#Wine emulator mission critical software#
Third, the applications programming interface could always be reimplemented on a different operating system: Microsoft has already done it, and Wine is a long-running attempt to do it on X and Unix.įurther, PC hardware also offers the reassurance that if rampaging aliens vaporised Windows, lots of alternative software will run on the same kit. Second, even if it did, hundreds of companies would be only too delighted to take over what looks like a licence to print money. First, Microsoft has $49 billion in readies, so no one thinks it will go bust. Windows is still proprietary, but it also represents little risk. You can still take chances on non-standard products, such as blade servers, but in general, if one supplier goes bust, you can get a functional and compatible equivalent from hundreds of rivals. Today, PC compatibility has taken most of the risk out of buying hardware. It was fear that gave rise to the stock phrase: "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." And since bigger companies tend to be both richer and more risk-averse than small ones, this has always given them a natural propensity to buy from the biggest computer company of all. Historically, many product evaluations have been weighted to avoid this awful prospect, even if it meant paying more for an inferior product.
If someone else takes it over, it could become even more expensive, and/or head in a different direction from the one you planned. If it goes bust, the stuff you have paid so much for could suddenly acquire a negative value, if you are faced with an expensive conversion to a different product. When a computer company gets taken over or goes bust, it is bound to create uncertainty about the future of its products.