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The lion could end up eating up the mice’s cheese
Windows XP is the most widely installed operating system in the world and the number of companies contributing valuable software offerings for it is second to none.
Now that Microsoft is looking for ways to transit as many users as possible to its upcoming Vista operating system, in as little time as possible, there appears to be serious trouble in paradise between Microsoft and a growing number of its “partner” developers.
Two of those “previously friendly” partners are Symantec and Trend Micro.
They might be joined soon by many more developers who openly oppose Microsoft’s unforeseen move to shut down any kind of access to the root security access, effectively closing the gates for any serious security software company who are looking to launch offerings for Vista.
If Microsoft starts losing support from its developers, especially the biggest ones, the future for Vista could be somewhat compromized. If these frustrated (and justifiably so) developers start pushing their development for Linux, that could rapidly shift a significant part of the Windows market towards the “open source alternatives”.
To illustrate what’s happening in a rather humorous way, imagine Microsoft as being the figurative lion looking to eat away at the mice’s (figuratively reprensenting Symantec and Trend Micro) much smaller, but still appealing, piece of cheese.
This dangerous new tendency for Microsoft to shut out its developers is bad news for, well, the developers because they instantly lose their cash cow but consumers will also find it frustrating to see the software variety (and probably reliability, as Microsoft shuts off the access to important parts of its core codebase), not to mention the fact Vista might come to be seen for what it is, a grossly overpriced, underperforming and largely unreliable operating system that’s about five years behing MacOS X (especially the upcoming Tiger release) and Linux (namely the releases using the almighty Debian OS).
Microsoft should perhaps stop acting like a proverbial bully, especially with its developers, because all it’ll get with such an attitude is, most presumably, a plethora of damaging antitrust lawsuits.
Tags: antitrust, symantec, trend micro, microsoft, windows vista, windows xp
2 Responses to “The lion could end up eating up the mice’s cheese”
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Microsoft has put themselves in a really binding position vis a vis developers and tech savvy folk and investors. Think of this:
1) There’s a rapidly growing OSS developer base growing that is nicely organised and wary of Microsofts business practices given their history.
2) They have to expand their product base and sales figures to satisfy the investors.
3) Large companies are now looking to Linux/Unix and Mac solutions to try to keep costs down after seeing what the Vista licensing is going to cost.
Mr. Gates is a very smart man, and has cashed in his chips. My money is also on his decision. Cash wont stop flowing, but I’m thinking Microsoft has hit a brick wall once all things, like litigation, reputation, and sheer size of the company, is taken into consideration. People aren’t looking for a way out, companies are, and that’s where Microsoft has shined for years.
Interesting, isn’t it?
For me, the best operating system is Linux because it rarely hangs.