What Would The World Be Like Without Microsoft?

CanadianMikey asks: "The debate with the business side of computing rages on about the validity of Open Source. Is it good or bad? What is the future of computing? Could it have been different, and where will the 21st century take us? Is Microsoft just the big nail that always gets hammered first and will someone step in to take their place when they are finally taken down? If Microsoft were to close up shop, who do the readers of Slashdot think would be tomorrow's Microsoft? What about the forgotten windows?"

the real problem is...

[Zorak Man]

All the wrath of the open source community could be focused right on Mr. McBride.

We'd all be using IBM OS/2

[Anonymous Coward]

And we'd be loving it!

Without Microsoft...

[bfg9000]

... we'd have no idea how bloody good Linux and Mac OSX really are.

One thing's for sure

[-kertrats-]

A lot less /. comments. With no microsoft to complain about, half the comments wouldn't have anything to rant about.

The world without windows

[QEDog]

Yikes! That is scary! But not as scary as a world without doors.

Re:AOL member page?

[Anonymous Coward]

AOL can't be Slashdotted

What will happen to ./ !!!

[vinit79]

If microsoft disappears I guess ./ will be the worst hit.

Just like ,if there is only good left in the universe then wont religion be redundant!
Dont let it happen !! Save microsoft so we can have something to bitch about .

As a social service I am accepting contribution for saving MS. I promise all the money will be spent on buying licenses of MS Office and Windows XP.

one word

[Anonymous Coward]

What Would The World Be Like Without Microsoft?

Better.

But what would we do without Microsoft?

[mboos]

We would have no one to blame for all of our computer problems.

mmm

[gho]

We'd all be running (and enjoying) AmigaOS 8.

That's easy!

[pergamon]

There'd be no war, starvation, or crime, and every child would have a pony.

Re:One thing's for sure

[LGagnon]

Sure we would have things to rant about:
- George Lucas messing up Star Wars
- SCO
- duplicate articles
- the lack of an MS substitute to complain about

Re:If Windows were to diappear

[Daleks]

If Windows were to disappear the world would be very, very dark inside.

Well... there's the obvious

[ValourX]

Well Jim's been dead for more than thirty years... Robby, Ray, and John are still around though. They don't play much anymore.

Or were you talking about ports to games on old Amiga BBSes?

-Jem

Re: Obligatory Quote

[seaswahoo]

And we wouldn't have the obligatory quote: "640K of memory should be enough for anybody." (Bill Gates, 1981)

Re:One thing's for sure

[System.out.println()]

That wouldn't change anything. People rarely need to talk about anything to post comments....

Re:Standards

[mingot]

That's true, but in the absence of a behemoth like Microsoft dictating what a "standard" is we would probably be working with true (ie open) standards rather than simply what Bill declares is Good For You(tm).

Nah, we'd just be running OS/2 or OSX.

But lets answer the actual question that was asked... What would the world look like if we were all running Linux. In my view, it would look a lot different since I'd probably be an auto mechanic or cabinet maker instead of a programmer.

Re:The world without windows

[kfg]

Without doors you could always climb in through the Windows. They're always the greatest security/intrusion risk, being, by their very nature, terribly insecure. You'll never find a maximum security facility with Windows where they want to be absolutely sure no one can get, or even see, inside.

I'm not exactly sure how chimneys fit into this, but be extra careful around Christmas time. Leaving out a honeypot is reputed to work against malicious behavior in case of actual intrusion though.

And maybe some cookies.

KFG

You might as well ask ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... what would the world be like without Organized Crime?

Re:Loss of microsoft now....

[RufusDark]

Indeed. There would almost undoubtably be a widespread economic depression. People are stubborn. The masses would just stick with whatever the latest version of Windows was when Microsoft went down. Most people probably wouldn't buy a new computer until they had to, because like you mentioned, they don't want to have to learn how to use another one. Hell, most people barely know how to use Windows, as easy as it is. It would be years before people started buying personal computers again on a large scale. The PC gaming industry would likely never recover. But worst of all? I'd have to get a new email address.

Re:Standards

[Monkelectric]

As loathe as I am to say it now, Microsoft has actually show us the benefit of "standards"

In the same way fucking that crazy girl down the street reminds you its not good to fuck crazy girls... I suppose

Well....

[Shadwell]

...people on Slashdot would have a lot less to complain about.

Re:Standards

[slowbad]

Microsoft has actually show us the benefit of "standards".

If not for Microsoft's corruption of SLIP and PPP in 1994...
my very own TRIPLE Challenge Handshake Authentication
(CHA CHA CHA) would have ruled the dialup world instead!

Re:MS Bashing

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, but there was a sunny day back in 1992 when some of us affirmatively choose to use Windows. And then install it on all our colleagues' machines.

Sorry about that. Guess it was partially my fault we're stuck with Windows.

Like the saying goes

[suso]

A computer without Microsoft is like ice-cream without Ketchup.

Without Microsoft.....

[vwjeff]

Let's see. A world without Microsoft. What would I be complaining about right now. Oh, yeah, I would be talking about the evil empire Apple and how they have a hold on the market.

Obviously...

[mog007]

What would the world be like without Microsoft?

More stable.

OT

[PsiPsiStar]

In the same way fucking that crazy girl down the street reminds you its not good to fuck crazy girls... I suppose

And God how I need that reminder now and again. ... Just got a letter from an ex-girlfriend...

Off topic reply to sig

[PsiPsiStar]

I can see the "Post Anonymously" option, but where do I find the "Post Humously" option?

I could tell you. But then I'd have to kill you.

Re:Standards

[UnknownSoldier]

> You think buildings would be safer if every builder was allowed to "innovate" their own designs?

Reminds me of that quote off my giant poster on Murphy's Law about Computers [astrohoroscopes.com] ...

"If engineers built buildings the way programers write code,
the first time a woodpecker came along, it would destroy civilization."

And yes, I am a programmer. :)

Come Again?

[EventHorizon]

Dude, this is slashdot... You have to be more specific.

What's a girl?

Standardisation on .doc

[stor]

A world w/o MS, eh?

Perhaps I wouldn't be receiving 200 "Here is the document (.pif)" emails each day. My MTAs and webservers are getting hammered by WinDOS malware.

Sounds great, where do I sign up for this magical place?

Cheers
Stor

p.s. To all MS-Apologists: fuck off.

Re:mmm

[Anonymous Coward]

We'd all be running (and enjoying) AmigaOS 8.

Ahem, you mean TOS v8.0 :-P

Re:Standards

[include($dysmas)]

well done, have a standard-conforming biscuit

Re:Anarchy

[soulhuntre]

"Everytime I plow through the Linux source code, I gasp!"

Tell me about it. Just reading the Kernal Traffic list lets you know how crazy things are in there.

I am always amused when a client asks me if they should move to Linux because they are worried that there are too many bugs in commercial software. The answer is...

"well, if you think betting your enterprise on hundreds of thousands of lines of code written by thousands of amateurs with almsot no oversite and no quality control is a good idea... you go right ahead".

Re:Standards

[dpilot]

Forget building codes. Problems like you mention are what Neighborhood Thermonuclear Weapons were made for.

No microsoft?

[knigitz]

What?! And give up Solitaire? You're crazy!

Re:Without Microsoft.....

[AmigaBen]

Oh the horrors! All these years we would have had to suffer with a stable, multitasking, REAL OS...

And In other News:

[Jediman1138]

Today the multi-billion dollar corporation Microsoft closed up shop. Few know why, but we had a chance to ask Bill Gates why.

When asked why he would do such a thing Mr. Gates said simply "Fuck It, I've got all the money I need."

________________________________________________

Re:Standards

[drsmithy]

The US government loses money as a drug dealer. The most profitable 'job' on the planet is dealing drugs and the US government is losing money doing it. That pretty much sums it up.

I would propose to you that prostitution is a vastly more profitable enterprise.