[Wow – This has been named the “worst idea ever” – Hint taken, people :) Anyway, this is exactly the kind of feedback I wanted, as I personally also felt at the time that I might have been smoking the crack. Anyway, it was fun to think about.]
In my last post, I asked if you would find access to the Windows source to be at all helpful.
I wanted to know because I really didn’t see how it would be a useful thing to have for most people. It’s big, complicated, and would probably be much more difficult to sift through than to just solve your current tech problems in place.
But, there are other reasons to let the source out.
I’m nearly positive that I’m not the first, second, third, or even the five billionth person to have come up with this idea, but…
…why not release the source code to third parties for customization, branding, and shrink-wrapping?
I like the idea of there being many different flavors of Windows on the market.
I’m not talking about a world that’s loosey-goosey and without rules like the Linux world where just any old John can put together a distro to his liking, but something more structured and useful to the consumer. Some good things have come out of the distribution system, but it’s my opinion that the wide array of Linux distro choices has caused the platform more harm than it has helped it, although I don’t intend to talk about that much in this post.
But think about it. Releasing the source to certain organizations which agree to build their own customized versions of Windows that serve different market niches while conforming to standards of quality:
– An NSA branded Windows (yes – I got this idea from the NSA Linux distro) – This could be a locked-down, super-tight version of the OS
– A version put together by a consortium of gaming companies that’s highly optimized for gaming
– A version that’s targeted at poor nations which are running out of choices when it comes to Windows vs. the Other White Meat (and, no – I don’t accept the version we’ve been talking about which would limit users to, among other things, running only three applications at a time – poor people deserve “real” Windows, too)
– A version that runs on PPC hardware
– And so on…
“Windows Technology” could be licensed to these companies. And, sure, we might lose some dough by licensing Windows, but we might be able to make up for it by either putting the burden of supporting the product on those companies, or by also offering Microsoft support to those companies as a service.
Licensing deals could be worked out based on many factors including the number of expected deployments and the cost of the customized distribution.
In the case of a “gaming” version, we might even see increased sales as efforts to tweak the system result in frequent releases. The “NSA” version might be updated as security threats increase.
All the while, Microsoft would continue to sell its own base versions of Windows.
Now, I admit that I don’t know much about the economics of doing this, or the business sense, but… Am I smoking the crack again?
Keep in mind that I’ve been coming down from the meds and medicating further for the anxiety attacks that have been popping up on a daily basis as a result. My opinion, my friends, could be a little nuts right now :)