Microsoft Weakening? Upcoming OS Battle

Now that Bill Gates has shifted his endeavors from monopolist Microsoft to his philanthropic foundation, once invincible Microsoft is now constantly threatened by the rise of Apple and Google. With its charismatic leader gone, Microsoft is no longer a leader in technological innovation and trends. Indeed, the Zeitgeist of technology is being dominated by Google and Apple. Microsoft is facing increasing challenges in multiple fronts, one of which is the Internet.

The Internet has become an integral part of modern computing. The Internet has a potential to become a new platform from which applications are delivered on demand. Google is dominating the Internet industry based on its lead in the search market, and expanding to other markets such as cell phone industry. So fascinated with Google, people are willing to follow the trends set by Google, buy the products from Google, and becoming bored with Microsoft. Facing the threat of Google, Microsoft is desperate to take over the Internet for which it has unsuccessfully spent billions of dollars and a decade.

Apple has also stole public spotlight from Microsoft. With the help of public craze over iPods and iPhones, Apple has set out a massive marketing campaign against Microsoft Windows operating system. Thus far, Apple is gaining in sales of Macs and MacBooks.

Microsoft is also facing oppositions from the open-source world. The open source trend has released a multitude of free software whose quality rivals most products from Microsoft. Among the numerous open-source software, we can find many fine software that can be used in place of Microsoft Windows. The main contenders for the operating system market are as follows:

• Microsoft Windows
  
  Microsoft Windows come bundled with most new personal computers. Still, many people in business stick with Windows XP, reluctant to switch to Windows Vista because of many problems posed by Vista.



• Linux
  
  Linux is gaining popularity especially in the network sector. Linux is also seeing increase in its user base who's trying to find alternatives to Microsoft Windows.



• OpenBSD
  
  Another group of contenders for OS market comes from the BSD camp. Besides the popular FreeBSD, I am fond of OpenBSD.



• OpenSolaris
  
  Sun Microsystems was once a dominant player in the network server market. However, after its market share dwindling, Sun decided to release its Solaris operating system free to the open-source community. Now people can experience the stability and solid performance of OpenSolaris. It will be interesting to see if OpenSolaris can become a formidable force in the OS market.