How Microsoft
has Impacted my Life & My Plan as Microsoft Student Associate:
R.SASIKANTH,
KNOWLEDGE
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational
corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures,
licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and
personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the
Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and
Internet Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are Xbox game
console and the Microsoft Surface series of tablets. It is the world's largest software
maker measured by revenues.
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April
4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 880 In June 2012,
Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time,
with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers.
Microsoft announced the release of its version of OS/2 to
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987;243–244 meanwhile, the
company was at work on a 32-bit OS, Microsoft Windows NT, using ideas from
OS/2; it shipped on July 21, 1993, with a new modular kernel and the Win32
application programming interface (API), making porting from 16-bit
(MS-DOS-based) Windows easier. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2
partnership deteriorated.
On July 27, 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust
Division filed a Competitive Impact Statement that said, in part:
"Beginning in 1988, and continuing until July 15, 1994, Microsoft induced
many OEMs to execute anti-competitive "per processor" licenses. Under
a per processor license, an OEM pays Microsoft a royalty for each computer it
sells containing a particular microprocessor, whether the OEM sells the
computer with a Microsoft operating system or a non-Microsoft operating system.
In effect, the royalty payment to Microsoft when no Microsoft product is being
used acts as a penalty, or tax, on the OEM's use of a competing PC operating
system. Since 1988, Microsoft's use of per processor licenses has increased.
In 2004, Microsoft commissioned research firms to do
independent studies comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Windows
Server 2003 to Linux; the firms concluded that companies found Windows easier
to administrate than Linux, thus those using Windows would administrate faster
resulting in lower costs for their company (i.e. lower TCO).This spurred a wave
of related studies; a study by the Yankee Group concluded that upgrading from
one version of Windows Server to another costs a fraction of the switching
costs from Windows Server to Linux, although companies surveyed noted the
increased security and reliability of Linux servers and concern about being
locked into using Microsoft products. Another study, released by the Open
Source Development Labs, claimed that the Microsoft studies were "simply
outdated and one-sided" and their survey concluded that the TCO of Linux
was lower due to Linux administrators managing more servers on average and
other reasons.
Being Microsoft Student Associate, I would also conduct many
classes in my campus to make students to use Microsoft Products more
effectively. I would also suggest my
friends to become Microsoft Student partner and Microsoft Student Associates.
As a Microsoft Student Associates I like to know more about it and
to share about it with my friends.
