20 Years Since My Thesis
It's still online
20 years ago, in 2005, I began writing my Ph.D. thesis while doing a lot of GNU/Linux advocacy online (Digg.com had already become a thing, but I mostly relied on USENET and my personal Web site). My Ph.D. concerned Machine Learning well before all the "hey hi" hype (when everything was being called or rebranded as "AI" for hype's sake).
In 2005 there were many things the ordinary person could not do without Windows because many things wrongly assumed that you could run Windows programs and use Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox was still relatively new, albeit it still grew.
After all those years I still advocate GNU/Linux and still criticise Microsoft - probably to the point of unseating Microsoft CEOs and facing retaliation for it - as does my wife, who sued the perpetrators [1, 2]. Microsoft is now rapidly collapsing. It had nearly 10 (yes, ten) waves of layoffs so far this year. What's killing Microsoft the most is the loss of Windows dominance, owing largely to Android and mobile devices in general. Microsoft struggles to leverage that monopoly to sell all sorts of other things.
Yesterday at a local shop my wife called my attention; what caught her attention was a Windows phone at the store, which they sold for 9.99 (pounds, just over $10). She doesn't carry a camera or any other gadget, but she said that if she did, she would take a photo to show how undesirable Microsoft products became. No other phone was sold for such a ludicrous price. It sort of symbolised how people valued Windows and Microsoft.
I don't own or use a mobile phone myself. Last month when there was a Microsoft-hosted hearing I used a landline. It worked OK.
I am very glad I did not pursue a career (in the classic sense of that word) after the thesis. I did not want to and did not try to. Kicking Microsoft's arse is far more important and it seems to be paying off. It seems like using SLAPP tactics the Microsofters are willing to spend up to a million pounds on lawyers just to try to censor me (in vain), so what I do here must be "worth" a lot. I'll do it for many years to come. █