I thought this may be of iterest to you
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Microsoft: 2003 and Beyond
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I'd bet anything you've never heard of Andrew Grygus or his
company
Automation Access. That's about to change.
Back on February 23rd, Grugus posted an editorial titled "2003 and
Beyond -- Technology trends that will affect your business and how
you
do business." You can find Grygus' editorial on the Automation
Access
site at
Predicting the future is almost always a fool's errand [flying car,
anyone?] But, using research and news articles from hundreds of
different sources, Grygus wrote an 50+ page editorial that offers an
in-depth, ten year look at information technology in general and
Microsoft in specific. As Gryus notes,
This article is a guide to trends that are already in full motion
and well known by technology specialists, but are far from
obvious to most business managers.
I take exception with Grygus calling "2003 and Beyond" an article.
It
isn't an article, it's an editorial. Granted, it's an exceptionally
well researched editorial [the bibliography is *ELEVEN* pages
long],
but it's an editorial nonetheless.
Grygus adds that
Much of this article deals specifically with Microsoft and
Microsoft's future. This is inescapable, because Microsoft is a
huge part of the information industry - and aspires to being all
of it.
And therin lies the problem. The last seven words of that quote
show
that Grygus isn’t particularly a lover of Microsoft, and he allows his
anti-Microsoft, pro-Open Source/UNIX viewpoint to seep into his
"article" from time to time. In more than one place in his editorial,
Grygus is long on accusation and short on substantiation.
All that aside, Grygus' "2003 and Beyond" is one of the most
important
things I have read in a LONG time. It's no "Crime and Puzzlement,"
mind you, but "2003 and Beyond" does give a frightening and eye-
opening look at Microsoft's public plans over the next decade.
Here is a small example of why I think Grygus' 50+ page editorial
is a
must-read:
The successor to Windows XP (due in 2004, and rapidly
slipping to
2005) is currently code named Longhorn, and it will not be
compatible with your existing software, hardware or methods.
Microsoft has already stated that backward compatibility will
not be a design feature.
Here's another one:
Office 2003 and Windows Sever 2003 will include a Rights
Management Services feature for document security. ... If
Microsoft can convince businesses to use this feature, Office
2003 documents will be completely unreadable by OpenOffice /
StarOffice, WordPerfect Office, Lotus, and by all older versions
of Microsoft Office, forcing a total upgrade of Windows, Office
and the computers it runs on.
If your reaction to either of these quotes is "whoa!" -- or if you are
in ANY way, shape, or form involved with computers and information
technology -- you NEED to take an hour out of your day and read
Andrew
Grygus "2003 and Beyond" at
Regardless of whether you agree with Grygus' anti-Microsoft
rhetoric and conclusions, I promise that "2003 and Beyond" is an
eye-opening editorial.
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