Microsoft vs. Google: A 2,400-Year-Old Move

Hmmm, this seems a bit strained.

(1 There have been online office replacements since the 90s.

(2) Google didn’t invent Linux or open source, nor are they the first or only company to leverage it.

(3) Nobody but Microsoft can be blamed for the fact that their code has gotten bloated beyond their own ability to maintain it.

Both Apple and Microsoft run very high profit margin businesses, very different in the details, but similar in that they must make sure that nobody can compete with them head to head. Apple does this by actually doing innovative things (although think some of their innovation is a bit silly). Microsoft does this in far more subtle ways…

Governments around the world, where billions can be spent in the blink of an eye are the stronghold of Microsoft. As long as Microsoft has a lock on government computing (at least in the desktop and small server space) their monopoly is unassailable. What are we up to now 40 percent of GDP? But the percentage of business that has to interact with government in some way is one hundred percent and they all have to maintain computers capable of churning out Office compatible files.

Google Docs, as far as I know does not present even a slight threat to this hegemony, although with some tinkering, it could (technically at least).

At the federal level colleagues and I have been threatened with dismissal for even suggesting alternatives to Microsoft. At the state level in Massachusetts I think people have been pressured to back off or resign. Independent studies on technology (where I worked) were ordered re-written to remove any language that would threaten complete loyalty to Microsoft. Anything illegal going on here, or is it just business as usual in government? Mostly the latter I think, but I’m sure glad to see some governments around the world bucking the trend, and I hope innovation may find its way into government here eventually and end the federally supported Microsoft monopoly.