1. The Technosphere ATS 315

2. Why read the Stephenson book?

3. The Fate of All Operating Systems Stephenson claims that the fate of all operating systems is to eventually be free. Why?

4. The Fate of All Operating Systems Stephenson claims that the fate of all operating systems is to eventually be free. Why? The functions of the OS have to be well-known, since that is what developers need to know. The underlying functions are easy for the competition to duplicate, since they know exactly what the functions do.

5. Arbitrage All technology companies live on the edge between: –what is so old you can’t get people to pay for it –and what is so new it costs too much for people to pay for it.

6. The Biosphere Dead Rock (Lithosphere)

7. The Biosphere Dead Rock (Lithosphere) Dead Gas (Atmosphere)

8. The Biosphere Dead Rock (Lithosphere) Dead Gas (Atmosphere) What’s Alive (Biosphere)

9. The Fossil Record

15. Techno-fossils

17. OS Fossils (Windows Longhorn) Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows ME Windows 98 Windows 95 Windows 3.x MS-DOS

18. The Technosphere! Why are there “fossil computers”? Why are there “fossil operating systems”?

19. New Features Can’t compete on price (why?), so have to keep adding features. Name some features of Windows XP that weren’t always part of the operating system:

20. Big Things GUI Networking Security

21. Little Things Internet Explorer Windows Update Voice Recognition Software

22. Very Little Things Windows Media Player.NET support Windows Picture and Fax Viewer Minesweeper/Solitaire

23. What Happened to the Companies that Used to Sell This Stuff? IBM OS/2 IBM Via Voice Trumpet Winsock Netscape Navigator

24. Who’s Next? Norton? Real? Sony Playstation? TiVO?

25. A Losing Battle? Can MS keep adding features to your OS forever? Can MS keep convincing people to spend money on “features” that they can download for free?

26. MS Office A real “cash cow” for Microsoft. Would Microsoft ever release a version of Office for Unix? Why does Microsoft make Office for Mac?

27. The Other Side of the Fence Unix users have no ability to use Office, so they have to look elsewhere. Once there is an alternative, why pay for Windows/Office when the alternative is free? In the long run, what does this mean for MS?