Keeping this item in mind, picture the turmoil Microsoft could cause by doing the same thing to the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Picture Microsoft shutting its doors, forever, and never answering another support call or putting out another update for its software.
What would the world do?
All those systems reliant on Windows, all those corporations reliant on the Office suite - sure, the economy would recover eventually, but just how much of an impact could the closing of Microsoft cause?
I'm not trying to incite some sort of paranoia-fed conspiracy theories, but just think about it. A lot of Linux advocates dream of a day when Microsoft no longer exists, but do they really know what they're asking for?
Do they really think Linux is at the level now to completely replace Windows in every setting/industry? Would I really want to be using the GIMP for magazine layouts if I was the editor of Rolling Stone?
I use and have used Linux for almost 7 years now, and in that time there has been some beautiful progression - but come on, all the in-fighting and forking of forks isn't conducive to gaining market share.
Linux as a collective may be spreading itself a little thin... instead of having many different distributions offering many different advantages over the other, when will there be one single distribution offering the best features of all of them?
Redhat was wise to offer different versions of its Linux system, depending on its purpose (personal workstation, enterprise server, etc.) - but that concept is nothing new when you consider Windows NT was first offered in 1993.
Granted, there is Apple - and as a Mac user myself I can feel confident in saying I'd choose a Mac over a PC when it comes to almost any task.
But how many bank machines do you see resembling an iMac?. You can't really just take MacOSX and install it on any old system, embedded or otherwise.
With all the competition lined up against Windows, there isn't really one direct competitor who would be capable of stepping into Microsoft's shoes and dominating the market. That being said, would the feeding frenzy of competition in the aftermath be such a bad thing?
If Microsoft closed its doors today, would the competition be ready to step up?
This is all speculation and I'm more or less curious myself about this. Let me be clear that I'm not an economics majour, and I definitely don't know everything about anything (except maybe Seinfeld).
