearance in many of the "alternatives" as well, has caused Microsoft's management to move it to the top of the "Enemies List", and declare it to be the most serious challenge Microsoft has ever faced.

To date, Linux has displaced Unix to a greater extent than it has Windows, but that is changing. A new report from Forester Research states that Windows servers are increasingly replaced by Linux (C36). Even where Linux replaces Unix, it's a loss for Microsoft, because they expected all those Unix servers to be replaced by Windows.

Linux gained a foothold in server conversions because it's much easier to convert from Unix to Linux than from Unix to Windows. Once Linux is in place, Windows no longer offers a cost benefit. With Linux deployed, many companies found they preferred it's stability and ease of administration to Windows servers. This has seriously stalled Microsoft's expansion in the server market.

To make matters worse, developers are rapidly improving Linux' already capable graphic desktop environment, which can even be configured to look exactly like Microsoft Windows. As Linux starts seeping out of the server room into "line of business" workstations, Microsoft's most jealously guarded monopolies are directly impacted.

If you don't think American business is taking Linux and other open source products seriously, you might check out a recent article in CIO (Chief Information Officer) Magazine, aimed squarely at corporate officers (A17), and a Computerworld article in an issue aimed at helping corporations falling behind the technology curve catch up (A18).

Microsoft's crown jewel has always been control of software developers, enabling them to starve other platforms for software titles, but a recent study by Evans Data, a research group serving the developer market, has found developers abandoning Windows for the Linux platform in unexpected numbers (D3, D4, D5). This is perhaps the worst news yet for Microsoft's future.

Linux is very difficult for Microsoft to fight, because it isn't the product of a single company they can buy out or bankrupt. The Linux code is open source (free and freely available), so anyone who wants to can publish it, and thousands of programmers worldwide contribute to its improvement and maintenance. Destroy one Linux publisher and another would take its place overnight.

Evidence indicates Microsoft's most successful tactic is pressuring manufacturers to supress Linux on their equipment by not providing drivers or marketing support. For instance, Intel, which has always enthusiastically supported Linux in the server market (which Microsoft does not control), withdraws support entirely if the desktop (which Microsoft does control) is involved (A16). While this has antitrust implications, what's actually happening is, as always, concealed by Microsoft's insistence on NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements).

Linux isn't the extent of the problem, though. Other open source products counter Microsoft, often in conjunction with Linux, but often on Windows itself. open source Apache dominates the Web server market with a 60% share, while Microsoft's IIS holds less than half that. Additionally, IBM's Websphere e-commerce suite is also based on Apache. open source OpenOffice and its commercial variant, StarOffice 6, now directly threaten the Microsoft Office monopoly. When our clients balk at $500/workstation for MS Office, we just install OpenOffice for free.



So powerful is the Linux freight train, even mainline business magazines are getting on board. Business Week (A8 - articles listed to the left of the cover picture) has just published a 9 article cover feature on Linux

 

One thing a lot of people do not look at when complaining about MS or any other large corp out there is the amazing contribution to our economy they make. MS employs thousands, pays a lot of taxes, contributes to charities, etc.. It is an amazing amount of cash that is generated just in tax revenues from income tax collected on not only MS, but their employees.. The money those employees spend means sales tax, and of course income to other businesses. It's simple trickle down theory.. So regardless of anyones technical bias, MS failing is not a good thing for the US economy IMHO. They are large part of it, as are many of the millions of small businesses as well!

I get a kick out of the Wal-Mart haters with the same mentallity. Again, here is a company that means a lot to our economy, those they employ, and people like me that are able to by my son things my parents had to either go without, or sacrifce their own needs/wants to get me.

 

Ask all the retail workers who are all being asked to work for slave wages with no benefits as to how good Wal-Mart is.

Ask the govenment and the workers that are filing class action labor lawsuits against Wal-Mart how good they are.

Also ask Sun Microsystems how great Microsoft is, if M$ was a company to be trusted why did Scott McNealy hate them for so long until he was near death, then he made a deal with them to save his company.

 

Yes, AC, I'm sure like me you remember when all the OS2 fans were telling us about how this was the Windows death knell. I think they were the same people spouting the supriority of the MAC and the Beta video format.

But Windows is still here and stronger than ever -- OS2 and Beta are gone -- and the MAC is hanging on to a crumbling cliff by it's proprietary little toenails.

 

envy is what kills business, the free market is based on being inspired by those who have done great things. I know a lot of people who always look at the negative and then never get anywhere. Gates has given billions to charities, his wealth has enabled him to do more good than most people will ever be able to do.

He may be power hungry but isn't this human nature?

I remember when I worked in the corporate world and how everyone changed the moment they got promoted.

I can't understand the mentality of being hateful tomowrds someone who is more successful than you are. Anyone living in the land of opportunities has a chance, not always the same chance, but the chance to go out there and try - negativity is the #1 killer of economic growth imho

 

I strongly agree. Instead of being envy treat other sucess as inspirations.

 

Yes. That's one of my reactions -- if you can't beat 'em, find the most successful one on the block and try to sue him into the ground. Even that tired boring M$ gag is really a dead give-away: What is it saying? That Microsoft has made a lot of money? And that's bad why? Because you didn't?

My other reactions is *yawn* -- because all these dire predictions about how Microsoft is dying are about as lame and tired as the M$ thing... let it go.

 

Linux and open source will kill Microsoft, are you happy Minstrel, I spelled it out for you.

 

hehe ... let's make a bet

 

All of them? That is pretty general and pretty bold. "Slave" wages? What do you define as a "slave" wage? For what little is required of the brain, many people seem to do pretty well there vs. flipping burgers. I'm not sure what the pay scale in your neck of the woods is, but here in WI, I would hardly call Wal-Mart wages "slave wages". Again, not much is required of the brain at Wal-Mart, so I would not expect to be making $50k year there. If you work part time, you are obviously not going to be getting full benifits.. Class action law suits? Cause there are no UNIONS in Wallyworld.. This is a GOOD THING!!! Look, why am I defending Wal-Mart? It is this type of mentality I was talking about. Your post simply re-affirms that.

I guess you are missing my point. MS like many of the fortune 100 contribute quite a bit to our economy, so seeing them fail is not something I would welcome.

Finally when did I ever say anything about "trust" and MS in the same breath? SUN has a lot of other issues that can be attributed to their problems, and MS ranks pretty low on the list.. It is just easier to blame others, rather than market forces and inteligent business practices when some have problems.

 

Mia, did you happen to miss the anti-trust case against M$

 

No, I've just moved beyond it.

 

SiteTutor, bet this, read the article linked, you may learn something

 

ok, ms will get some more competition, but ... who knows what they have up their sleeves

 

I'm in the Wireless industry, and have been for a long time.. It's cluster... It will be a while before the above comes to fruition..

The thing is with our industry, and the Internet in general I sometimes like to take out a old collection of "Popular Science" mags from the 50's and look at the articles on how we will all be flying on our personal combination toaster/air car.... or some silly thing that someone thought would happen in the "future", that never did..

It is hillarious at times some of the outlandish ideas that never were.. Some did come to fruition though, though very few.

Anyway, it is gonna be a bit before people rely on moble computing 100%. At least in the way described above.

 

SiteTutor it is called smoke and mirrors, the 100 dollar PC, a lot of propaganda to keep folks using the flawed Windows OS and IE

 

I'm assuming Anthony didn't vote for Bush