This is true for financial institutions, internet companies, hardware vendors and all the others.
For the strategy to really succeed, of course, hardware vendors and software developers will have to follow Microsoft's lead.
Transmeta, once a secretive upstart, has recently signed a number of big deals with hardware vendors, challenging Intel's market dominance.
Much like Apple's HomeKit it all comes down to how many hardware vendors actually adopt it before it becomes useful.
You put the systems in a box and sell them, or you make bundling deals with hardware vendors.
To overcome this problem, hardware vendors are developing new software that allows networks of machines to act as one, in effect turning computing into a utility.
Once again this is enticing new territory that both start-ups and the big social networks have in their sights, along with search engines and hardware vendors.
Red Hat certifies that 4,000 different software applications run on its brand of Linux and has worked closely for years with all the significant hardware vendors.
For example, Microsoft is not permitted to "retaliate" against software or hardware vendors that are "developing, using, distributing, promoting or supporting any software that competes with Microsoft".
The change will make it possible for hardware vendors to customize their systems by striking business deals to include alternative programs from companies like America Online and RealNetworks.
Mr. Kay, of Endpoint, described a Microsoft operating system and its thousands of certified supporting hardware vendors and the two million device drivers as forming an enormous flywheel.
