“An upstart Internet company threatens Microsoft and the entire Windows platform. The basis of that threat is the new company’s almost effortless command of Internet technology, which can be used to replace Windows with a browser-based architecture to supplant at will any and every part of the venerable operating system. The same goes for Microsoft Office. Bill Gates is intimidated and therefore inspired. Redmond quickly changes course, abandoning a monolithic and exclusive product strategy for a dynamic and inclusive one that embraces outside technologies in an attempt to out-start the upstart and thereby retain control of the software industry,” Robert X. Cringely writes for PBS. “That about covers last week’s announcement by Microsoft of Windows Live and Office Live to counter the ambitions of Google, right?”
“Nope,” Cringely writes. “It actually describes December, 1995, when Bill Gates awoke over a weekend to the potential of the Internet and the threat posed by Netscape, the Google of its era. Microsoft’s answer was to license Java from Sun, put Java in Internet Explorer 3, which it then gave away for free (Netscape cost money), and finally to turn MSN from a money-losing online service into a money-losing Internet portal. Welcome to 1996 as history repeats itself. What was happening at that time with Microsoft, Sun, and Netscape feels a lot like Microsoft, Sun, and Google today.”
Cringely writes, “The big question for Microsoft is whether they can compete in this new market without having to cheat? I don’t think they can. Putting it simpler, since all cheating isn’t illegal, can Microsoft really implement Windows Live and Office Live without breaking the law? I think they CAN, but I doubt if they WILL. I think that in Redmond the stakes will ultimately be perceived as too high not to cheat. Or maybe they simply don’t know how to pay fair. Either way, expect trouble.”
Full article, highly recommended, with some very funny bits here.
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