The Pebble and the Avalanche

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Current Revolutions in Business and Technology

by Dr. Moshe Yudkowsky,

author of The Pebble and The Avalanche: How Taking Things Apart Creates Revolutions

 

Tue, 2008-Apr-08, 08:04

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Will Microsoft Disaggregate Windows? Will It Matter?

This article discusses the "modularization" of the Windows operating system. The author raises the question of whether the disaggregation will be technical in nature or simply marketing.

In my opinion, Microsoft isn't capable of anything but a marketing effort. That is, will make it possible to buy single components, such as email, rather than bundle them all into the operating system. The impetus for the decision will be to extract money from the consumer; two purchases instead of one, and the ability to mandate intermediate purchases between upgrades to the entire operating system. Even though, e.g., email wouldn't be bundled I believe I can guarantee that email will still be tightly integrated into the operating system. In other word I believe Microsoft will disaggregate their marketing efforts but not their technology, competitors will still be shut out, and the consumers will remain with few choices.

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