If you had to choose one of the three companies and then **never again **use the products and services of the other two, which one would you choose?
My first thought was Google, but then I would be restricted to Linux as a desktop OS (or perhaps Android, if they bring it to the desktop). So… my vote is Microsoft, pretty much because they have such strong desktop OS dominance. For search, mail, maps, and mobile OS I’ve picked Google, but Microsoft has reasonable alternatives for just about anything. Plus, Windows is still the dominant OS for PC gaming and basic office productivity type software.
Apple. We do use Macs here in the office, but software is so portable now that there’s only momentum, not need.
Google came to mind first, but I went with microsoft. It would suck losing my gmail, google voice, google.com, and others… but there are alternatives to those.
I can’t live without Windows though, since I’m a cutting-edge PC gamer, and though I like Linux it just doesn’t have the compatibility I’d want for games and the billions of free programs and utilities that exist for windows.
Microsoft. I can use other search engines and other phones, but I need Windows.
Do you think that will be true for the rest of your life? I think that makes the question a little bit tricky.
I could live just fine without Apple. Without Microsoft, I’d have to use an Apple computer, which is a toy, not a tool, and I wouldn’t be able to get my work done because of their penchant for slowing you down. I do need Google to search the Internet and for email.
Microsoft. I program using Microsoft technology so I’d sort of go broke without them 
Misunderstood the question, answered it wrongly.
I could live without Excel and it’s pretty much the only Microsoft product I use regularly. (My primary client wouldn’t be happy about having to install Timbuktu or hmmm no on second thought he’d use Mikogo which he already has… instead of using the Mac version of MS Remote Access).
I’d miss Google mainly due to lack of remaining competition. It’s only their search engine that I use though.
Apple makes my OS and my computers and indirectly (as a subsidiary) the software via which I make my living (FileMaker).
Google - I don’t use any Apple or Microsoft products regularly anyway.
I assume gaming on Wine doesn’t count?
If Apple did a search engine, I would have chosen Apple.
Microsoft would be the Office and OS choice of convenience, and in a sort of parallel life you could get by with Bing and the Windows Live suite, but it would be sucky.
I chose Google based on the current situation. In a Google-free world, interaction with the internet would be a huge pain. I also currently use about 15 other ‘free’ invaluable Google services. Google Docs sucks and the Android OS isn’t quite there yet, but it would be more do-able to stick just to Google than either of the other two.
I do not want to live in a world without Google.
I loves my Android-based tablet and smartphone, but I voted for Microsoft. I’ve had a nice career working with Microsoft products, and now that I’m retired the occasional consulting bit I do using Microsoft products pays for my golf and bowling addictions.
Another one for “Microsoft pays my bills.”
Also, MS is the only one of all of 'em that can (mostly) cover the other two’s products. No Google Search Engine? Bing is just as good IMO. No iPhone? Windows Phone 7 is actually better, and if they ever get more market share & more apps I’ll probably switch anyway.
About the only thing that MS currently doesn’t have is a Windows-based tablet, and I’m guessing there will be a few within a year.
I could happily live with just Google products. I’m crossing my fingers for an Android-powered netbook any day now.
I don’t use anything by Apple but choosing between Google and Microsoft is really hard.
I like Windows and Office and while I could probably survivive on Linux and Open Office I wouldn’t like it.
I really like my Galaxy Note which runs Android and like Android smartphones in general. I use Google search, Youtube and Gmail and wouldn’t like to give them up.
In the end I choose Google because I find their long-term vision more interesting.
Google is nice for some things, but the browser has been getting nearly useless over the past several years and everything else they got is merely meh compared to what companies who specialize in those areas put out.
Everything Microsoft makes is buggy as all hell and only becomes slightly sensible to use when it rips off features developed and owned by other companies.
Sure, Apple has its downsides, but if only one of these three companies gets to survive, it’s best to have the one where things just work they way they should in ways that make sense and are a joy to use instead of a chore.
(And listening to the whining from all the tools who like to bash Apple products while making arguments that they’d know make no damn sense if had any actual knowledge about what they were talking about instead of just being posers would be an added bonus.)
I would have to choose MS because I make much of my living with their products. Google would be my second choice and Apple last.
Impossible to say, for sure. But, I think Windows will remain a viable choice for a long time. Think of all of the big businesses that will deploy umpty-bajillion Windows PCs, and keep using them for five or ten years. My WAG is that this will continue for the next couple decades. And even then, Microsoft could easily be displaced by a company that doesn’t even exist now, rather than Apple or Microsoft.
Microsoft - pretty easy question to answer, for me. I don’t use any Apple products anyway so it’s a choice between Microsoft and Google. If I stopped using Google products, I’d have to give up my phone* but from everything I’ve heard Windows phones are pretty nice anyway, and I’d have to change my email address and use a different search engine, which are things I don’t care that much about. Never using Microsoft products again would significantly damage my ability to both play and make games, thus screwing up my career and my free time in one go. Plus I’d have to learn a new operating system.
*Hey Lantern, fellow Galaxy Note user! How’s it treating you?