Windows Free World

[ertrules22]

So, imagine a world where Microsoft Windows was never invented. This could be bad or good, in some peoples opinions. What would be some characteristics of this world? And lets pretend that Bill Gates is a basement game programmer and/or player. Lets find out a picture of this world!
:lolflag:
Sorry, random I know, but this thought just came to me, and I'm uber bored, so ya. Go ahead and post whatever the heck you want :)

[blueturtl]

Well let's say Microsoft never makes the deal with IBM.

This would probably lead in IBM making a deal with the guys behind Acorn.

The IBM compatible clones would still come to exist (due to the reverse engineering of the IBM bios) and become common so we'd probably see multiple competing operating systems in the market. The market composition would probably resemble what they have in the cell phone or game console markets; Multiple vendors coexisting each catering to a certain segment of the market. Apple would probably be one of them with significantly higher market share than it enjoys today, especially in the homes.

A market composing of more differing elements would be harder for those with malicious intent. We wouldn't have as many viruses or spam roaming free on the internet.

An idealist might say we'd have better standards but it's just as viable to say we might have multiple closed document spesifications competing (like in the early days when WordPerfect and Lotus SmartSuite were still in the game along with Microsoft Office).

People probably would not accept the idea that computers are unrealiable so easily. They might say "well that particular brand of computers is crap" like they do now about cars, appliances and the like.

I think it would be a better place.

[LeoSolaris]

Let's see, without Windows... Mac may very well have never existed. Xerox's windowing system may have made it farther to fill the void of Microsoft, since the 80's were soulless and all about the dollar. To tell you the truth, it probably would have played out much the same way, just another company to fill MS's shoes. Unix may have stepped up faster, but the chances of it having an Open source system would be slim simply because it was not ready in time to head off the retail version.

The would would have been vastly different if the GNU program started just ten years earlier though. If the Xwindowing system had started first and effectively claimed patent rights, our whole society would have been structured differently. Ideas are more infectious than viruses (biological or computer), and there is no telling how the 80's and 90's would have turned out if GNU had started the window system. It may have become an America where the heart of the 70's activism did not get ripped out.

Leo