Microsoft has claimed to be king of the hill for a while now, i.e., the desktop hill. It was, however, always looking over it’s shoulder to see who might be sneaking up behind them and gain market traction. That one product was Linux. But Microsoft, at least in reporting to the SEC made it clear that Linux is not one of their rivals. No that belongs to Apple and Google. The Linux Microsoft Desktop Rivalry is over; at lest that is how Microsoft sees it.
The SEC Report
Microsoft sends an annual update to the SEC over its stock and investment information. Recently the lawyers over at Microsoft made some interesting claims about who they think their competitors are. (Notice that the items underlined in the report represent the 2011 version while the items crossed out represent the 2010 version of the report.)
The upshot? Linux is so last year. But Apple and Google are so this year. Also, Microsoft is aware that the end of the PC is in the winds. Instead, mobile devices may be the newest sleep walker that can rouse up the market and change the consumer profile of usage. And another thing, is Microsoft making a conscious move to enter the hardware market? If not, think again. Look what Google announced today, that it had acquired Motorola. If that isn’t sheep dog rounding up the sheep I don’t know what is.
Microsoft has tentatively been involved with hardware through the Mouse and the Keyboard. Small items for sure, but with their advances into the tablet area with some Nokia patents under its belt they could be pursuing a new strategy to keep Apple and Google from running away with the hardware-software market all on their own.
Microsoft May be on the verge of a new direction, similar to the one they took in 1990, when Bill Gates decided that they needed to become an Internet company besides a software company. With the Linux threat behind them, they may be ready to compete directly with Apple and Google in the same arena.
Source: Microsoft SEC Report, ZDnet
this coming from WINDOWS SEVEN blog, not biased at all.
Microsoft is putting its money in the cloud where at the end of the day all data is going even if it takes 20 years. Apple and Google just don’t have expertise/money at this time to compete with them. Apple and Google both only produce end user products. Azure which is running a lot of corporate SAAS stuff already including Apples iCloud will under pin Microsoft’s future but linix will be the big competitor for MS in the cloud market as it grows.
Although I fully understand your perspective that Linux itself has become less of a threat to Windows than some of its other rivals from Apple and Google, I don’t agree that it has completely lost the plot as a viable and crucial OS within the sector. Apple’s offering in based on UNIX, whereas Google’s is basically a distro of Linux. Google’s Chrome OS (although not very successful at present) is also based on a fundamental set of the Linux kernel.
In fact, open source computing has been reaching new highs since 2006/7 and promises to grow as an industry- and consumer-oriented product/service offering for the foreseeable future. I am privileged enough not to be brand-biased at all. I buy whichever product delivers me the best service at the best value. At the moment I am back to using Windows (in the 7 guise), but still prefer Google Chrome as a browser and LibreOffice as an office suite. I also use VLC/WMP for media players, depending on the source of the media.
And THAT’S the one reason desktop computing won’t completely disappear. We might see a shift from desktop computers to laptop computers, such as the one that has been occurring since the early 2000′s, but the desktop environment will exist for some time still. We’ll have to wait and see when Apple will drop OS X completely, in favour of their iOS platform. Or when Microsoft will drop their winNT, x86-only kernel OS for a streamlined one based on Metro that runs any hardware with increased stability and security?
These are the lessons Linux have taught Microsoft, just as Windows has been teaching Linux a lot in terms of GUI capability and design (for the standard desktop, not modern, mobile desktops).
I think Linux will exist for quite some time. And that’s a good thing as well, as Windows and other software products wouldn’t be where they are today and won’t be where they will be in the future, if it weren’t for the influence the various Linux distros have had on the desktop computing and mobile computing environments.