Suddenly, I have a lot of questions.
I was talking with someone the other day, when the conversation got around to Microsoft and the proliferation of their software. Knowing that there are quite a few people that would love to see that company come crashing down, I was wondering "what if."
What if a nasty <insert term here> was to take out 10 or 20% of all companies that were running on that platform or using its software? MS would not have the resources to effectively fix whatever caused the outage. BUT the organizations that were running non-MS software would be in a distinct competitive advantage. You could sell widgets, but you could be the ONLY company selling widgets. What happened to the others? They are working to mitigate their issues.
At that point, wouldn't the "fringe" players (I mean no disrespect to Linux, Apple, OpenOffice, Symphony, etc.) become overnight successes? Wouldn't that be the tipping point? Would Linux finally gets it due? Would we see more MacBookPro's? Would downloads of OpenOffice or Symphony go through the roof?
Is this too far-fetched for most people to comprehend let alone have a plan to migrate some servers/applications to another platform?
I'm just wondering.
I am not that stupid to think that others haven't contemplated such an event. I have this feeling that such a scenario is what my insurance agent throws at me from time to time: all doom and gloom and fear. Get the fear in there, and you probably have a sale. But if the past is sunshine and spring days, why spend good money on something that may never come to pass.
Is a bit of paranoia be a good thing in this case?
Remember, I am but a simple messaging guy. "My" software is platform independent and I am pretty well versed on all of them. I really don't care what you run it on. But should you? Or is it a matter of "easy?"
Comment posted by Charles Robinson02/11/2008 11:46:18 PM
Homepage: http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com
I think the first falsehood is to assume that MS would not have the wherewithal to fix the problem. In every case of any major issue, such as Melissa, ILoveYou, or Nimda, patches were available fairly quickly. Something so severe it "took out" 10% of Microsoft shops would certainly get Microsoft's immediate and undivided attention. You obviously think Microsoft only hires morons and can't manage their way out of a wet paper bag, but I know people who work there and I can assure you they're among the best and brightest.
I apologize if this seems like an attack, I'm just really getting tired of the obsession with Microsoft in our community.
Comment posted by Nathan T. Freeman02/12/2008 07:20:06 AM
Homepage: http://nathan.lotus911.com
Gregg, this issue was famously pointed out a team of well-known security researchers in 2003.
http://cryptome.org/cyberinsecurity.htm
Comment posted by Keith Brooks02/12/2008 09:19:45 AM
Homepage: http://lotustech.blogspot.com
Prefer to think, what if Microsoft spends 50+ Billion on Yahoo and they screw it all up? Would Microsoft be hurting then? Which was one question I posed in yesterday's blog I wrote.
Comment posted by Gregg Eldred02/12/2008 04:55:44 PM
Homepage: http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf
@Charles - I think that what I was getting at was that maybe you shouldn't keep all of your eggs in one basket. That if you put in a couple of other platforms (if you have the budget) that you may be able to lessen your overall exposure. I take no offense in your comments.
@Nathan - very interesting link. Thanks for sharing.
@Keith - Everything MS does is put under more scrutiny than any one else (IMHO). I have no idea if it will work or not (and I have no idea of what the measures of success would be).
BlogSphere V1.3.1
Join The WebLog Revolution at BlogSphere.net