How long will the chicken survive without its head

[GriffIT34]

Ever seen a chicken continue to run around with its head cut off.
Today in google news I saw an interesting article about bill gates stepping aside as head of microsoft in 2008.

What made the article interesting was that they were pedicting the downfall of microsoft in the not to distant future. Not only how will the company lose some of its draw by losing "the man who had the vision". But they pointed out microsoft consistently losing ground to open source software and web based apps that don't care what OS you use.

What do you think? microsoft has been the PC age as we know it, what will it be in 2010?

[Dani]

I agree that Microsoft might either go downhill, go through an extended period of growing pains, or go through a period of being very lost, at the retirement or eventual passing of Bill Gates, Paul Allen, or any of the other guys who were with the company from the start and shared a common vision / direction.

[server_crash]

I belive they will go down. I don't think Vista is going to be a big hit at all, but rather turn people away with it's huge price tag and insane security checking.

[GriffIT34]

lets throw this out there. Linux, more specifically Xandros. I've been using it and its very user friendly. Not as simple as windows( it does take still a little savy) but its being marketed as a windows replacement.

[JemB]

I think it's got a bit of a run left in it. linux is great for those of us in the know, but for the average joe (and theres lots more of them) it isn't really in the picture. also untill interoperability, support and ease of software installation improves; i.e. "next next etc" it will probably stay that way. it is getting much better though and fast, all hail open scource

[Rashakil Fol]

Microsoft will either split into smaller companies, or it will spend 50 years dying.

['Stein]

Go with the splitting of companies, just like what happened to the Bell phone company back in the day.

[alc6379]

I dunno. I kind of hope that Microsoft will stick around for a good while.

With the advent of .NET 2.0, and some of their more recent releases, I've started to see something different in them. They're becoming more developer-friendly. They're becoming more interoperable with other OSes. They're making tools that are REALLY useful for administration and systems development. I like that.

I think that regardless of how much time MS has left, I really appreciate the steps they're taking as of late to be a "good member" of the "software community".

['Stein]

OO ya, don't get me wrong. I'm not someone to bash MS. Personally, I agree with ya, that I hope it stays around.

But personally, I think it'll die a slow death among seperate companies.

[>shadow<]

yah competitors are bringing microsoft lower and it seems that they are running out of ideas as Vista isn't all that convincing

I heard that Google will be commencing an opensource OS with Linux

['Stein]

Heh well Google's just another story.

They started out as the, you kno, 3 guys with a gigantic company. Now, theyre slowly turning into the real, gigantic company that's no longer on the user's side.

I dunno, this in itself is another thread topic...

*thinking how I'm too lazy to start a new thread*

[Duki]

Well what we have to consider is that we (people of the know) make up maybe 20% of the computer users. Think about your highschool/college/workplace. How many of them do you think could actually install a copy of Linux or take less than a month to learn Mac? Windows, in my oppinion, isn't going to die anytime soon if at all. They had the vision and therfor are way ahead of the game not only in architechtural design, but also in the business swing of things. Read "Microsoft Rebooted".

Until major computer manufacturers (aka Dell) offer more than Windows as an option, and until other OSs consider the stay-at-home moms as their primary users, Microsoft doesn't have a lot to worry about.

my oppinion ;)