The once unbelievable is coming true. Not only has Apple survived to see the latter half of the first decade of the 21st Century, but it seems to be working its way toward real market share; with Microsoft the poorer for it. Hath Hell frozen over? Was some Microsoft loving woman scorned? A frozen Hell hath no fury like a tech-girl scorned, I suppose. But, no, it is neither. Rather, it is a combination of the many small missteps on Microsoft's part that in turn are scaring away and turning off many of its biggest fans.
The company that launched MS, IBM, is now going to be providing their System x and BladeCenter servers with Sun's Solaris OS. Wow. This from the company that famously licensed a non-existent MS-DOS from a fledgling Microsoft. This is the best news possible for Sun. As like Apple in the late 90's, Sun isn't looking too well (yeah, I could have gone for the pun, but, it's just too bad, even for me). This could give them the boost they need (a new day is dawning? - couldn't resist).
It used to be that if you made x86 based hardware you provided a Microsoft OS with it. If you wanted Linux you had to go download your distro of choice and do the install on your own time. If you wanted OS/2, you had to buy it and install it. No one offered a non-MS OS alternative on x86 hardware. (I'm not counting the early heady days of computerdom. I'm specifically referring to the late 80's onward when the only OS you heard about was DOS and/or Windows something.) Now, Lenovo, Dell, and IBM (just to name the three that I know of) are offering their customers non-MS produced OSes on their x86 hardware. My, how the winds have changed. Ironically, it seems that the only computer maker to be touting Windows compatibility on their hardware is Apple; but, only as a sly means to get MS worshipping IT douches to remember that Apple exists and is now supplying hardware with Intel CPUs.
Where has all this dissatisfaction with Windows and Microsoft come from? Well, in the Linux and Mac communities, it's always been there. But, what about the other 93% or so of the computer using public? Looking back over the last 6 years or so, it seems that two major events occurred that ultimately tarnished the shine on Microsoft.
The first was the introduction of OS X. This was a watershed moment as Apple introduced to the world the first truly useable-by-the-masses-on-affordable-hardware Unix OS. (Yes, OS X is really NEXTSTEP with a Mac GUI, but NEXT machines were out of the reach of mere mortals. When NEXTSTEP was ported to vanilla x86 hardware no one cared.) It's friendly, easy to use, and powerful (unlike Linux, which has been historically powerful at best). A true Macintosh in so many ways, but entirely modern and geek-lust worthy. The second, Window's poor security infrastructure extended by Vista's late launch and underwhelming, well, everything. With serious monetary and productivity damage done due to Microsoft's lack of security foresight, many average Joe's began looking for a viable alternative. So have their bosses.
But, where to go, who to install? First, there's Linux. But, if you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know that I think Linux is not a real contender in the professional space. Maybe in the amateur ring it's the KO champ, but in the professional landscape, it looks weak and requires way too much hand holding to get through the fight. This also applies to the home; who wants to come home after working 50 hours and tweak their OS? Sure, if you're single and have no life, okay. But, honestly, I'd rather spend as much time with my wife. You know, getting laid. (I'm not ignoring distro's such as Ubuntu that do make life fairly easy out of the box. Have you ever tried to install software on Linux that didn't have your distro-specific package? Thought so. If you've had better luck than me, let me know, I'd like to personally congratulate you. Also, the fit and finish, are not on a par with either MS or Apple's offerings. Even the eye candy so many now expect from a modern OS is lacking outside the lab.)
So, who's next? BeOS failed to launch, period. I've played with it, but without any serious app support, it's an OS in search of something to do.
OS/2 was stabbed early in childhood by Microsoft and never recovered. It spent many years with some great nurse care, but eventually died of its wounds. The only real alternative left has always been Mac OS.
With the halo effect of the iPod and iPhone, people are realizing that Apple still makes some kick ass computers. Fun to use, easy to work with, and secure enough that you still have time to play with the kids and diddle the wife.
With consumers abandoning Windows PC makers (look at Dell's shrinking market share and the surge in Apple laptop sales) company execs are beginning to sniff the blood in the water. They, too, are searching for a better platform to not only offer their customers, but to run their own businesses. After all, if you're going to lose money would you rather lose it because of market conditions, or would you rather see millions of dollars flow out the door due to poor platform security and shoddy OS code? Frankly, I prefer my business decisions, good or poor, to be of my own making, not someone else's. Do you really want to have to go to the shareholders or venture capitalists and tell them that, yeah, you could have switched OSes, but you really wanted to stick with MS because you just love IE 7 so much? And, oh yeah, because of that boneheaded idea you were hacked, John in accounting spread the latest virus to everyone, and the entire company came to a standstill for 48 hours. At the same time the head of IT and his two monkeyboys where away at some conference and unreachable, so the interns were left to try and clean up the mess. Oh, and the company lost $2 million during the downtime, and is facing a possible loss of future business worth another $5 million. Uh, huh, sure, that's what I look forward to everyday.
Rather, I'd want to let my shareholders and customers know that I am looking into alternative platforms for better security, and that it will cost X dollars to do, but we can save XXXX dollars in IT manpower and possible security breaches.
It seems, if you look at all the news stories touting this company providing this non-MS OS and that company switching to Macs, that a lot of business leaders are beginning to feel the same way. There's trouble in Redmond, and no one there knows how to stem the flow of blood. This certainly looks to be the beginnings of Death By A Million Pinpricks.
Here's some advice to Ballmer and team: The next OS you guys release needs to be what Vista pretended to; a total ground up rewrite. In fact, take a clue from Apple, go out and get yourself a Unix or Linux kernel. Hell, seriously consider licensing the Mach kernel and Darwin from Apple; I'm sure you could even find a way to use the Open Source bits of Darwin if you really wanted to go that route. Use that as your foundation. Look at the security model in Unix, it's had well over 30 years to mature. Use it. Kill the registry. Please, we all beg you. Take the legacy of DOS and Windows 2000 out back, and shoot it. Don't bury it, cremate it. Start over. Tell all your customers that you'll try to provide an XP/Vista compatibility layer, but you're not Apple, so don't hold your breath. Then, create an OS that is secure, easy to use and powerful. Apple did it, and with far less money and manpower to boot. Otherwise, hope and pray that one of the other product teams comes up with a way to actually make money.
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