[ba-ohs-talk] Cringely: OS X for Wintel boxes
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020214.html
"Jon Shirley, the only CEO of Microsoft to be universally identified as a
grown-up, told me during his last week at the helm that the best thing that
had ever happened for Microsoft's language business was Borland
International and its language business. Borland, under the wacky Philippe
Kahn, gave Microsoft fits. Borland languages were often better than
Microsoft's, and always cheaper. The result was that Microsoft, even though
it continued to be the larger player in that business, couldn't coast.
Borland forced Microsoft to be a better company for its customers, which is
exactly what Jon Shirley was talking about. Now look at the problems
Microsoft has today, and you'll see that they all come down to a lack of
credible competition. Netscape was good and made Internet Explorer better,
but today nobody at Microsoft even pays attention to Netscape, just as they
no longer pay attention to Novell in networking or, alas, even Borland in
languages. Microsoft has killed all the competitors, or at least cowed them
to the extent that there is now plenty of excess bandwidth in Redmond for
megalomania. This is bad for Microsoft and for its customers. Jon Shirley
knew that, but I don't think that Gates or Ballmer do. So the best thing
for Microsoft would be a formidable competitor. This kinda sorta exists in
Linux, except that Linux isn't organized in any sense, and Linux attacks
only Microsoft provinces, not the homeland itself. What is needed is
competition for the desktop, and for that, there is really only one other
game in town. I think Apple should market a version of OS X for Intel
computers." (01)
I couldn't agree more. I've been playing with "ten" on my son's G4
box. Unix with an easy interface. Pretty good stuff. My next box might
be a Titanium, but I'm sitting here typing on a Sony Vaio. Now, wouldn't
"ten" on this box be just what the doctor ordered? (02)
Cheers
Jack (03)