The new Microsoft OS. Hint – it’s not Vista
November 04, 2006 |
After years of competition, Microsoft’s finally done a turnaround. With a 5 year agreement to work with Novell on harmonizing Window & Linux, offering Suse Linux Enterprise customers maintenance and support for compatibility, and working towards MS Office – Open Office compatibility.
Additionally, Microsoft will officially recommend Suse Linux Enterprise for people who want to run both Windows and Linux. No longer an enemy, but an ally.
Some see this as a Trojan Horse strategy by Microsoft. Others, as a sellout by Novell. Yet others, claim this as a vindication for Linux – and the benefit to Microsoft being able to offer dot Net on Linux. This isn’t a small thing; although Microsoft dominates the desktop OS and applications market with Windows and Office, the Web isn’t – IIS trails LAMP significantly, and not being able to address this means being left out.
Compare this with the often repeated refusal to offer MS Office on Linux. It isn’t difficult to do; MS offers Office on Macs, which run a variant of BSD under the hood. The real reason has been to protect Windows; part of the reason why enterprise customers stay with Windows is because there isn’t a good Office-compatible alternative that runs on the desktop, and re-doing applications, macros and the like that have been implemented on Office is a nightmare.
But there’s a different undercurrent I see. The ubiquity of Windows and Office, with Microsoft thereby dominating the desktop space, created a different network effect; the “there is no alternative” effect, further strengthening MS’s hold. But the last few years have seen an interesting trend.
Can you name the new, fast growing applications that have emerged in since 2001? Youtube, Flickr & Picasa, Digg, WordPress, Blogger. All running on the web, through the browser. Regardless of what desktop OS runs below.
Even at work, what really dominates today? It isn’t so much the Office suite – between Office 2000 and Office 2003, the incremental functionality isn’t too much. It’s really been collaboration, document sharing, search, and the good old email / IM tools. Shut off the wireless networking, remove access to the Net – and productivity drops to single digit decimals.
The new Microsoft OS pact isn’t really about the desktop. It’s a tacit admission that in a Web 2.0 world, the desktop is becoming irrelevant.
