3 ms·

Isn't it obvious? Microsoft's former monopoly was eroded first by the web, then phones, then tablets. Using a non-Microsoft computing platform is nowhere near a

Isn't it obvious? Microsoft's former monopoly was eroded first by the web, then phones, then tablets. Using a non-Microsoft computing platform is nowhere near as restricting as it was in the 90s. And they never got the same foothold in newer markets they entered since then.

techntoke 7y ago
Except they still control the OS market.
- asveikau 7y ago
  Including macOS, iOS, android, chromeos, linux? (Laugh at the last one if you must, but it is more viable today than it was in the 1990s chiefly because platform agnostic web based content is more normal in niches formerly occupied by Win32.)
  - erklik 7y ago
    > linux? (Laugh at the last one if you must, but it is more viable today than it was in the 1990s chiefly because platform agnostic web based content is more normal in niches formerly occupied by Win32.) and is also used on the majority of non-personal computers in the world. That's not some small number and a very large market share.
    - audiolover 7y ago
      To add to this: Science? HPC? Hardware? Web? DIY? These "niches" (which are actually huge) are dominated by Linux. You'll be actually laughed out of the room if you talked about using Windows here, and mac is not even remotely present.
      - erklik 7y ago
        > Science? HPC? Hardware? Web? DIY? These "niches" (which are actually huge) are dominated by Linux. Yup. To add to that, IoT is also dominated by Linux. which number around 30 Billion connected devices worldwide. That's completely Linux.
      - techntoke 7y ago
        Maybe some people in the science and HPC community, but I find a lot of developers and people at meetups surrounding Linux technologies are often using Macs. Red Hat notoriously employees a lot of people that don't even use Linux. I personally use Arch Linux. You can't really compare something that is open source though and very modular, to something like Windows though.
- kbumsik 7y ago
  > Except they still control the OS market. So is MS disturbing macOS competition? I guess not much. And don't forget that MS only have strong consumer OS market share, not entire OS.
d1zzy 7y ago
So we didn't need regulation to erode its market stranglehold after all and it was just good fashion competition? :)
- asveikau 7y ago
  It would have been hard to predict that in the 1990s though. I certainly did not. Also we cannot measure to what extent the DOJ probe and its aftereffects distracted Microsoft from further dominance and led it to not compete as well. So maybe in some form the regulation did it in after all.
hinkley 7y ago
Not quite sure I agree with your order. They were caught flatfooted - famously so - on smart phones and tablets. Firefox 2 and the iPhone came out about the same time. I think the one-two punch (and you can argue which is 1 and which is 2, but I'm not interested) was that on one side you had a device, populated by people with considerable disposable income, that couldn't run IE if you tried. That got the attention of management in ways us developers never could. And on the other, you had a safe harbor for people who were up for a switch elsewhere. And it helped substantially that debugging was better on that alternative (developers would use Mozilla and Firefox for development whether management wanted FF support or not).
- asveikau 7y ago
  I think one-two punch is a good way to put it, and that they complemented each other, and continue to do so in the present. It used to be viable to have Windows-only web content or something only accessible on a Win32 application. iOS and android helped us get away from that reality. Of course you could look at the App Store and Play and say that potential for new entrants is now blocked somewhere else...

techntoke 7y ago

Except they still control the OS market.

asveikau 7y ago
Including macOS, iOS, android, chromeos, linux? (Laugh at the last one if you must, but it is more viable today than it was in the 1990s chiefly because platform agnostic web based content is more normal in niches formerly occupied by Win32.)
- erklik 7y ago
  > linux? (Laugh at the last one if you must, but it is more viable today than it was in the 1990s chiefly because platform agnostic web based content is more normal in niches formerly occupied by Win32.) and is also used on the majority of non-personal computers in the world. That's not some small number and a very large market share.
  - audiolover 7y ago
    To add to this: Science? HPC? Hardware? Web? DIY? These "niches" (which are actually huge) are dominated by Linux. You'll be actually laughed out of the room if you talked about using Windows here, and mac is not even remotely present.
    - erklik 7y ago
      > Science? HPC? Hardware? Web? DIY? These "niches" (which are actually huge) are dominated by Linux. Yup. To add to that, IoT is also dominated by Linux. which number around 30 Billion connected devices worldwide. That's completely Linux.
    - techntoke 7y ago
      Maybe some people in the science and HPC community, but I find a lot of developers and people at meetups surrounding Linux technologies are often using Macs. Red Hat notoriously employees a lot of people that don't even use Linux. I personally use Arch Linux. You can't really compare something that is open source though and very modular, to something like Windows though.
kbumsik 7y ago
> Except they still control the OS market. So is MS disturbing macOS competition? I guess not much. And don't forget that MS only have strong consumer OS market share, not entire OS.

d1zzy 7y ago

So we didn't need regulation to erode its market stranglehold after all and it was just good fashion competition? :)

asveikau 7y ago
It would have been hard to predict that in the 1990s though. I certainly did not. Also we cannot measure to what extent the DOJ probe and its aftereffects distracted Microsoft from further dominance and led it to not compete as well. So maybe in some form the regulation did it in after all.

hinkley 7y ago

Not quite sure I agree with your order. They were caught flatfooted - famously so - on smart phones and tablets. Firefox 2 and the iPhone came out about the same time. I think the one-two punch (and you can argue which is 1 and which is 2, but I'm not interested) was that on one side you had a device, populated by people with considerable disposable income, that couldn't run IE if you tried. That got the attention of management in ways us developers never could. And on the other, you had a safe harbor for people who were up for a switch elsewhere. And it helped substantially that debugging was better on that alternative (developers would use Mozilla and Firefox for development whether management wanted FF support or not).

asveikau 7y ago
I think one-two punch is a good way to put it, and that they complemented each other, and continue to do so in the present. It used to be viable to have Windows-only web content or something only accessible on a Win32 application. iOS and android helped us get away from that reality. Of course you could look at the App Store and Play and say that potential for new entrants is now blocked somewhere else...