Evolutionary Analogy
Feb. 18th, 2007 06:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dsrtaoMicrosoft's place in the ecosystem of computers.
Just before the Cambrian Explosion, there was a family of nitrogen-fixing worms called Microsoft. They performed some useful functions -- aeration, mixing, fertilizer generation -- but in general, they were all replaceable, Lots of other species were available to do the same jobs, and they lived in healthy competition.
Then they got a foothold in a new environment. This one was completely barren, like a newly risen volcanic island, but the wind patterns and ocean currents were very favorable, so life did quite well on IBM-PC Island. Pretty soon there was a whole archipelago, and the Microsoft worms spread across more or less all of them, producing soil and doing so well, that eventually one species dominated the entire chain. Every so often an advantageous mutation would spread, and everything would do better.
Then a new competitor species emigrated. It was very similar to the Microsoft clade in terms of niche, and could perform almost all the same functions for the ecosystem. After a few adaptations, the DR-DOS clade was starting to make serious inroads against Microsoft's domination.
At this point a major change occurred. A variety of corn developed into a total dependence of the Microsoft worms. (Most of the plants in the archipelago needed the same functions performed, but they could be performed well-enough with the DR-DOS worms, or even some other soil-producers.) This Windows corn was quite high-yield in terms of calories for animal-applications, but would not flourish in DR-DOS soil. Each time DR-DOS mutated a little closer to Microsoft, Microsoft worms would tie a little closer to Windows and Windows would reject DR-DOS soil a little more. After a few go-rounds, DR-DOS all but disappeared.
The dominant symbiosis of the Microsoft worms and the Windows corn proved to have astonishing tenacity, and the two species brought their symbiosis so close that it was almost a mistake to speak of them as two organisms. Microsoft worms were rarely seen alone, and Windows corn was never seen without a body of the worms in the root system. Without significant external competition, a monoculture of worms and corn became the major biomass in the archipelago. Every so often, the corn-worm partnership will internalize another feature of the ecosystem, and so there are no significant populations of the pollenizing insects any more. Several other species have been adopted into the symbiosis, displacing the natural competition in those niches as the functions are locked into the Microsoft super-organism.
uber-Microsoft now poses a significant cost on its environment. It has wiped out hundreds of species by changing to eliminate or take over the niches in which they survived. The continuing process of volcanic island-formation has allowed two other rival complexes to develop. Linux is a vigrous hybrid from the Unix clades of another island chain. It is composed of hundreds of cooperating/competitive species, all based on a group of "kernel" saprophytes that are extremely hardy and adaptable. No two Linux islands look exactly alike, but species that live on one island usually spread easily to the others with minimal adaptation. In contrast, Macintosh is derived from Unix stock but hews closer to the Microsoft model of interlocking symbiotic species preventing external competition.
Just before the Cambrian Explosion, there was a family of nitrogen-fixing worms called Microsoft. They performed some useful functions -- aeration, mixing, fertilizer generation -- but in general, they were all replaceable, Lots of other species were available to do the same jobs, and they lived in healthy competition.
Then they got a foothold in a new environment. This one was completely barren, like a newly risen volcanic island, but the wind patterns and ocean currents were very favorable, so life did quite well on IBM-PC Island. Pretty soon there was a whole archipelago, and the Microsoft worms spread across more or less all of them, producing soil and doing so well, that eventually one species dominated the entire chain. Every so often an advantageous mutation would spread, and everything would do better.
Then a new competitor species emigrated. It was very similar to the Microsoft clade in terms of niche, and could perform almost all the same functions for the ecosystem. After a few adaptations, the DR-DOS clade was starting to make serious inroads against Microsoft's domination.
At this point a major change occurred. A variety of corn developed into a total dependence of the Microsoft worms. (Most of the plants in the archipelago needed the same functions performed, but they could be performed well-enough with the DR-DOS worms, or even some other soil-producers.) This Windows corn was quite high-yield in terms of calories for animal-applications, but would not flourish in DR-DOS soil. Each time DR-DOS mutated a little closer to Microsoft, Microsoft worms would tie a little closer to Windows and Windows would reject DR-DOS soil a little more. After a few go-rounds, DR-DOS all but disappeared.
The dominant symbiosis of the Microsoft worms and the Windows corn proved to have astonishing tenacity, and the two species brought their symbiosis so close that it was almost a mistake to speak of them as two organisms. Microsoft worms were rarely seen alone, and Windows corn was never seen without a body of the worms in the root system. Without significant external competition, a monoculture of worms and corn became the major biomass in the archipelago. Every so often, the corn-worm partnership will internalize another feature of the ecosystem, and so there are no significant populations of the pollenizing insects any more. Several other species have been adopted into the symbiosis, displacing the natural competition in those niches as the functions are locked into the Microsoft super-organism.
uber-Microsoft now poses a significant cost on its environment. It has wiped out hundreds of species by changing to eliminate or take over the niches in which they survived. The continuing process of volcanic island-formation has allowed two other rival complexes to develop. Linux is a vigrous hybrid from the Unix clades of another island chain. It is composed of hundreds of cooperating/competitive species, all based on a group of "kernel" saprophytes that are extremely hardy and adaptable. No two Linux islands look exactly alike, but species that live on one island usually spread easily to the others with minimal adaptation. In contrast, Macintosh is derived from Unix stock but hews closer to the Microsoft model of interlocking symbiotic species preventing external competition.
