Questions about the destruction of Microsoft's Windows were put forward back in the early days of the Internet explosion. It appears that now, a method for developing serious Internet applications can be pursued without having to worry about synchronization issues that tradition web applications required. This method is called AJAX. Google is at the forefront with these types of applications, with Google Maps, GMail, and Google Suggest. The speed at which Google Maps reloads the images is phenomenal.
As developers optimize this method of data transfer, we will start seeing radical shifts in the types of applications offered over the Internet and a decent chance that operating systems in general will become far less important in the future.
Microsoft has recognized the danger of this technology advance and are already thinking of ways to tie it to their new OS "Windows Vista". Only time will tell if this integration will be enough to hold on to their current OS advantage.
Why just Microsoft's end?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't this also apply to Apple's OS?
There are still ways to go before we can replace Microsoft's offerings with AJAX powered pages.
Also, Operating Systems actually were far less important in the past, with the early dumb terminals.
With the future web technologies, we will just be replacing the dumb terminals with browser-boxes.
True, it's not just Microsoft, but Apple's OS that is threatened. But since Microsoft is the biggest player in the PC OS market, they have the most to lose.
ReplyDeleteWhat could save Microsoft as a company is if they can port their Office Suite to full web driven applications (such as AJAX or whatever future web technologies replace it).
These technologies will need to take advantage of the speed, flexibility, and customizability that PCs offer, yet maintain the control and security of server side applications.