OpenWeb 12/18/2009 (a.m.)
A Humbled Microsoft Opens Windows to Rivals - TIME
excerpt: "Once upon a time, Microsoft bestrode the software world like a ruthless cartoon villain, gobbling up rivals and defying pleas for restraint from regulators. But the once-impregnable giant has now been humbled: following an acrimonious 10-year anti-trust battle with European regulators, Microsoft on Wednesday finally agreed to open its Windows operating system to rival web browsers in Europe." Great opening line! But they get the story wrong. Woefully wrong! Just the opposite is happening. Microsoft has moved from the browser Web application to the Web itself. It's the platform stupid!!! No one understands platform better than Microsoft. Control the platform's base formats, protocols, interfaces and internal messaging system, and you control all applications, services and devices using that platform. The problem for Microsoft has been that the Web is a platform used by all, but owned by none. It's based on open standards that no one owns or controls. So as the Web evolves into a universal platform for converged communications, content and collaborative computing, Microsoft was facing the one fate every monopolist fears - having to compete on a level playing field! While it took them well over ten years to come up with a counter strategy and effective implementation, Microsoft has finally achieved the impossible. They have carved out a huge section of the Open Web for their proprietary and exclusive use.
- - By Gary Edwards
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