Why Microsoft dominates the world

Why Microsoft dominates the world

Saturday, August 25, 2001<

  • Over at the LA Times an article asks: "At the dawn of a new era, the nation that presumes to lead the Information Revolution is itself led around by the nose. How can this be?".

    The full answer is probably not quite as simple, but here is my take: Microsoft dominates the world of PCs today because in their quest for simplicity, users had only one chance: That all of them use the same software. People often place blame on Microsoft business practice and picture an evil Bill who forces the world to use his product, but the simple truth is that most people could not be bothered with the hassle of converting documents back and forth when they were exchanging information with each other. So they went and bought the product everyone else was using. Microsoft simply managed to put itself into that particular spot in the market.

    Microsoft dominates because most of you folks out there first copied and eventually bought Microsoft Word to do your word processing. Microsoft dominates because in order for the people to be able to copy Word they had to have a computer and an OS that would run it. I still remember the days when even a Microsoft Word for Macintosh document could not be easily used on Windows and vice versa.

    So, at its core, the problem was that people wanted to exchange documents and the software industry only allowed them to do that between the same application. Microsoft was and still is not the only software vendor that uses a proprietary document format. They were simply the most successful.

  • Another geek thing going on at UserLand. The idea is right. What is it going to do for the world at large? Those folks sure love the technology. But where is the problem it solves? I don´t have it and probaby milions of other don´t, either. It reminds me of the feeling I had when I saw the first chat programm... Must have been around end seventies-ish.

  • Meanwhile, a new company is made. My girlfriend got a load of cash from a private investor to make her dream come true. It is very exciting, but a lot of work. She changes her mind about it every 5 seconds. Not even the name is final and the incorporation will take place in 4 days.

  • A while ago, I mentioned that I am facing a huge decision in my career. A friend tought me that I can not make that decision rationally, because it involves too much emotion. So I need to make the decision emotionally. How does one do that?