On 07/04/2010 17:06, Richard Gaskin wrote:
<snip>
Within 10 years I see a world whose market share eliminates any single
OS vendor holding a majority, instead becoming a plurality in which
Apple, Microsoft, and Linux each enjoy about a third of the market.
This would put Apple tripling its current share, with most of Linux's
new users coming from the increasingly disenchanted MS base.
I think it would be an awful pity if the OS market were held by 3
equally balanced offerings.
To my mind it would be a lot healthier if:
1. There would be a constant 'upwelling' of new operating systems (c.f.
Haiku) to 'threaten' anybody
who was in danger of becoming complacent. The same could be said
for software: I am sure
(although they would fain to admit it) Microsoft's 'Office' has
profitted no-end from being
pushed about by Open Office; as, I am sure, Adobe must be doing
some tooth-sucking in the
light of SUMO:
http://www.sumopaint.com/app/ and, to a lesser
extent, GIMP.
2. Apple and Microsoft seriously thought about detaching their desktops
from their operating systems
and offering either a wide variety of desktop types for their
systems, or allowing their desktops
(and by 'desktops' I include file browsers) to be far more hackable
(i.e. personalisable, not open to
attack from nasty-minded people) than they are at present.
3. The computer market did not become fixated on one or two types of
processor.
4. There would be a considerable amount of education to stop people
mindlessly upgrading their hardware
and filling holes in the ground with junk. Individuals, before
buying "the next big thing" ought to be shown
the advantages of sitting down with a pencil and paper and working
out what they need and why they think
they need it.
4.1. This leads into a far greater need for modularity in both computers
and operating systems; and, ideally,
a move away from where "the next big thing" is some sort of bloated
monster requiring a bloated machine
to work with it.
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