Imagining A Day Without Microsoft

I found this kiss-up to Microsoft on one of the blogs I frequent. It’s a puff-piece that ran in Infoworld called Imagining A Day Without Microsoft. A few choice quotes:

“Initially, panic in the streets,� says Tony Meadow, president of Bear River Associates, an ISV focusing on mobile applications. “[Microsoft] didn’t establish [its standards] in a nice sort of way, but they are the basis for a lot of things that we use and do with computers.�

It’s called embrace and extend. Other companies and groups define standards: open ones that anyone is free to use. Microsoft then takes those standards and adds its own, proprietary extensions. They’ve done it with HTML, XML, Kerboros, and LDAP, and countless others. At the same time, open standards which would let you get your information out of Microsoft products (such as OpenDocument) are given lip service or simply ignored.

Standards are the enemy of Microsoft. They let customers choose someone other than Microsoft.

We would also find out how bad the Linux and Apple vendors are at providing patches, compared to what [customers] got used to from Microsoft,� John Pescattore, vice president for Internet security at Gartner says, adding that Microsoft is much better than Apple and Linux at delivering security patches. “If you keep getting into car accidents, you know how to fix dents.�

Excuse me? Microsoft should be praised for delivering security patches? This is a company that more often than not refused to acknowledge security holes in its software, leaving its customers out to dry. A huge majority of internet worms and viruses are a direct result of shoddy Microsoft programming and design.

Apple and Linux vendors are “slow” to release patches because these platforms are far more stable and secure than the typical Microsoft platform. Microsoft has practice at delivering security patches because their software’s security is so bad! If you “keep getting into car accidents,” maybe you should stop driving! If this clown is “VP of Internet Security” at Gartner, how secure do you think their networks are?

The real kicker is this one:

What do I think? It is not an accident that Microsoft and its hardball tactics have succeeded all these years. They did not happen accidentally. Like the roots of a plant searching for water, the high-tech industry itself created Microsoft in order to survive.

So, the tech industry thrives because of Microsoft? How utterly ridiculous! Microsoft has arguably killed more innovation in this industry than any other company (see “embrace and extend” above). Got a great idea and want to pitch it to VCs? If Microsoft is anywhere near that technology, you won’t get a dime for it. Are you a small company with something Microsoft wants? They’ll be your buddy just long enough to create their own version of your product and put you out of business. Its happened with countless products and companies. Microsoft all but ignored the rise of the Internet – the ultimate open standard – grudgingly acknowledging it only once it was too late to put their hooks into it.

Personally, I can imagine a world without Microsoft. Competition flourishes. New ideas propel truly innovative companies to success. The Internet is a far safer place as the worms and viruses that prospered thanks to Microsoft’s buggy software drop off drastically.

I can imagine a world without Microsoft. And frankly, I like what I see.