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The business model for charging for operating systems is going to go away thanks to patents. Sorry, Reg. I can't disagree more. The top 2 tech companies by m

The business model for charging for operating systems is going to go away thanks to patents. Sorry, Reg. I can't disagree more. The top 2 tech companies by market cap have Billions of dollars in cash on hand because they sell OS's (among other things). Apple would be a maker of very shiny hardware if it weren't for OSX and iOS. It's the OS that's the "special sauce" of Apple products. And, last I checked, Microsoft was still making Billions per quarter selling OS's. Ubuntu and all flavors of Linux are free, and have been for years. Yet, they've never really reached decent market share, because people generally feel like the user experience with an OS like OSX or Windows is generally better than the user experience with Linux. People are generally willing to pay a hundred bucks for a nice OS. Android is free-ish. You don't pay for it, but you do pay in kind by giving Google access to your location data, your email data, your voice data, etc... Renting OS's... Who's doing that now? Who's making money on that?

whatusername 15y ago
Don't forget that the number 3. (Which is almost at # 2 ) has at least three OS's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/OS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/OS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIX_operating_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIX_operating_system And they're all a lot more expensive than Windows. And don't forget HP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NonStop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NonStop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_UX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_UX ) and Oracle ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_%28operating_system%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_%28operating_system%29 )
raganwald 15y ago
You seem to think that I was saying that operating systems don't have value and/or that it is not possible to make money developing operating systems. What I was actually saying was that the business model of charging for the operating system (You give me $100 and I'll give you a copy of RaganwaldOS) is going away. Making money by using a proprietary OS to extract a higher margin from selling hardware is what Apple does, and giving the OS away so they can extract "pay in kind" is what Google does. Microsoft's model is going away as well. Maybe not today, but it is going away. We already have a situation where their biggest customers--the PC makers--make more money from JunkWare than they do from their so-called margins. Given that the PC makers are actually JunkWare distributors, they are all actively and aggressively looking for ways to extract themselves from Microsoft's rent-seeking position.

whatusername 15y ago

Don't forget that the number 3. (Which is almost at # 2 ) has at least three OS's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/OS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z/OS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIX_operating_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIX_operating_system And they're all a lot more expensive than Windows. And don't forget HP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NonStop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NonStop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_UX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_UX ) and Oracle ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_%28operating_system%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_%28operating_system%29 )

raganwald 15y ago

You seem to think that I was saying that operating systems don't have value and/or that it is not possible to make money developing operating systems. What I was actually saying was that the business model of charging for the operating system (You give me $100 and I'll give you a copy of RaganwaldOS) is going away. Making money by using a proprietary OS to extract a higher margin from selling hardware is what Apple does, and giving the OS away so they can extract "pay in kind" is what Google does. Microsoft's model is going away as well. Maybe not today, but it is going away. We already have a situation where their biggest customers--the PC makers--make more money from JunkWare than they do from their so-called margins. Given that the PC makers are actually JunkWare distributors, they are all actively and aggressively looking for ways to extract themselves from Microsoft's rent-seeking position.