Tuesday, January 13, 2009

the end of microsoft's domination

do you hear that? yup, the mighty giant is being slain. the great horned one that has ruled and fucked over the modern computing age. i'm not saying they never invented anything, of course they did, but what they did more than anything is STIFLE competition, stifle invention, stifle anything that didn't suit their needs; they're losing in the mobile department, vista is a wash; the xbox is good but not exactly a cash cow. windows of course is still the thing. it's still holding strong. but osx and linux are making headway. i don't know what it's going to take to put them over the top; i can't foresee it, but i'm wishing it with every fiber of my being. the reason is not that i hate Microsoft, the reason is that i truly believe they have caused irreparable harm to the computing world by their monopolization. we'll never know what creative possibilities would have come to pass if developers had had an open (or at least MORE open) operating system to work with. i really feel this strongly. think about it. open source is almost a necessary mandate when it comes to operating systems. almost like democracy is to government; one company should not control something as important as your computer. and they do control it, whether you realize it or not; they influence your thoughts, decisions, and most certainly, what things you can and cannot do. microsoft needs to fade, but it will take something beyond my reckoning for either linux or OSX to dominate them. but i am willing to settle for increased marketshare. linux has servers, mobiles, and netbooks. that's a hell of an increase from 10 years ago, and it is the markets that are most revolutionary. the standard personal PC is the last holdout of windblowze, and i think it needs to die. when you cannot buy a new computer that has windows xp, you cannot even install XP without serious tinkering because MS's death grip won't allow producers to post XP drivers, that is far TOO much power. i know most folks think of it as just the "way things are" but i would propose that that sort of thinking is quite possibly the most insidious and dangerous, not to mention foolish, on the planet. that is the way things stay the same, they way we re-elect bush, the way we allow our freedoms to be sucked away; because we simply acquiesce to "that's just the way things are". computing freedom is important, and still MS is running the same game they always have, doing everything they can to keep every developer on earth, whether it be hardware or software, to not produce linux drivers, apple software, or anything that isn't directly linked and CONTROLLED by redmond. it's an unacceptable state of affairs in our present age of information and individual-controlled computing. i have to admit that i use XP myself, though i honestly feel bad about it, because i'm not willing to yet loose the programs that i love that are tied to XP. and can't afford an apple : ) hopefully soon we all will have the courage to change. MS had some good things to contribute, but in the long run, they have been a blight on our landscape, and have stifled possibilities for creative advancement in ways that we may never know. it's time to change, long past time.

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