What if Microsoft would suddenly call it quits?

[dennilfloss]

What if, suddenly and definitively, Bill Gates would decide that he has made enough money and that he's not getting any thrill any more from MS, and so he would would shut the door and close the books, just paying all share holders the current value, thereby liquidating his empire to go retire as an unwashed bum on a faraway island? MS would honour all current warranties and service contracts but not sell a single new product nor do any research starting

TOMORROW!!!

How would the OEM world react? Suddenly switch to Mac or Linux? What about Wall Street?

OS Armageddon!!

La Dernière Valse (Mireille Mathieu)

 

[vi edit]

As long as he left it open source, I think we would be all the merrier

 

[prodigy]

Red Hate LuNix!!

 

That would be funny.
But with that, would'nt the Mac os also fall, with all the MS money invested in apple.

 

[dennilfloss]

No open source. Windows would become suddenly and irrevocably unavailable.

Our Lips Are sealed (The Go-Gos)

 

[MajesticMoose]

Hopefully it'd go to linux if nothing new developed.

But that'll never happen anyway

m00se

 

[Pastore]

Nuclear meltdown...

 

[vi edit]

I'd be willing to bet that IBM would be snatching up some programmers and would work 24-7 to get an OS/Warp 2001 out

 

[konichiwa]

Linux, here I come. I would do it right now but the compatibility just isn't up to par as far as I'm concerned. But if the whole world was forced to switch to *nix/*BSD, then after the initial freak-out it'd all be for the better.

 

[piku]

Then BeOS, the only alternative OS that anyone could actually use, would flourish.

 

[urbantechie]

I would cry.

 

[Azraele]

I think the scenario is unreasonable. Everyone knows that good 'ol money grubbing Bill would sell M$ to the highest bidder.

If it did go down the way you descried, I think there'd be a big push for M$ to go open source before it closed its doors. Barring that, I think the world would keep using M$ products as Linux developed further. Then, people would slowly start slowly using Linux as it got more *user friendly,* which is where the demand would be, to make a more user friendly Linux so that people used to Windows or even total newbies would be able to easily understand it. BeOS might even be able to develop to it's full potential as well.

 

[lazyboy]

He wont he loves his job =)

 

[John]

lazyboy, this is a "what if...."

 

[Supradude]

then the current set of MS OS's will probablt last for like a year at least until something similar is created... ... ... basically the whole industry would probably slow down till the next big OS... can't make new vid cards without an OS to support... = P

 

[tomcat]

oh gawd then we'd all be screwed. Actually mac would probably port osX to the pc, its not terribly difficult, and I would use it along with everyone else. It wouldnt be so bad, a unix based core with a nice gui..

 

[JellyBaby]

What about all the M$ software requiring periodic Product Activation and/or Yearly Subscription Fees? Guess we'd be SOL.

 

[Mule]

Palm OS for the PC!!