Windows collapsing under own weight

This recent article from ZDnet discusses a Gartner report purporting the end of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

“Microsoft's Windows juggernaut is collapsing under its own weight, as it tries to support 20 years of applications and becomes more complicated by the minute, according to analyst firm Gartner.”

“Speaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Las Vegas…, Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald asked the audience whether Microsoft needed to radically change its approach to Windows; around half of the managers and executives gathered in the room raised their hands. "Windows is too monolithic," said Silver.”

There is no doubt that in the OS world, MS Windows is a dinosaur.

The Gartner analysts raise an interesting point by highlighting the fact that Windows is saddled by 20 years of legacy code and interoperability standards that may no longer be relevant in a world quickly adopting the cloud computing model.

When does Microsoft reach the tipping point, where they benefit more from starting over then they do by maintaining and updating outdated code?

Now that Google is overtly targeting MS Office for extermination by offering free, web-based apps such as Google docs, Microsoft may be faced with the reality of a need for a serious self-reinvention. Perhaps Microsoft should look in the direction of the Salesforce.com “Platform as a Service” model, as their next sortie in the software wars. Or maybe, just maybe, the gang up in Redmond has a little more up its sleeve with the proposed Yahoo purchase, than everybody has thus far imagined.

Stay tuned…

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39384073,00.htm?r=2

EU votes against disconnecting file-sharers

Some snippets from recent European IT news, by way of ZDnet.

"On Thursday the parliament voted through two reports on the cultural industries. Both contained amendments that were directly related to the ongoing argument between the content industry and internet service provider (ISPs)."

"In this conflict, the ISPs are claiming that they should not have to disconnect those users who are persistent filesharers, but the content industry is calling for a "three strikes and you're out" rule in order to protect intellectual property."

"One of the reports urged the European Commission and member states to avoid allowing measures that are in conflict with civil liberties, human rights and the principle of proportionality. The other, which passed with a much thinner majority, specifically called for the Commission to "rethink the issue of intellectual property in order to assure solutions that are equitable for both big and small actors and strike a balance between the respect of intellectual property and the access to cultural events and content"."

""[The European Parliament] underlines that on the battle against digital piracy, the solution should not be to criminalise consumers who do not intend to make profit out of their actions," a parliamentary statement read."

“The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) was quick to react on Thursday, saying that the European Parliament's recommendations on filesharing were "badly drafted [and] rushed through".”

“However, IFPI has welcomed the news from France that filesharers of copyrighted material there may soon be thrown off the internet. The organisation called the French move "the single most important initiative to help win the war on online piracy that we have seen so far".”

It looks like the battle lines are being drawn in Europe in the “IP-holder vs filesharer” battle of legalities.

The news from France is very alarming though. Could you imagine being “banned” from the internet?

One would think that it could be successfully argued in this day and age, that Internet access is indeed a civil liberty.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39384074,00.htm