What+if+Microsoft+Gave+Away+Vista

Windows vs. the OS Universe

I came across this article entitled __What If Microsoft Gave Away Vista__ by Adam Scheinberg and I found it very interesting and it got me thinking about the issues surrounding the digital divide. There is a lot of controversy over Microsoft's proposal to potentially make their new operating sytem Vista, available for free. Why would the huge media-mogul, and generally monopolist want to do such a crazy thing? The world of operating systems is ever changing at an even more rapid pace as the world of technology is in an era of constant evolution. Competition between the significant developing entities has never been so great, yet still in the lead is Microsoft, but for how long? Since the early days, Windows has been the leading operating system amongst the general public from Windows 3.1 straight through to XP. This shall persist but Microsoft has to makes some new and significant advances in order to stay on top of the game. The following is a brief summary to Scheinbergs article with my thoughts at the end.

Within the early stages of his article (specifically the second paragraph), Scheinberg outlines the main concern, when he talks about the new trend in the OS community. On the whole users are becoming more computer savvy and aware of the advantages to the other major operating systems, such as Linux, Solaris and Mac OS. These would include file structure reliability, system stability, desktop and network security, and outstanding protection against viruses and worms. This event slowly contributing to the growing popularity of rival operating systems and the sudden decline in profits for Microsoft. Thus leading up to the Microsoft’s introduction of its brand new innovation in OS design, Microsoft Windows Vista; set to release in late 2006 / early 2007. This new OS is supposed to revolutionize the way in which users view information stored on their computers, allowing them to play a more dominant role in the way they shall organize their documents. It also promises to bring a greater sense of clarity in which the user can more safely and easily accomplish everyday tasks and instantly find what it is they are looking for on their PC. With this being said, it leads to the main objective of the article… “What if Microsoft Gave Away Vista” … hence the title. As Microsoft’s Windows XP is slowly on the decline and their loss of credibility amongst knowledgeable users is increasing, the thought of possible releasing an upgrade to Vista free of cost seems to be favourable. Although the shareholders of Microsoft would under no circumstances, agree to release this innovative systems in which took an ample amount of time and resources to produce, this would definitely be a chance for Microsoft to rebuild their integrity amongst users. What Scheinberg was trying to portray is for Microsoft to pretty much allow Vista to be a freeware OS, but sell the new utilities for Vista such as the new “MS Office 12” in order to maximize profit. Instead of trying to attain an instant profit from the sales of Vista, secure an even larger and more profitable investment for the future. By doing this Microsoft has a chance to regain credibility from this new OS and use it to sell the new Utilities Suite from Vista’s success.

If new IT is made available to everyone at an equal opportunity what would this mean for the digital divide the world is faced with today? A huge factor contributing to digital divide is affordability. For many, the costs of new innovative technologies is too expensive, and therefore they find themsleves in this constant cycle of recycling what a better part of the world has already experienced, interpreted and is already over moving on to the next 'new thing'. Microsoft would become accessible to those who previously would not be able to access its technology, making the world more connected maybe moreso than its ever been.

//What if Microsoft Gave Away Vista, by Adam Scheinberg can be found at: // http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=11913