Journal: The Demise of Microsoft

The Demise of Microsoft
=======================

In the long saga of the battle between the world and its detested adversary,
the Microsoft corporation, everybody is dying to see how the movie end.
Everybody also knows that in the movie the antagonist always dies at the end,
but the question is how? To most who detest Microsoft vehemently they would
like to see a quick and horrid death and those who detest even more so would
only find a sadistic pleasure in seeing nothing less than having Microsoft being
slowly skinned alive on a burning stake.

An IT Fairy Tale
=================

Once upon the time, there was a computer software company named Microsoft,
whose craftiness in marketing made it become one of the most popular software company
on the planet. However, once that company attained its dominant position
in the marketplace, greed and fear filled the unsettled soul of Microsoft.
The company then aggressively pursued and eliminated almost all of its contenders,
names that once were legends one by one fell to Microsoft's sword, WordPerfect,
Borland, Novell, Netscape, Corel and more. Soon, people saw Microsoft for what
it was, a cunning roguish company that had no conscience to stop itself doing whatever
it needs to achieve its ambitions. All the other software companies
realized that there will be no end to Microsoft's unquenchable thirst for power but
none dared to challenge Microsoft until one day a young knight developed an operating
system called Linux. Linux came with a license called Open Source, which represented
to all the other companies a platform from which they can rally together in a
silent treaty to overthrow the software tyrant. One day, Microsoft woke up
and saw a huge army amassed upon the hills, companies that once were shot, wounded,
cheated and humiliated now all carry the same banner, the flag of Linux. Amongst
the valiant warriors, were IBM, Novell, Sun, Oracle, Sony, Fujitsu, Red Hat and CA and
amongst the catapults and shields they used were forged from the power of Open Source,
Apache, OpenOffice, Mozilla, PosgreSQL, MySql, Python, PHP, Samba and much
more. What Microsoft saw shook its heart, however its power to control the market
is still immense and with 56 billion dollars in the vault, its going to put up a very
good fight. This is the year 2004 and the battle has just begun.

The Crystal Ball
================
So my young seer, you wish to see how this battle unfold? First, you have to understand
how unlike previous battles where the companies were easily and ruthlessly cut down
by Microsoft, this time the catapults and shields that the Allies formed from Open Source
were impenetrable, in fact, the more Microsoft attacked the slowly advancing catapults and shields,
the stronger the catapults and shields became. How can that be? The magic of Open Source.
All artifacts created from Open Source do not obey the laws of the jungle, first of all
artifacts are immortalized by having the source code freely distributed across the
earth, as Microsoft attacks one point more heads would sprout from different places.
Another power of Open Source is leverage, in the old times when a developer was to
write a software, he practically has to write most of the libraries himself/herself or
purchase or license expensive code sets from other companies like Microsoft. Nowadays,
these libraries are all available freely from Open Source, graphics libraries,
network libraries, XML libraries, parsers, compilers, were all there for all to share.
This is the leverage that hasn't been available to developers before, now all the
Davids have slingshots.

Rebellion of the Serfs
======================
Back to that same once ancient period, almost all developers lived under the direction and
command of Microsoft. Their blind obedience contributed immensely to
the growth of Microsoft. They created applications of all sorts of shapes
and sizes which made the Microsoft platform very popular. All these times
while they toiled away using the Microsoft platform, the power of the source
code were hidden from them. They used APIs that had features
hidden from them. They used document formats but were never able to tell how they
worked internally. Year after year, their frustrations grow as they realized
they were handicapped less they pose a threat to the Microsoft Empire. Their
enslavement however seemed perpetual until one day, prophets came and revealed
to them their true destiny. For the first time they saw that they did not
have kowtow to the greedy Empire, they themselves were their own source of
power and wealth and in alliance they inherit all the power and wealth that they create
amongst themselves, this was the freedom offered by Open Source. It didn't take long
for the word to spread and soon all the brave developers started to work with only
Open Source tools. The Microsoft Empire eventually found that their tools like
Visual Studio and ASP were no longer so popular and that everybody were escaping
towards strange platforms and tools like Linux, OpenOffice, PHP, Python, wxWidgets, GTK and
much more.
In retaliation, the Empire started to fight against the source from which these tools seemed to
be coming from, the Open Source movement. To many of these brave developers, this is
going to be the final straw for Microsoft, to them every line of code they contribute to
Open Source is another brick they get to throw at Microsoft. This is the year
2004 and the rebellion of the serfs has also just started.

The Final Days
==============

Like the wizard of OZ, Microsoft's power comes from its illusion of its
overwhelming size and market dominance. In the final days of Microsoft
as it will be foretold from here, three horsemen of doom will declare the
the terminal fate of Microsoft. The first horseman with a sickle engraved
"Market Loss", will strike at Microsoft mercilessly. In great fear and
horror Microsoft will find that all the slaves no longer buy its products as
there are better alternatives. All those nearby
will have to take shelter under rocks as Microsoft will reveal its demonic
form, it will sprout long-horns and spew forth vile lies about its enemies, and fight with every last
tooth and nail in the most enraged madness as one would expect from a demon.
The second horseman with arrows engraved "Profit Dive" carries a poison
that will eat away the flesh of Microsoft. The glorious billions of dollars raked
in every year will shrink to a shameful trickle, and losses will tally up
like mountains leaving a bleeding and shriveled shell that have no where to run.
The third horsemen will carry
a flaming sword that the mere sight will paralyze companies, engraved on it "Stock Plunge"
and he shall plunge it right into Microsoft's heart and Microsoft will cry out so horribly
that markets all over the world will shake, Microsoft shareholders will
beat dust on their heads while throwing themselves off buildings.
The once overwhelming size and power of Microsoft will be no longer.
It will become like a small, feeble and detested rodent that everybody
will then have the privilege to spit on. And thus these shall be the prophecy
for the final days of Microsoft, but my brave warriors be prepared for the coming wars and
the final wars that have yet to arrive. This is the year 2004.