The Fall Of The House Of Gates Part II

It's all in the clouds.

Microsoft is making a huge scramble to get their bluff in on the cloud, because there is no doubt that is where we are headed. For those of you who do not know what this means, click here to find out. The short definition is the cloud is web-based processing, instead of the traditional computer storage and processing we use today.

Why should Gates be quaking? This is the crumbling of his empire. Once upon a time, if it didn't run on Windows, a program was dead in the water. Because Microsoft Windows shaped the growth of the personal computer, Gates had the programmers in his pocket. That is no longer the case. Cloud computing is the inevitable blend of computing and the Internet, meaning you will not have to carry your digital life with you everywhere you go. You will log in to your documents and kitten pictures from anywhere. And if you decide to keep Microsoft, they will take a major financial hit because they won't be able to charge a per-computer licensing fee. You will own the right to use Microsoft, or you won't, but long gone will be the days of purchasing a license for every machine in the household.

With products like OpenOffice, and the universal Internet browser, casual computer users can accomplish just about everything they want using a free product. Google Docs has made collaborating easy, and Ubuntu offers a user friendly operating system, all for free. The current economy is going to hasten the inevitable, and people are going to start asking why they would spend $299 on a CD. The stink of Windows ME still haunts my generation, but Vista will be the stinker of the newcomers. Microsoft's technology has not become extinct, but our need for it has. People are wanting to take control over their computers, and Microsoft's "dummy proof at the right of being able to own your system" approach is stale. And not so dummy proof, after all.


At this point, the best Gates can do is take his place as a pioneer of the world's digital age. And rightfully so, the man isn't a slacker who stumbled across a lucky idea. He is one of the most generous billionaires in history, and has helped millions in need. Gates has a lot to offer the world, both as a brilliant geek and a role model for the wealthy. But we won't be paying him an outrageous fee for the right to use computers now. People are going to have choices, and the bluff that you can only do it with Microsoft products has been called.