Microsoft's Future

[tomster2300]

This is a bit outdated, but still a very informative read:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/...o=1&queryText=

[David M]

I think Microsoft does have a future long term unless somehow Apple becomes the dominant force in computer operating systems. For that to happen Apple would have to become much less proprietary...in other words let other companies manufacture the hardware..opening up price competition for Apple based hardware components. We all know that would never happen. HP, Dell, Falcon etc all beiong able to build Apple based computers?...no way.

Linux, being open source, does not create any sort of method of generating revenue which is necessary to pay developers to write the code. Having Linux volunteers write the code is not really cutting it...not really. Sure for some applications it is fine, but not to the same scale as Microsoft. Microsoft software writers get paid because Microsofts software is not open source meaning Microsoft can charge money to pay its software writers. Most people who are capable of writing code do not have the personal wealth or the time to work for free as good as it feels to write something that undermines the Evil Empire. Who can afford to write software applications for Linux for free?...not many people.

Operating systems have to have the software writers who find it most profitable to write for the largest market. The largest market is where you will find the largest economies of scale. In other words, why write software for 10% of the market when you could be writing software for 80% of the market when you have pretty much the same costs? Economically, it makes perfect sense to write software for the Microsoft OS over the Apple or Linux market. Yes of course software is written for all three, but the reason is to fill the remaining demand. Price competition is why Microsoft is larger than Apple and the fact that hardy any money can be made attempting to sell open source software to pay people to write the code is why Microsoft has far more users than Linux.

Microsoft isn't going anywhere....although I agree that they may need to change how they write their OS. But this will only succeed if the writers of applications agree ahead of time with Microsoft's new direction in how they write the OS code. Otherwise Microsoft will be writing an OS for software that will never exist. For the next generation OS to work, Microsoft will have to drop their arrogant attitude of "do as we say or the highway" to a more flexible, "let's work together to develop a really really great OS that you will want to write applications for" type of attitude.

[bd1886]

I agree. Microsoft is here to stay for the long hall. There are so many companies that have reached this "infrastructure" point of development and they all seem to morph into the big guns behind the scenes. ( Dupont,IBM,etc...) For all the "Big Brother" naysayers' the world would be a lesser place without 'em. The quashing of competition in the interim sure sucks though!

[Liquidparadox]

Microsoft isnt going anywhere anytime soon. They are dumping somewhere around 2 billion per year into robotics in developing a standardized platfrom for them. I would imagine in the next 20 years or so, they will have it and revolutionize the robotics feild just like they did for the PC. That is the exact reason why I invested money in microsoft and bought some of their stock. Now I just sit back and wait for them to revolutionize. Dont get me wrong, they have their issues and by no means would I ever say the windows is the best thing ever, but it has revolutionized the way the world works, communicates, and interacts. Cant deny that.