Microsoft reorg a bulwark against Google?

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Re: [Mono] will greatly reduce your deployment costs.

True. I think Mono is very good for some things. I've heard that people have been able to host ASP.Net sites on it for the last couple years.

Last I heard though, their only complete version is equivalent to .Net 1.0. Maybe that's changed. They're going to have to get working on 2.0 next.

Have they gotten Windows Forms functionality complete on it yet? I've been curious about that.

Re: "The problem for Microsoft, is the people creating server applications are a lot more savy, especially those that will need thousands of servers to support their application. They will not permit MS to lock them in and control the platform like desktop users."

This is true. They're also more political, I've noticed. They can be very wedded to a particular platform, even particular flavors of Unix, even if it's not OSS.

I think the way it's typically worked out is that MS or some other company introduces a technology that people gravitate towards just because it makes their life easier. It doesn't feel like lock-in, because they're gaining so many advantages from it in the early part of its life cycle. I think where people start feeling the "lock-in" is when the vendor is charging the same amount or more for advancements in the technology they adopted years ago, but now their IT budgets have been getting cut, so they really notice the upgrade costs, more than they used to. They start feeling like they're in a straight-jacket because rather than being able to advance with the technology improvements (can't afford the upgrade), more and more problems start showing up with their aging technology.

Re: "That said, look for MS to leverage the desktop to increase server market share and maintain the desktop monopoly. This is really what many of the technologies in Vista are all about, and this strategy might work VERY well for Microsoft. But, Google might also spoil the party for them by supporting Firefox."

I think this is partly correct. MS has talked recently about exporting XAML to other platforms, so it won't be a Windows-only/IE-only technology. They'll reserve some of the snazzier features for Windows, but the rest they're talking about porting, or at least making the spec. available/standardized (a la the CLI spec.). We'll see if they follow through with that. With their extensive adoption of XML, though, I don't see how that translates to lock-in. XML is an open format for which anyone can create an implementation, and anyone can parse.

Unless Google becomes more of a portal and not merely a transit point to other sites, I don't see how them supporting Firefox is going to make a dent. Their search interface is so simple, even a 10-year-old browser could access it. The sole purpose of its search is to take people to other, independently-run destinations. So from what they've done so far, I wouldn't give a hoot if they supported Firefox.

Posted by: Mark Miller   Posted on: 09/21/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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