I’m sure that if somehow Microsoft magically disappeared tomorrow and everyone switched over to the various alternatives, we would have some severe growing pains.  Even assuming that all MS-only software somehow got instantaneously converted to POSIX-compliant software, there would still be major problems.  Microsoft is a one-of-a-kind company in the market; they’re the only ones with fine-tuned experience that caters to and provides support for hundreds of millions of customers around the world.  Certainly new companies would crop up all over to fill this void, and we would end up with another BlueRay-DVD-type war and 500 conflicting standards on software repositories and proprietary POSIX-extensions and who knows what other nonsense.  *Nix systems also still have some work to do before they’re going to be ready for the everyday user.  The notoriously slow OpenBSD and Debian (barring testing branches) repository release cycles, for instance, pretty much force users to pull their own versions of software in if they want to use the latest release.  Good luck trying to explain to my grandma how to build Firefox and GTK+ from source.  The *buntu’s seem to keep on their feet with this, obviously at the expense of some stability and security (along with the legal issues).

When it all comes down to it, there is no need to rid the world of Microsoft;  in fact, it would behoove us to have them around.  From a network security standpoint, the best kind of network is a diverse one.  Let’s face it, if the world ran on Linux and a hole was found in the kernel, everyone would be up the creek.  If the world runs on Linux, BSD, Mac, and Windows (for instance), only a quarter of us are without a paddle!  The main problem we have today is standards compliance and cross-platform compatibility.  Diversity is a wonderful thing, and it’s only getting better as compatibility improves.  We’re going into 2010 before long, however, and the majority of companies are still programming MS-only products!  Although this is unacceptable, it is completely understandable.  Software like Wine is a step in the right direction, but is only mitigating the underlying problem.  Since Microsoft certainly isn’t going to be willing to work with other distributions to assure compatibility (thus losing them customers and money), everyone ends up losing (except MS and their business partners, of course).

All things considered, Microsoft appears to be extending an olive branch with their (somewhat) platform-neutral .NET Framework (or perhaps this is just the ‘Embrace’ portion of their tactic).  There are certianly some legal issues that inhibit true neutrality (namely parts that aren’t covered under standards), but at least it’s something to work with.  Notwithstanding the legal implications of working with .NET in its entirety on non-MS platforms, this at least makes it easier to write some software for arbitrary systems.  Putting too much dependence on .NET could be a huge mistake, however, as Microsoft could always pull the rug out from under the Unix community with a barrage of lawsuits relating to their .NET patents.

So what are our options?  We certianly can’t just go “gentle into that good night.”  I think the only realistic thing to do would be to just let everything play out.  Enjoy your operating system of choice, be it Unix-based, Windows or whatnot.  And most importantly, try new systems!  If you’re a diehard Linux fan, why not give BSD a shot, or even Windows (maybe at school or work where you don’t have to fork out a fortune for it).  So long as Microsoft doesn’t do any major backstabbing, the market should naturally even out nicely as people spread the word of alternatives and break out of their OS-shells (pun intended).  If that doesn’t work, then we can form an angry mob and run them out of town with pitchforks.  Inevitably, we’ll all sit around a campfire together singing religious-neutral songs in harmony.

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