I just finished the article. I agree with some of the other’s who have said that there was some bias in the article, however it did offer some insights as well.

On thing I thought revealing was the author’s blaming Microsoft for being “tied down” to a crummy OS structure because they have to support old versions, and then slamming them for coming up with a new version that doesn’t support older version of software.

He also really seems to believe that soon you won’t be able to run anything on Windows but Microsoft products, an idea I find preposterous. Though Microsoft has done this in selected applications (IE being a prime example), they can’t do it for every application and expect to survive. Creating an OS where every non-Microsoft programmer can’t write software would force us all to either develop for another OS (read: Linux) or create another one (read: Linux ). An OS is only as good as the software you can run on it, and if there’s only one shop that can write software for an OS, it is doomed.

He also seemed to lump together a lot of Microsoft’s legitimate business practices with the clearly unethical (and unlawful) ones. Creating a product that doesn’t play well with other software isn’t unethical, especially if it makes the end product easier to use in the end. That’s a decision Microsoft has to make, though I think if they alienate everyone they’ll be in a world of hurt. Stealing other people’s work, however, is illegal (and unethical), even if you attach a NDA to it.

Like I said before, I’m now running Linux as a desktop OS at home and my biggest complaint is Word processing. If I didn’t have a compelling reason to do so (like trying to become more familiar with technologies other than Windows) I’d have to stick with Win2K. As it is, I still have to use my wife’s computer half the time.

I did find it interesting that he mentioned Delphi toward the end of the article. I don’t think that Borland will allow itself to be bought out so that Kylix (the Linux brand of Delphi and C++ Builder) can be discontinued, though sometimes the almighty dollar can change minds. I have noted that Kylix hasn’t taken off very well: when we bought Delphi 7 we got Kylix for free (which I’ve used and is quite good, actually); in the past Kylix was a separate product.

Ultimately the consumer is in charge of all of this and so far the average consumer has been happy enough to follow Microsoft wherever it leads. If M$ continues in the way this article suggests, however, there will be a point the critical numbers won’t follow.