Comments

• mcinsand

  2012-08-02 16:43:29

  Linux is the disruptive force, especially where the duopoly is concerned, that BSD could never be. The GPL that maintains intellectual reinvestment does not have BSD's permissiveness, so MS and Apple can't continually copy and remove freedom, as they have for decades.
  
  MS shills could be rooting for Apple the same way much of the FOSS community has erroneously cheered for Apple's successes at MS' expense; too many fall for the fallacy that the enemy of my enemy must be my friend. MS may have had marketshare, but they have never had Apple's customer contempt. As Android exposes more people to the combination of freedom, reliability, hardware support, and choices that Apple and MS can't (or won't) deliver, MS and Apple will suffer. MS needs Apple as a way to let those dissatisfied with BSOD's exit without triggering a revolution (of course, those people have to have more money than sense, too). Apple also needs MS, as a place where the masses can remain in the digital world while believing that reliability is exclusive to Apple's overpriced, underchoiced offerings.
  
  I don't think MS will survive another decade. Apple will; they will manage in some form after Jobs' death the same way Scientology managed after Hubbard's passing.

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2012-08-02 17:24:31

  Apple has been around for a long time. I think it will evolve (or devolve) into something else, just like Microsoft. It can divide the company into parts, of which only one or few will survive.