How is Microsoft “done?” They have complete and total dominance of the desktop/PC market. They account for 1/3 of the worldwide web server market and greater than 60% of the general server market. The only market in which they fail to dominate is mobile, but even then, Android dominates that market.
This article is humorous in the sense that 20 years ago Apple fanboys used to say “Windows 95 is Apple X” (where X is the flavor of Apple out at the time). I was too young to argue or care, but one could say that Windows 95 had its similarities to the Apple OS GUI. Here we are, 20 years later, and Apple is being accused of “ripping off Microsoft.” I applaud Apple for their efforts, and I think the sniping between camps is silly.
In the operating system universe, the only OS I don’t trust is Android because it’s a Google product. Google has proven time and time again that it’s not looking out for the best interests of the customer while Microsoft and Apple have provided consistent product lines over the years. Sadly, Apple’s appeal is that their entire platform from hardware to OS to application store is proprietary. This has worked to their advantage in that their platforms are stable and solid workhorses, but the cost is astronomical compared to a PC.
And for all of the Apple “engineers” who claim their IT offices are almost solely Apple products, I’d like to point out that in an overwhelming majority of cases, engineers are using Parallels to run a Windows desktop. The joke around our office is that Apple devices are just expensive terminals. Not a single engineer with whom I work uses an Apple device natively. They’re all doing business productivity and automation tasks on Windows VMs/RDP.
Thanks once again for your voice of sanity!
I don’t understand people who get all hyped up over an operating system.
I’ve been working in the computer industry for 40 years. Started on mainframes. The only Apple then was something you eat or the Beatles’ record label. The only Microsoft was small hobby computers (micros) and soft(ware), which were programs.
Back in the 1990s I became a Linux enthusiast. I was on Torvald’s mailing list from 1994. I had to compile the source code in order to install it. I used to teach Linux classes. I thought it was going places, but it just ran out of steam, and so did I. As I devoted more and more of my career to teaching, the number of people wanting training on Linux dwindled. Around the same time, more and more became interested in getting an NCE or MCSE in Windows NT, so I did too and then started teaching them. I remember installing Netware 2.2 back in the late 80’s (remember net$os.exe?).
Well, Novel just croaked, and Windows—as a network server operating system—took off and made me lots of serious money!
I still like playing with my Linux variants and iPad. Still, I just don’t find enough clients (nowadays I do only some teaching and a lot of higher-level consulting) who want Linux, and of course, Apple has no serious server-level systems.
But I don’t hate Microsoft. I don’t hate Apple. I don’t hate Linux. I don’t even hate Google. They’re all good.
Image a world without them.
We wouldn’t even be having this conversation!