Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

Ephraim Schwartz asks:

What would happen if Microsoft and all of its technology disappeared tomorrow?

Ephraim, I'm typing this post on my Macintosh Powerbook so I personally wouldn't even notice.

Yet it is difficult to answer that question, because you presuppose an addiction to Microsoft technology that only exists because its technology exists currently.

If Microsoft were to cease to exist today, people would merrily work along, probably for years, using the software they already had, since Microsoft wouldn't be there to tell them that it was now obsolete and that they needed to buy the newest version.

If Microsoft had never existed then people would just have some other way of accomplishing the same tasks.They wouldn't be addicted to Microsoft software in the first place.

A better question to ask is:

If Microsoft had never existed would our use of computers be as efficient today?

My uncle used to say that we would have had integrated circuits (and computer chips) twenty years earlier if scientists hadn't wasted twenty years figuring out what transistors did. Is it possible that twenty years of figuring out how to use the many versions of Windows properly actually held us back in developing more useful software?

How much productivity was lost in the writing and rewriting of software to keep up with all of those versions of Windows? How much productivity was lost in the effort by Microsoft to crush competitors, and the effort by those companies not to be crushed? What did customers gain from the fight to crush Netscape? How about the fight to crush Google?

How about this one:

If Microsoft had never existed would we have had a more productive web years earlier? Or has the existence of Microsoft fostered the competition that has driven such advancement?

Let's be fair. Microsoft was the driving force behind standardizing PCs on a single platform - Windows and Office. But since that time they alone have been the greatest driver of upheaval, and problems like viruses and malware, on that platform. They were also the driving force behind my switch to the Macintosh, even though I still use Office. But I could just as easily switch to something else. What I really benefit from is the competition.