Comment Microsoft's business model in a web services world (Score 1) 222
I don't think Microsoft is as worried about a distributed computing world as the article suggests.
There are transition points along the way to a truly distributed computing world, however, that it has been worried about. In a truly distributed computing environment, every client, every desktop is a server. Who owns the desktop world today? Microsoft. That is the end-game, and Microsoft is well positioned to capitalize on it.
In the interim, however, before all the "standards" and "security" issues are worked out, server-based computing -- Larry Ellison's proclaimed NetPC -- will surface. Unfortunately, for Microsoft, this is where they are weak. Microsoft knows that there are already too many competing server platforms out there. So, it focused instead on making sure that open protocols were adopted so that any server-based products that are developed will always be compatible with its desktop client. To hedge its bets, it also pushed Passport so that even if server-based computing becomes established, it will have a piece of the pie.
When a truly distributed computing world surfaces, unless the open-source community finds a way to penetrate the desktop client, it will be a Microsoft world all over again.
There are transition points along the way to a truly distributed computing world, however, that it has been worried about. In a truly distributed computing environment, every client, every desktop is a server. Who owns the desktop world today? Microsoft. That is the end-game, and Microsoft is well positioned to capitalize on it.
In the interim, however, before all the "standards" and "security" issues are worked out, server-based computing -- Larry Ellison's proclaimed NetPC -- will surface. Unfortunately, for Microsoft, this is where they are weak. Microsoft knows that there are already too many competing server platforms out there. So, it focused instead on making sure that open protocols were adopted so that any server-based products that are developed will always be compatible with its desktop client. To hedge its bets, it also pushed Passport so that even if server-based computing becomes established, it will have a piece of the pie.
When a truly distributed computing world surfaces, unless the open-source community finds a way to penetrate the desktop client, it will be a Microsoft world all over again.
