[WinMac] Article: The End of the Microsoft Age

Jason Sellers(JasonDS[at]extremezone.com)
Mon, 22 Feb 1999 12:26:31 -0700

For a *very* interesting view of the whole Microsoft/Anti-Trust/Open-Source
etc. etc. etc. debate, check out the following article:

http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/viewpoints/docs/037495.htm

I found this immensely entertaining; not to mention quite relevant to the
direction many of us are heading. I've included some quotes below. Feel
free to share your comments with me directly.

Jason Sellers

from "The End of the Microsoft Age"
by Jon Katz

Several business magazines reported this month that top PC companies are
beginning to look at non-Microsoft operating systems for the first time.
One in particular, Linux, could turn out to be Microsoft's Vietnam, reports
Business Week in its Feb. 22 issue: ``The 8-year-old variant of Unix is
designed by a guerrilla army of volunteers who distribute it for free.''
International Data Corp. pegs Linux's market share at 17.2 percent last
year -- about half that of Windows NT, Microsoft's rival operating system
for servers.

Microsoft isn't the only Gargantuan seeking to scarf up the Net, and it
surely won't be the last. But the rise of Linux and free software and the
parallel decline of the Microsoft Age have enormous political and cultural
significance.

Unlike mainstream media, which have been devoured almost whole by soulless
companies -- much like Microsoft itself -- the Net and the Web increasingly
appear destined for a different fate. Corporations are thundering online,
but the Net is bigger than even its creators foresaw. The hacker ethic that
dominated the early years of the Internet is thriving.

In the final analysis, Bill Gates' legacy will be money, not ideas.
Contrary to Net paranoia, Gates isn't evil, just typical: another mogul run
amok, ultimately reined in by his own arrogance -- and the ferociously
independent and resilient culture he came so close to conquering.

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