How can Microsoft keep its platform vibrant?

John: I will concede that there are two sides to this story. But it’s pretty clear that Microsoft is not officially supporting Mono and is making sure that legally their options stay open for a lawsuit in the future. Clearly they won’t let Miguel copy the coolest new stuff coming out for the .NET system (like .NET 3.0/WPF). So, what good is .NET running on other platforms if it can’t do exactly the same stuff that it can on Windows? And, further, for developers, why would you develop .NET apps on Linux when Visual Studio is so superior and it only runs on Windows?

Which gets to the startups’ point: if you want to really be platform independent, why not go with a system that is far closer to the platform independent goal in the first place?

The Developer and Media Creation trend is going OSXy, but mainstream Corporate American is still pure HP-Dell boxified. If Apple would ever kick up a decent licensing strategy, and get the OEMs on board (who are dying for OSX), they too could tap into the large pool markets. But no, Apple is all smuggy (form over functiony) North Cally San Franish arrogantly happy with under 10%. The fear of whiteboxed commodity markets, keeps them out of the game, but smart ways to get that mindshare without selling your soul. Apple chooses to not even play, taking their ball home.

@19. Yeah? Which ones, specifically? Which “large corporations” outside of SV have you visited recently?

LayZ: Boeing. Target. Microsoft. Starbucks. Amazon.

SOASTA seriously considered MONO. There is legal uncertainty hanging over that effort that means you can’t bet your company on it (particularly if you want to raise venture capital). Microsoft could make MONO very important by simply announcing that they won’t sue them or developers in the future because they use MONO. They haven’t done that. Microsoft has the best devloper tools BUT they only work on Windows. If your opportunity is targetted at the enterprise, the smart play is to be multi-platform. I have tried this the Windows only way twice before and it limits your market opportunity. On the other hand, JAVA, J2EE, MySQL, AJAX are all cross platform.

Feel free to disagree. I understand. I was in the other camp for a long time. We are all making bets an the future. Those that pick correctly become the winners. Good luck!

Apple support of Windows is too timid for the corporate world. Bootcamp can work well but they would need to be more clear to really get a piece of the cake against HP or Dell. OSX taking over against Windows & *n*x in the corporate world is a non issue right now.

Windows, correct me if I’m wrong, runs on over 90% of the personal computers in the world. I don’t know the number but I’d guess the % is even higher in the Enterprise space. Am I wrong about that? Is the open-source movement really as strong in the Enterprise space as this post and comments make it out to be?

MAC personal computer sales have been good this year but the market share numbers we’re seeing represent a % of personal computers shipped – it doesn’t tell us much about how many people are actually using a MAC as their primary machine. A lot of people I know have been buying MACs as 2nd or 3rd computers – secondary computing platforms because they’re pretty and a bit of a novelty but they aren’t switching from Windows to MAC OSx. A lot of people are going bi-platform ; )

The bi-platform thing can probably be attributed to a stale Windows platform and boring hardware from DELL and HP. Windows Vista and a new generation of hardware to support it are probably going to change that. I predict MAC personal computers sales will slow as $ for hardware starts to flow back into new Vista machines next year.

Robert, it’s good to see uptake of Macs into the business world as we all benefit from their increased presence. The lack of diversity makes businesses more susceptible to work outages when a virus or malware sneaks onto all of the computers. Also, the resurgence of the Mac puts pressure on Redmond to keep moving forward. Everyone wins when there’s competition like this. As mentioned by Cale, WINDOWS became stale from the lack of healthy competition.

John: I will concede that there are two sides to this story. But it’s pretty clear that Microsoft is not officially supporting Mono and is making sure that legally their options stay open for a lawsuit in the future.

Robert, here’s a thot. Try going to the Mono web site and reading up on it before you say something really ignorant and dumb. It would be a neat trick for Microsoft to sue Mono, since Mono is built from public information and ECMA info:

Are you writing Mono from the ECMA specs?

Yes, we are writing them from the ECMA specs and the published materials in print about .NET.

Good luck on that lawsuit.

Clearly they won’t let Miguel copy the coolest new stuff coming out for the .NET system (like .NET 3.0/WPF).

Really. You have proof that Microsoft is going to withhold the updates to .Net from ECMA and stop publishing technical info? I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me, because when you talk about Ballmer and Allchin, “stupid moves” is what they do best, but I can’t see Ray Ozzie being that blindingly dumb.

So, what good is .NET running on other platforms if it can’t do exactly the same stuff that it can on Windows?

Robert, do you even know what .Net is other than what you’ve been told by your (former) masters at Microsoft?

And, further, for developers, why would you develop .NET apps on Linux when Visual Studio is so superior and it only runs on Windows?

Superior for what? Windows dev? Sure. But you want to talk about things like Java, and i’ll put Eclipse up against it any day. As well, you talking about development tools is about like a crow discussing hydrodynamics.

You don’t even know how clueless you are about Mono, yet you insist on denigrating it. I though Microsoft didn’t pay you anymore.

Christopher:

The fear of whiteboxed commodity markets, keeps them out of the game, but smart ways to get that mindshare without selling your soul. Apple chooses to not even play, taking their ball home.

Apple is a hardware company. That’s what they make most of their money off of. There’s no sane reason for *Apple* to cut their own throat, because there’s no way you can sell enough OS X licenses to make up for the lost hardware revenue. That would be…stupid. Yes, that’s it, stupid. Note that Apple tried that once. Worked really badly.

Cale:

Windows, correct me if I’m wrong, runs on over 90% of the personal computers in the world. I don’t know the number but I’d guess the % is even higher in the Enterprise space. Am I wrong about that? Is the open-source movement really as strong in the Enterprise space as this post and comments make it out to be?

Actually, it’s 90% of everything conglomerated together. It’s lower in the K-12 space, probably higher in the Enterprise desktop space, dropping in the enterprise server space.

In the server room, Open Source is DEFINITELY eating away at Windows. I know for things that don’t specifically need windows, companies are looking at other options, mostly because Microsoft’s license costs are insane.

Sorry. I don’t buy it.

.NET ASMX *is* the new VB of the web. Developers are only a drag-and-drop away from creating a web service that extends any enterprise beyond their own firewall.

The only difference is that MSFT has a pale 55% market share in web service tools this time around (opposed to 90%+ on the Win desktop).

If MS pulls its head out and really supports .Net everywhere, not just on Windows, it can be a dominant force without dominating the market and rumbling over people.

Doubt it will happen until the last of the old guard is gone, but it’s possible.