Browser boosts, open source on Microsoft's list
Microsoft hasn't had appreciable competition for its two cash cows, its Office productivity suite and its Windows operating system, in more than a decade. Recently, however, Apple's Mac OS X and Linux for Netbooks have given Windows a run for its money on the desktop, and Google, Zoho, and other software-as-a-service providers have mounted a challenge to Office.
But the real competition is in the browser, which increasingly displaces the traditional desktop operating system, and through which businesses and consumers reach their preferred applications. This is perhaps why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer highlighted Microsoft's need to improve Internet Explorer to Wall Street analysts on Tuesday, as Mary Jo Foley reports.
Or perhaps it's related to the European Commission veering toward a decision that would force Microsoft to bundle competing browsers like Mozilla's open-source Firefox with Windows.
As Google and others enter the Commission fray to ensure a level playing field for competing browsers, Microsoft will quickly have to figure out winning innovation strategies, and not merely distribution strategies.
All else being equal, if users have real choice in their browser, they're unlikely to choose IE, at this point, unless IE 8 can catch up with Firefox's extensibility and Safari's or Google Chrome's speed. Microsoft clearly needs to compete again through product innovation and partner innovation.
Intriguingly, an emerging strategic priority for Microsoft may do both: open source. Microsoft is now inviting open-source developers to participate with the company in building out Visual Studio 2010, as The Register details, just as Microsoft is seeking open-source add-ons for its customer resource management offering.
No, Microsoft is not magically morphing into an open-source company, but it's increasingly an open source-savvy company. Microsoft increasingly seems to grasp the "open core" strategy that JasperSoft CEO Brian Gentile recently explicated on his blog. It's a way for companies like Microsoft (and IBM, Oracle, and others) to participate in open source without abandoning their investments in their existing license-based business models.
As Microsoft moves into browser-based delivery of more and more applications, I think we'll see even more browser innovation and open-source innovation from the Redmond giant.
Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
With standardized browser features for HTML, Javascript, plugins, extensions, etc, their vendor lock-in is gone.
And a process-based browser model such as that of Chrome will threaten Windows as the desktop of choce. After all, if each browser tab can host an application and has its own process, does it matter if you are running that process in a Windows box (licence fee $250) or a Linux box (license fee $0)?
By the way, JasperSoft's open core is nothing new. After all, it is already the model in use by Linux and Eclipse.
- by Cpt_Bloatware February 25, 2009 12:29 PM PST
- Mr Gates should not have to answer to anyone (especially a government body) as to what he should or should not put in his OS!
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- by tm_anon February 26, 2009 5:07 PM PST
- Wow, where should I start in what's wrong with your comment?
- Like this
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(4 Comments)If he fancies to package any version of Windows with only "his" browser, then it should be his absolute right to do it.
All Fire Fox would need to do to get used by those who do not use it yet, would be to put free CD's out everywhere, the way AOL once did. The only thing Gates ever did wrong was to drop support for his 9x operating systems! Remember, they are only "obsolete" because support was dropped by Microsoft, and those designing and selling programs. Bill's only real reprehensible wrong, is abandoning his children----95, 98, 98se---and Me!
1)Bill Gates isn't in charge of Microsoft anymore, that job belongs to Steve "throw a chair" Ballmer.
2)Because MS has licensing deals with OEMs to have Windows preinstalled on the vast majority of manufactured PCs, bundling the browser as well means IE recieves the same type of unfair advantage a runner in a marathon would have if he only need to run 1/3 the distance to win it.
3)Firefox is one word, not 2
4)If Firefox needs to make their own CDs in order for people to try out the browser, shouldn't all other browser, including IE, also need to do the same thing in order to have any real competition?
5)Gates did nothing wrong in stopping the support for an older OS, If I were running an older Linux variant, I wouldn't expect the same type of support that I do when running a modern variant. There's support around, just not mainstream support.
6)The Government Body you are referring to with this poorly planned out post is the EU. They work to ensure a fair and even playing field for the benefit of European citizens. MS doesn't have to answer to them, it can just stop selling Windows in Europe.
Of course, if MS stopped selling Windows in Europe, American businesses wouldn't be so locked in to Windows when doing business on any level with their European counterpart since they most likely would be running a Linux variant. In fact, any company across the globe would be less locked in to MS when doing business with Europe and many would realize they could stop paying to upgrade and they'd switch over. If they switched over, there would be less reason to continue using Windows for American businesses since the proprietary tech would be getting in the way, unreadable for many businesses across the globe. American businesses would then start to use Linux and MS would have all but disappeared.
In other words, yes MS does need to listen to the EU. There's a very wobbly stack of cards that's been built. If just one gets removed, they all come falling down.