What Would Life Be Like Without Windows?

“It’s the thought experiment we all like to engage in. What
would life be like without Microsoft Windows? To listen to the free
open source software crowd, the demise of Windows — and by
extension, Microsoft’s hegemony over the PC universe — would
signal a kind of rebirth for information technology. Software would
finally be free of the corporate shackles that have stifled
innovation and dragged down the best and brightest among us.

“Such thinking is naïve, at best. Rather than freeing IT,
the demise of Microsoft would plunge the industry into an
apocalyptic tailspin of biblical proportions — no visions of
hippie utopia here. The withdrawal of the Redmond giant’s steady
hand would cause today’s computing landscape to tear itself apart
at the seams, with application and device compatibility and
interoperability devolving into the kind of Wild West chaos unseen
since the days of the DOS big three: Lotus, WordPerfect, and
Ashton-Tate.

“And don’t believe that the Web will somehow mitigate the impact
of Windows’ demise. Although Google talks a good story about
supplanting traditional compute models with a Web-centric paradigm,
the truth is that the folks from Mountain View are no less sinister
when it comes to grandiose plans for world domination.”

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