Does Microsoft Have any Real Competition? Copyright (c) 2003 Gregory S. Diehl In a word, yes.
And I think they are about to get more.
Microsoft primarily dominates in operating systems and office productivity software.
Windows is going to be the dominant OS for some time. But I think things will get much more interesting with the Novell/SuSE merger. The giant IBM was already behind Linux. (People forget that if IBM's software division were a separate company, it would be number two only to Microsoft.) Now, they face the challenge from a company that knows how to market to the enterprise, which Red Hat does not. SuSE gets the channels and business partners it needs worldwide; Novell can assure its survival beyond NetWare as a competitor to the hated Microsoft. (Novell feels about as strongly about the folks from the Northwest as Sun does.)
And speaking of Sun, they are aggressively pushing StarOffice as an alternative to Microsoft Office. It offers file compatibility, so anyone on a budget may want to at least consider it. Corel is also hanging in there with WordPerfect and other products, and Novell has GroupWise. So there is at least a little competition in office productivity, although admittedly not much. StarOffice is now available in the retail channel, so that may change.
With Sun and IBM pushing Java/J2EE as the platform for Web services, .NET is getting all the competition it can handle. For dynamic Web publishing (updating from a database) I seem to see at least as many pages with .jsp (Java Server Pages) or .php (Hypertext Preprocessor) as I do .asp (Active Server Pages, from Microsoft) on the file name. (If you've ever wondered what those strange things were that were not .htm or .html, that's it!)
There are two areas where Microsoft is not even close to first place.
Most Web servers are Apache running under Linux, not Microsoft's Internet Information Server on a Windows box.
In the database arena, Microsoft really faces stiff competition. IBM is still number one with DB2, and Oracle is close behind. While SQL Server 2000 is much more robust and enterprise-ready than its predecessors, it is still in third place. (Albeit a tighter third place with the scalability and other features of SQL Server 2000.) On the charts with a bullet is MySQL, the Linux of the database world that is gaining more market share in enterprises not needing the features of a DB2 or Oracle.
So, does Microsoft have competition? Yes, even in areas of near-monopoly, there is at least some competition.
About the author: Gregory S. Diehl has almost 35 years experience in applying technology to solve business problems and expand opportunities. He has worked as a systems analyst, programmer, technical writer, Web developer and numerous other roles. A Master CIW Designer, he is currently starting a Web design and development firm in Las Vegas. http://www.gsdweb.net http://www.gsdweb.net http://www.gsdweb.net
Elk Grove (east OF 53) Chicago limousine service .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareLanguage development computer: Computer-based method for aiding language development seems... Read More
How would you like to prevent spyware and adware from... Read More
In our case ? we serve Microsoft Business Solutions ERP... Read More
Microsoft Retail Management System serves retail single store as well... Read More
Many Webmasters have never bothered to view their website's server... Read More
Professional services firm cuts costs and improves productivity with integrated... Read More
The Windows registry is a huge database that ensures normal... Read More
In part III of this ISDN primer, we learned that... Read More
We'll give you non formal view, based on our consulting... Read More
We don't think about mainframe software pricing anymore, we just... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains has substantial mid-market share in the USA... Read More
For those who still don't know, Microsoft Publisher helps computer... Read More
In order to implement VLANs in a network environment, you'll... Read More
This is a short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to... Read More
This is intermediate level SQL scripting article for DB Administrator,... Read More
Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the... Read More
There are two major WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You... Read More
Microsoft CRM is new player on the CRM software... Read More
Traditionally we were considering functionally rich systems, such as SAP,... Read More
Spyware is like the new technological nuclear weapon on the... Read More
Background: For many organizations like ours, the interim target of... Read More
It is possible that if one avoided all sources of... Read More
And kill the best layout software in the process of... Read More
In 2004 Oracle, Inc. made its new step toward J2EE... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was historically designed to serve... Read More
limousine airport Ackworth ..Vince Lombardi once said that, "The achievements of an organization... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains could be tuned and setup to fit... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is Great Plains Dexterity... Read More
Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt to... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Navision is main ERP application for European,... Read More
Microsoft Office program is a programming tool called Visual Basic... Read More
If your company has regional and worldwide operations, you might... Read More
To all web designers out there, this article is for... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was designed back in the... Read More
Mike Dunville* had a decision to make. As the new... Read More
Although statistics often is blamed for various deadly sins --... Read More
Great Plains Inventory Management (IV) module gives your business a... Read More
SyncUp, a file synchronizer is designed to assist the home... Read More
Former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise and currently Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package... Read More
The Internet is reshaping every form of communications medium, and... Read More
IntroductionDuring the early years of our modern computer era, very... Read More
The cornerstone of successful automated office systems is the ability... Read More
Writing software manuals is boring, isn't it? We often think:... Read More
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More
Passwords protect your most sensitive personal, financial and business information.... Read More
What is Snort?Snort is an open source network intrusion detection... Read More
Language development computer: Computer-based method for aiding language development seems... Read More
You've finally created databases that you can actually use to... Read More
Software |