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My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted
articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things
Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your
submission to Dan Knight
.
Do you want to hear a lovely bedtime story?
It involves Microsoft (the big bad monopoly), Internet server
worms, and a New Internet Order. Are you comfy yet? Good.
I'm going to take a page out of the sensationalist journalism
started by Robert
X. Cringley. Mr. Cringley suggests that Microsoft could be
intentionally making their products insecure because (a) their market
share wouldn't go up if their products were made secure and (b)
Microsoft wants to own the Internet. We already know that (b) is
pretty much true -- Microsoft tends to want to own anything it sets
its beady little eyes on. And I wouldn't put it past them to try to
accomplish (a). After all, there are good enough programmers working
in the halls at Redmond to create a new protocol. (My bet is that
it's not really all that hard to do.)
So let's say that Microsoft does get around to implementing
TCP/MS, and they unleash it on the worm-filled, buggy Internet
currently running TCP/IP. (Let's further suggest that all those worms
only work on Microsoft server operating systems, like they largely do
now.) "Come use our protocol," they'd say, "and you won't have
to worry about Internet worms ever again!" There would be a quick
switch to the new protocol, headed up mainly by the people who don't
really know any better -- clueless client users and PHBs (to use the
technical term) who don't really know what they're talking about,
technology-wise. Boom, you've got a rather large chunk of the
Internet now running TCP/MS.
Of course, MS would have been pressuring router companies to
release patches that'll make their routers route this new protocol so
that everyone can use TCP/MS. Eventually, TCP/IP wouldn't be usable
anymore. This is about the time you'd say "Microsoft owns the
Internet." A New Internet Order (like I said above) free of server
worms and with data tracking -- all backed by Microsoft, just like
they want.
But what happens to everyone who runs non-Microsoft operating
systems? Some of them will get MS-sanctioned patches allowing them to
run TCP/MS. (I'm talking about the Mac OS here.)
The rest, well, that's more interesting. Remember, there are a lot
of Internet servers out there that aren't running Microsoft server
products. A good number of those servers are running free operating
systems -- Linux, FreeBSD, Darwin, etc. Those operating systems will
probably not be helped by Microsoft. But, then again, the Open Source
community can often match or
beat Microsoft products at
their own game.
Should MS actually succeed at doing TCP/MS, how much do you want
to bet there will be a free (as in beer and speech, most likely)
implementation of it? I personally would be willing to bet the
farm.
But some people (like those PHBs) will replace some or all of
their stable non-MS servers with brand new Windows machines. No doubt
some of them will be a lot more crash prone. They might learn to live
with the new Windows server, but I'll bet a lot of them will just
scream, "This is bull! I'm going back to Novell!" Or someone who
knows what's what in the IT department will secretly install a Linux
server to cope with the Windows one that doesn't work.
Microsoft won't own the Internet after all.
Would MS be able to pull off a switch to TCP/MS? Probably. Will
they succeed? Not likely, mainly because of the Open Source
community, which has a goodlonghistory
of taking previously closed or semi-closed protocols and turning them
into Open Source ones. If TCP/MS does end up being the dominant
protocol on the client computers of the Internet, the Open Source
movement will likely make a free version (shall we call it TCP/GNU or
TCP/RMS?) available to everyone else.
It's a good thing Apple decided to participate in the Open Source
movement, isn't it?
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
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