Published at LXer:

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.

[The author's take is nothing short of hilarious. - Scott]


Read More...

LinuxQuestions membership would rise dramatically.

That is beyond a doubt the funniest blog I've read in a long time. Even more so because the author isn't trying to be funny. Just a little tidbit from TFA:


I really should make that my sig.......

Without windows the hardware vendors would actually build hardware and drivers that work on linux.

Worse than global warming, swine flu, and World War III combined.

Only if people aren't willing to actually *learn* a new OS, and instead simply say "where's my Windows?", without giving alternative OSes any thought whatsoever...which kind of seems likely to me. Maybe the author is right...

Of course, I have all the best hopes that he isn't, and I know not everyone is like that, so I guess that makes it kind of hard for me to say whether he's really right or wrong.

As for all this "cloud" business, I don't buy it. I think it's just a way for companies to have more control over your data. Plus, who knows exactly where your apps/data will be stored? Your data could be on a server in a different country, and is thus protected by different laws...etc., etc., etc.

(not trying to cause arguments here, just IMO. I hope I don't come off sounding nasty)

you bet. It will be the worst thing ever, the salvation of Earth.