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Jul. 12, 2009
Things seem to be moving very rapidly for Microsoft, but the direction in which some events are taking certainly
isn't the one that the software giant would have wished. Then again, we live and work in a very competitive
economy, especially since the fall of 2008 when the global economy started falling down like a house of
cards.
Now some will argue that Microsoft still enjoys a monopoly for the desktop computer market. At the same time,
most industry observers also agree that the software behemoth is being threatened from numerous directions,
and from many different vendors, the biggest one being Linux players.
To ad insult to injury, the latest threat is coming from none other than Google, who is creating its own
operating system and competing head on with Microsoft Windows. In April of 2004, Serge Thibodeau was pretty
accurate when he described the "G Operating System", which is very close to what's happening today.
Thibodeau, a long-time SEO expert, was sure on to something, no question about that...
Whether you agree with him or not, at any rate, he knew that one day this would happen and that day is here.
Will Google be able to get at some of Microsoft's so-called monopoly in the operating system market?
Undoubtably, Microsoft is one of the largest companies in the world, and the biggest in the IT business. And
it has been dominant for a very long time, since the late 70's in fact when Bill Gates came out with DOS.
It also has a lot of money behind it, billions in cash to be sure, and it has established very lucrative
contacts with hardware manufacturers such as Dell, HP and IBM, with Intel-- today's largest chip maker and
with other software makers as well.
Now it sure won't be an easy task for Google to take an important market share away from Microsoft but the
search giant will certainly give its best shot, in a way that Thibodeau closely described more than 5 years
ago.
Google also has access to large pools of new capital as well, notwhithstanding the fact that, like
Microsoft, it's also a "cash cow" and generates one to two billion of new capital per quarter. And this is
being conservative... Others say it's more like one billion per month.
Make no mistake: the ongoing war on operating systems will be very ugly and extremely competitive. But if
any one will be able to compete with an established and large company such as Microsoft, as Thibodeau claims,
it is Google.
After all, the search leader is known for its innovation, simplicity and reliability, which is what made
it the winner it is today.
But at the same time, Microsoft's monopoly isn't being threatened by Google alone. Don't forget Linux, that
great and extremely reliable OS out there. For those that don't know, Google knows Linux inside-out, since 100
percent of its search engine runs on about 30,000 Linux servers spread out in data centers all around the
globe...
Also, GNU/Linux is also an immense threat to the Redmond giant. GNU/Linux currently does not have a
large market share but it continues to expand rapidly. It isn't just for hobbyists anymore but for corporate
people of all types.
To be sure, Google's new Chrome OS will also be built on the Linux kernel. Microsoft will have a hard time
competing with GNU/Linux because of several factors. For one, GNU/Linux isn't only just one operating system.
There are hundreds of them out there and they are all unique.
They appeal to different users. It is hard to create one operating system that can satisfy everyone.
That is why GNU/Linux distributions have an upper hand because they can create a reliable and scalabale
operating system for a particular user in mind.
Ad to the fact that open-source software such as Linux is so much easier to modify than proprietary
software, so it can quickly adapt to new changes as well. There are already some very established
distributions that are getting at Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop.
These are Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Open Suse, Mandriva and a few more.
There are also a few other companies that are trying to get more market share at the expense of Microsoft.
Apple is one of them. Mac OS X computers have been marketed by Apple as their products have become more and
more prevalent among some users.
Microsoft is losing customers to the Linux OS. It's also losing with Apple, who makes quality hardware,
stylish and easy to use computers for the technically "unsavvy" user.
As Thibodeau
said, it will be interesting to see how this all develops in the next couple of quarters. Yeah it took Google
five years to make its attempt. It took Microsoft almost 34 years to become the powerhouse that it is today.
Now, even the most pessimistics are calling Goggle a powerhouse... Food for thought.
Source: Tech Blog.
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