Microsoft sees sales hurdles ahead

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Take your thinking one step further.

You wrote:
From both a consumer viewpoint and an economic viewpoint, I consider the opening of the operating system to be beneficial. What is the point in having some IBM programmers, some HP programmers, some SGI programmers, some Sun programmers, some Dell (or whoever) programmers all working on solving the same problem? Only one solution will be best (and perhaps not as good as the collaborative solution), and the cost is embedded in all the hardware solutions. Better, in my opinion, they collaborate on the base (like GM, Ford, Toyota sharing standards) and put their talents to use on stuff that sits atop that base...

Okay, you've identified the waste of time and resources: duplicated effort if each company solves the same problem independently. Implicitly, this assumes software which provides functions common to all competitors.

You identify a solution: 'the opening of the operating system'.
If each competitor retained employees working on the problem, their efforts would involve helping a competitor. A company that held something back for its own products would gain an advantage. Successful cooperation is unlikely.

If the open source model is invoked, then the people working on the software would be fired because they'd be replaced by volunteers. This would not make the people who lose their jobs happy. They were better off when efforts were being duplicated.

A third solution is far simpler and less damaging. A separate company develops an operating system that solves the common problems, and charges each of the competitors the same amount. The separate company would be able to hire most if not all the people involved in solving the problems, and they would still receive a salary because sale of a product generates revenues.
In fact, given all that talent, the operating system could be extended to new capabilities, making computers even more desirable and improving the sales of all the competitors for that reason.
The perfect solution, no?


Wish discussion could continue, but I expect this news story to disappear soon. Too bad.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 01/29/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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