I said it in my podcast on Saturday, and I’ll say it again in text…

Chrome will NOT kill Microsoft.

Much is being made of this new release by Google in the tech blog media, with sandwich board style “the end is nigh” predictions for Microsoft and their software empire.

Let me state for you: It’s just a fucking browser! As Ted Dziuba succinctly puts it on The Register.

Finally, someone else that gets it ™.

And let me explain just why it won’t be the bringer of death for Microsoft. It’s a very simple and obvious observation that is apparently out of the grasp of more than a few people.

The seat of Microsofts power is really in its server product and the various services that hook into it, fuelled by the cash cow of the CAL. Some of you might not have heard of CAL before – and no, it’s not HAL’s slacker brother – so let me explain.

CAL = Client Access License

Basically, Microsoft have been incredibly devious (make note that they’re not the only one to abuse this system) in forcing you to pay an initial lump sum for their software and then make you pay all over again to actually use it and access the resources they provide.
To use, say active directory based services you need to have a CAL for each machine regardless of whether it is based on windows or not – so if your client is mac, linux or even amiga os based you still have this license to pay for.

Now, MS could lose the browser war, hell it could even lose the desktop OS war and still be raking in the cash. This is because their strongest portfolio is on the server room side and not in the user domain.

For all of the complaints about MS software, I have to give them credit and acknowledge how impressive their server side is. Exchange is a fantastic product and sets a very high benchmark for corporate email systems, the very fact that apple is pandering to it with their iphone shows you how important it is.

Not to mention that the sheer breadth of control that Microsofts server solutions give admins over their corporate users and the degree of tight integration between the services will always provide a strong business case for choosing their solutions.

I’m also a firm believer that much of the capacity of active directory could be exceptionally handy for repairing much of the taint that exists on and around Microsofts desktop OS, their Windows Home Server product was a rediclously missed opportunity – as I commented in this video.
They were worried about canabalising SBS sales, but the only reason to choose SBS is to get your hands on exchange. Omit this from WHS and you wouldn’t dent those sales figures!

If you really want to identify the real threat to Microsoft, you need to be looking towards the linux based LDAP solutions and the rivals to exchange such as zimbra.

They are what would eat away at Microsofts most important revenue stream, a pithy browser simply cannot threaten this. Hell, even the “threat” of cloud computing is pretty much playing into the bank account of Microsoft.

Since, even if we all moved to a cloud based computing experience, MS could still quite as easily power a chunk of that cloud!

So please, stop hyping up the threat of chrome because there simply is no threat.

It’s just a fucking browser!