Spreading the Love
This article talks about Microsoft’s plans to expand its Visual Studio user base to MacOS users, describing the surprise considering Microsoft’s previous reluctance to spread to beyond PC users. It also mentions the company’s recent plan to bring Bash Shell to Windows 10 and collaborate more with different operating systems. If we were to look at a network of different operating system users and consider possible business strategies, Microsoft can be seen as attempting to propel a Windows cascade by introducing Microsoft programs and characteristics as technical behaviors to users of other operating systems, and thus bringing them closer to Microsoft’s OS and ultimately switching their behaviors.
From a technical standpoint, this also promotes more collaboration between other operating systems, which would end up allowing us users more flexibility in program usage and facilitating communication, letting us expand our own personal social networks and build new bridges between nodes of people. With more people using the same programs, the strong triadic closure property takes effect, with the program acting as the friend in common between two different OS user nodes. The two users then are more likely to have their own tie. Taking a step back, let’s replace the users with the system developers. Now, the developers have a weak tie that could end up being stronger, and as a result, there would be more collaboration that emerges from the two developers.
Who knows? Maybe in the future it won’t be an OS debate anymore, but just Mawindux 🙂