Is it Time to Open Source Windows?

Posted by | August 29, 2013 | management, strategy | No Comments
bridge the funding gap

bridge the innovation gap

Since the announcement of Steve Ballmer’s retirement as CEO of the mighty Microsoft, the blogosphere has been reporting on the visible struggles of the controversial company.

Despite the skyrocketing value of Apple and Google – really the only two companies in the same category as Microsoft – Microsoft has kept it’s head down by not really growing its market value during this time, almost 10 years or so. This reality has clearly accelerated the change at the helm.

One quick move that would set the tech world on its ear and revitalize the sagging Windows App Store and fan base. With one fell swoop MSFT could get back in the game…

They could open source all versions of Windows under something like the GPL3 and just sell value added software like windows server or terminal services virtualization etc.

This also incentivizes carriers and lowers the cost of windows phones, just forgo carrier fees on operating system licenses.

Its just a copy of Android’s/Chrome’s loss leader business model.

Sure it will cost a lot in lost license revenue, but this one move could quickly reignite competitiveness in Redmond and that is worth a lot of scratch.

Not to mention finally silencing the security community about transparency, and gaining the huge benefit of code review and patching by basically millions of windows developers globally.

Development and support costs could possibly decrease while quality and security improve.

It could tamp down a bit on the legions of haters and trolls that target the closed code and corporate monolithic behavior of Microsoft mercilessly.

With a completely free and open operating system to build on and redistribute, the app developers and IT would come like bees to honey.

Then Microsoft could become the cloud platform company they probably need to focus on being, offering PaaS highly secure virtual windows appliances targeting vertical segments they already serve aka education, finance, back office, etc.

Because, as I see it, for the first time Windows is really on the verge of being completely commoditized. Linux was borne of this pent up frustration by the “Wintel duopoly” as it was quaintly called back then…

Now, Android is free and open source, and Mac OSX is also FREE.

I believe this plan to open source Windows should have been put in motion in secret 5 years ago when the hooks into Office still pulled weight, then launched publicly as a part of the Windows 8 launch.

Commoditization has always been inevitable. Since Linux, open source has killed the operating system profit margin.

20 years later, it is time to recognize a good run, and reboot into a new, less glamorous role. Basically, Windows has been commoditized Microsoft, deal with it!

In fact why not adapt the wise founder Bill Gates’ advice and “embrace and extend” the OS commoditization?

Anyway, you heard it here first…

Open Win 2015

About John McMahon

John is a serial entrepreneur and full-stack developer. John is currently CEO of Starter Inc. a mobile and web development company, and is the founder of Humor Me Inc. maker of the Chukles consumer mobile humor app. John also currently serves as the CTO for MatanzasGroup, a Global Pharma Consulting Firm. John founded Extentech in 1998, growing it into a leading Web 2.0 spreadsheet tools vendor. In 2012, John sold his 100% stake of Extentech to Infoteria Corporation -- a publicly listed Japanese company. John has recognized expertise in startups, mobile and web development, open source, and cloud computing. John has been a contributor to Accounting World and has been interviewed and featured in stories on PandoDaily and Forbes.com.

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