DISQUS

Rohit Razdan · 2 years ago

I think it is rather too early to predict the demise of Microsoft. They still have more than 90% of market share.

Ash · 2 years ago

OSX is pretty cool.
Vista is pretty cool.
Linux is great for servers but not much else unless you like stuff that looks like crap and doesn't work properly (fun when you are in uni maybe).

As someone said before, MS will return just like Apple has managed to. I think the company is just reeling from the shift in the market caused by Google and the botched Vista release.

They have so much money and influence at the moment that they will be back. I mean, McDonalds managed to swing it!

BlackMage · 2 years ago

TO Gates:

If it doesn't make sense, it probably makes dollars. something M$ is not poised to do anymore. Ponder that.

strul · 2 years ago

I guess I belong to the younger half. I like that.

Oldtech · 2 years ago

I am an Oldtech. Microsoft would have us believe, with their marketing statistics of products "SHIPPED", that they hold 90% market share.

Not counting Dell Ubuntu, Lenovo Linux, Asus Linux, HP Linux, products, actually delivered, worldwide.

Evidence of Microsoft's failure to remain relevant among real computer users and developers, is the constant trips by high level MS Executives, to bribe government ministries in China, India, (together, 2.5 billion potential customers!), and emerging markets in Asia, Arabian, and African nations!

Linux has been officially adopted into the governments of 165 nations.

41 United States school boards mandate Linux in the schools on all systems, to comply with CIPA, many since the fiasco about Julie Amero and the rollcall PC spyware sex blitz in her 7th grade class.

Folks, the School ran Microsoft Windows, unprotected, on the internet, and violated federal laws, CIPA. Common sense was tossed out by the sleeping Judge Strackbein, and the media hungry Prosecutor.

All of it was preventable if they had only run a LiveCDrom.
http://livecdlist.com has about 300 FREE ones! Ubuntu.org will mail out any or all dozen for any hardware platform!

With the plethora of Open Source OSes free from Distrowatch.com there is no need to get bogged down with the virus magnet protection racket of "the Microsoft and Trusted Partner Monopoly" !

But, what do I know, having been in the computer field since the 1960's?

atul abraham · 2 years ago

@ Rohit, your comment is , sadly, wrong, becuase - it does NOT matter anymore what Operating System you are running because all the tools a private need to process documents, spreadsheets, presentations, communication (e-mail, video mail, IMs), share video / audio and images are WEB SERVICES that run in a browser, ANY BROWSER ON ANY OS,

specific softwares like Photoshop or Illustrator or other that need specific hardware configs to run on and are not network aware are themselves talking of moving to the " web "

once on the " web " the stranglehold that companies like MSFT have dies, because end users have choice as vast as domain names they can think up,

choice implies the right to choose the most cost-effective and best service,

innovative ideas no longer need the old - world route of trade-shows, in house demos, freebies et al to get know, word of mouth does that much faster, social networks re inforce this WOM spread,

the age of the monopoly is dead, because as this author points out nobody can afford to hire all the best talent (nobidy ever could either), the best ideas will exist within and without your business and what matters is only how and how fast you are able to adapt your service, strategy, pricing, structure to stay relevant to the newest technology environments,

google for eg. does not even need to build an OS, if it delivers a slew of productivity - boosting services they can go on letting MSFT or LINUX or who ever build the interfaces needed to run web browsers and still do great, they could even ignore desktop devices and head straight for mobile devices as client consumers of software services and offer higher security aggregated services to companies,

market share isnt anymore about how many desktop devices are running your OS (desktop devices themselves are on their way out ), today market share is about how many of your peers want to resell your service (one weay or the other), how many direct and indirect users you have AND - how relevant is your technology - base to the environment you are in (ie. will people miss you if you go belly up ?)

the SPIRIT of the internet is young, free and individual, that is something MSFT never was and never can be because their way of doing business is to intimidate you into not leaving,

the internet today is all about allowing even your longest-staying customers to move to a new service or standard that is dictaetd by nbewer hardware, connection tehcnologies etc.

microsoft with its proprietary tools and tool - kits can try and make the open source movement look bad, but it wont last,
as more college grads leave comp science depty with linux and other OS knowledge the pressure on MSFT to deliver its own OS Linux based tool kits and tools and series will grow, they might call it MSFT - ux and charge you more than the market, but thats the only way they can stay relevant, i think,
they may never do it given their atitude to open source and even if they did if other distros of linux from novell or red hat or even IBM keep getting slicker and easier to use the end user will ultimately stop to care and just buy the most cost-effective DEVICE to access services they want to

web tasarimi · 2 years ago

Microsoft not dead. But it will. Becase developers (me too) hate it.

Christine · 2 years ago

I agree with a lot of what you say...i converted to mac 4 years ago and haven't looked back since. i traded in dreamweaver for joomla and built my startup The China Business Network on it. Thanks to the community of developers worldwide who believe in the open source matters mantra, a non-techie girl like me is able to launch a full featured web 2.0 style site by myself while giving those around me the impression that there's a "team" of web developers behind me.

It sounds like a strange correlation, but a driving inspiration behind my China networking business model is a direct result of Joomla as there's a similar evolution taking place in the world of business between the old consultants who charge someone thousands of dollars to enter the China market (the admission ticket into the theme park i like to say)...and those like me who have used open source and social networking platforms to build a platform for allowing the free exchange of business information and bringing people together worldwide without needed to pay the steep price for the admission ticket in.

The Web 2.0 bubble is only a "bubble" if it's only being used as a buzz word and not being put into practice as a tool to turn an industry on its head. Thanks to Web 2.0 and the podcasts, blogs, social network and open source way of thinking it brings about...doing business in China will never be the same once I'm done with it. Thanks for the great article.

Ingas · 2 years ago

As a programmer I like .NET
Microsoft have good server OS, Microsoft have good DBMS

I hate DRM

As for their marketing - I think they are not worse in comparison with Oracle, Sun, Sony, Apple also. In fact they are better.

So I will not mourn if Microsoft will "die"
I think they'll continue make good products.

Matt Snider · 2 years ago

Ingas, to say that Microsoft is at good at marketing as Apple, would be a serious mistake. Just look at the fanfare around the iPhone compared to the fanfare around Office 2007. Everyone new about the iPhone and why it was cool, but few new about Office 2007 and the breakthrough navigation that was introduced.

Great article Paul. I'd be interested in a comparison of the other large media companies that are now making moves into software (at least web software) and how they are contributing to the changing marketplace.

Ingas · 2 years ago

Matt, you are correct.
In fact I mean fairness of marketing.
And Microsoft not worse in comparison with others.
In fact I'm more irritated by Oracle, Sun, Sony.
A lot of noise irrelevant to their products.

Murthy · 2 years ago

This is certainly an excellent one. I too share the same feeling with many of my friends here. I am glad that I am not the only one.

Martin · 2 years ago

A lot of large companies got into crisis, when the markets changed.

But most really big companies - i.e. Mc Donalds, came back even stronger than before.

MSFT will learn form their mistakes and with its wealth find new sources of income.

Maybe the monopoly on OS will be gone in 2 or 3 decades. But for sure not a company like MSFT.

billy · 2 years ago

even with vista coming out u think the threat is completly gone i mean they got a liltle shadow left

Jackson Capper · 2 years ago

Vista is a fantastic product I love it. Don't see there is anything wrong with it.

Icaro · 2 years ago

hello , i have only a cuestion , what do you think about .NET Framework? i must learn NET? or i dont? , im programmer and i cant decide if i must go by NET or JAVA or Both. thanks

Developer · 2 years ago

.NET is Java. As a "strategic business move", Microsoft reverse engineered Java in Microsoft's Charlotte, NC office a few years back. They modified it slightly to enhance the virtual machine known as the CLR (common language runtime).

The fact the aforementioned things happened deeply sadens me. It's as if Microsoft had no concept of ethics. I used to work for Microsoft. They control their employees through software and peer satisfaction/customer satisfaction ratings. It's the most extreme instance of micro-management I have ever seen or heard of. I am sorry to say I was once a part of it.

Even with all that said, Microsoft is and has consistently proven to be the Software company for businesses. If you need well documented frameworks, good development tools, scaleable performance, and etcetera, .NET is the way to go. Web development on .NET is simpler and more powerful than any other framework. Remember Microsoft is in competition with Java. They don't want to loose the battle and their .NET framework proves they are in it to win it.

I frequently try to displace myself from the monopolistic Microsoft development adoption undertow, but the fact always remains that the more I know about Microsoft technologies the more I get paid. Who can complain about that?

V · 2 years ago

Good post. I feel that Microsoft is getting increasingly irrelevant, and they don't understand the magnitude of this shift.

Each year, Microsoft recruiters on campus hire some students amidst a huge fanfare. Invariably, the students that join Microsoft are second or third tier individuals, who will find it hard to get jobs elsewhere. A person *choosing* to work at Microsoft is one sure sign of their (lack of) intellect at my University.

knishsax · 2 years ago

microsoft absolutely sucks. don't bother trying to use a mac to hotmail just as a for example. perhaps I'm naive. however, my windows based computer is a complete dog. new system (ish) ie crashes constantly. oe crashes constantly. gimme a break. not my arm please....

knox · 2 years ago

Mine has never crashed! Time to get a good PC dude

Dylan J. · 2 years ago

Sorry, but knishsax's right, there. I can't say that I have a high-end pc (Intel Pentium Dual Core e2140 1.6ghz, 1gb ddr667, 160gb hdd, geforce 7300gs), but it's decent, and Windows explorer definitely likes to crash more often than older versions of Windows. Ok, when a program crashes on Vista, it handles it quite well (After 10 painful minutes). But if Vista is so great, then why do programs crash all the time anyway?

folsco.net · 1 year ago

"But if Vista is so great, then why do programs crash all the time anyway?"

Many things can contribute to this: Vista is a like an ecosystem. The working together of a lot (i mean a lot) of different components. Microsoft is not the only company writting software for their OS. Applications like device drivers, Line of Business applications {AutoCAD, PhotoShop, Macromedia Suite, etc} are being developed by third-parties. What-if those mal-functioned? It will surely backfire on the vehicle conveying them, the OS (or Vista). Then who is to be blamed? I'm sure you know that can never be M$!

Let's appreciate people working hard to easy our lives. Linux is great, Windows is great, and competition is good!

Cheers.

Dirk · 2 years ago

Why do you suppose that the majority of software is written for Windoze? I don't like it any more than most of you... Indeed, I really dislike MS with the best of them however there are things that you can't do with other OS's. For instance, Apple is all proprietary and priced about 3-4 times what its worth (they wont even release their BIOS?!), and Linux is difficult to use (albeit the most powerful of the lot) and has little selection of available software. So, MS has all the inexpensive peripherals and most of all the really useful software. I won't even mention games...

No the fact is that MS still controls most aspects of desktop computing. I hate that too, but its the truth. I'd say that 80-90% market share is fairly significant - and only a bozo would disagree.

Some of you may even say that online apps are the wave of the future. They are. But it will be a while yet before they can completely replace desktop apps. Take the aforementioned "snipshot." Thats really nifty and all but it is not yet even close to being a decent replacement for Photoshop. Not even close. Sure you can remove red-eye, or brighten up your photos, but I dont expect anyone in the business of dealing with image manipulation to switch from Photoshop for quite some time.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see web apps develop a stronger presence. Yet, if we become strictly reliant on webapps (which will never happen) then we can't effectively work on our computers without being connected. And thats no good at all.

A good mix of both is best since, as they say, it takes all types to make up the world.

NAmorim · 2 years ago

Microsoft is not dead. It's the platform used in corporate world by far, and Linux is not competition just yet. But I'm talking outside of US.

On the other hand... we have the mobiles (3G and/or Wimax). And they are by far more than the PCs. Real competition and innovation will come that way.

Madhu · 2 years ago

Well, I look around my 'third-world' world..I see only MS Windows...I look around the offices of my clients all over the world...I see only Windows... I don't see anything in your article that says (1) Apple is going to make its personal computers available and affordable throughout the world (2) that there is a viable enterprise alternative for MS Office...

Guardian-Nage · 2 years ago

Have you never heard of Linux? Free and much better than windows in every aspect.

folsco.net · 1 year ago

I would support you on this, if you can give me a satisfying answer to the following:

1) Was the best application framework, the coveted .Net Framework, originally developed on Linux? and later ported to Windows? [Hint: Do som research on Mono {www.go-mono.com}?]

2) Can you compare the superior gaming experience enjoyed on Windows to that of Linux?

3) Can a Linux box stands for a DAY if it's operated by an avid web surfer with the precious 'root' account? plus, without a password? Since that would means being able to modify configs like '/etc/passwd' and perform some stunts like wiping off all your user account and maybe some other important system configurations, in this type of world, will Linux escape getting being referred to as 'suck'? [Hint: Windows runs EVERYDAY like dat (Mine exclusive!)]

Linux is good, but Windows can be betterED!

Richard Cranium · 2 years ago

I find this whole discussion pretty funny. In fact, it only goes to show that Microsoft is as strong as ever. Everybody wants to take a shot at the champ.

Developer · 2 years ago

I thought about this for a while and, although I strongly dislike most of Microsoft's business practices, I would never want for Microsoft to die. If Microsoft died the whole world of software would be much less business like and much more about the idiotic things that creep into software applications when they are not controlled by a central business motivated controller. ...Idiotic things like bugs, easter eggs, not implemented dialogs, unfriendly messages, spyware that's worse than Microsoft's spyware... etc.

If Microsoft died there would also no longer be a central place to go for implementation methodologies and solutions. There would be a vast disorganization of the software industry as a whole.

Microsoft does a lot of things that just aren't fair to others. They steal technologies and brand them with their name. They patent algorithms that shouldn't even be patentable; they just get away with it because they have enough money to pay the patent office off. They don't engineer software at all they just recreate or repackage the things others have made popular. Still if they died the effect would be much worse.

The way to really kill Microsoft is to create a central agency of ownership for the open source community. Open souce software has always been the source of Microsoft's "new" technology. If an organization large enough to pentalize Microsoft owned those technologies Microsoft would eventually die. No doubt. No question.

I hope this never happens though. It would be the beginning of the end of the business side of software development, the end of all the things that make software capable across most organized business environments.

Reena Agrawal · 2 years ago

Agree with you. I definitely don't want microsoft to die coz maybe some of its products suck. But there are some products that are pretty good too. For example consider outlook v/s lotus notes or for another example consider the visual studio 2008. That is pretty cool and the debugging time taken using visual studio 2008 is so much less than consider debugging something using gdb.

And i dont think that 90 percent of people who use windows just use it for surfing net chatting etc. There are some developers too who like windows. And one thing i don't understand is how can ppl say that MS is dead even though they see that whether or not u get an application that runs on ur poor mac or not, u'll find a version of it that will run on win32. And Whenever we have to port software to other platforms, its from windows to somehwr else. At least i havent seen this being the other way round. And the only reason i can think of for why this is so is that that ppl still like windows and that implies windows is alive and kicking.. :P

Harrison · 2 years ago

Yup. You're right about one thing. To use college kids who know about and like to use technology, this is old news to us :D. Even though a disgusting proportion of people still use M$ (for you "last-gen folks" that's our new abbreviation for Microsoft is), there market share is declining at an unprecidented rate, if you consider their absolute market dominance of the 90s. Sure, 6% (open-source users) might not seem like a big number, but if you compare that to a 0.01% (exaggerated) just 10 years ago, M$ has lost ground exponentially to open-source and apple in the past 3 years. I myself only use losedows for gaming (it's commonly believed in "technodork" circles that the only thing M$ ever did right was DirectX), and I use Excel occasionally, because it's still better than OpenOffice Spreasheet, and also AutoCAD isn't really compatible with Linux (yet). Give it another 15 years, and then we'll be laughing in M$'s face, if we're lucky.

Harrison · 2 years ago

wow. That post makes me look like an idiot. I haven't slept in over 30 hours, so forgive the abysmal grammar and spelling!

Guy · 2 years ago

I think you missed something here:

-The people that actually do any sort of meaningful work on their computers will avoid Microsoft products like the plague they are

-The people that use their PC to waste copious amounts of time, browsing through porno, gaming, chatting, using IM and asking "bittorrent - what's that like a virus?" don't really care either way

I assume, wrongly perhaps, that most of the home PC market is comprised of the later.

folsco.net · 1 year ago

"The people that use their PC to waste copious amounts of time, browsing through porno, gaming, chatting, using IM and asking "bittorrent - what's that like a virus?" don't really care either way"

Well, those set of people can use 'a limited account' (an account with a very low system privilege) or better still use 'Vista'. I must confess: "I love User Access Control on my Vista machine.' It's really cute!

Why would anybody on this planet says "Microsoft is dead" considering what they possess and are coming out with? I love .Net { Linq To YYYY, ASP.Net + AJAX Ext, WF, WPF, etc} to much of them to mention!

Dude · 2 years ago

I would like to tell you my experiences with m$. I realized three days ago how microsoft sux... I was on winXP from the very first time I got my own computer(before then I was using my dad's notebook). But three days ago I threw my instalation CD in the trash can(I really threw it into trash can). First my windows was kinda sucky. Computer reboorted about every ten minutes. I tryed a lot of things to fix it but i didn't success. "Thats ok," I said "I can reinstall it without any problem. I have legal copy of winXP" ... of course i would never buy it -> it came with my computer. So i made a backup(which was very hard to make, cause I didn't have much time to colect files and copy them - always about ten minutes and then i had to wait for my comp to start up). After 30 mins of installing and another 15 mins of configuring I got that awefull bubble asking me to activate my product. I did everything I had to but it didn't activate via internet. So I took the phone and gave a ring to m$ ^_^ . yea that was fun... I was like WTF!!!!!! when it told me that theres a problem and i'll talk to an operator... That kind lady told me, that I cannot activate my product because its already installed on another computer. I was like !!W!!T!!F!! . I told her that I have no other computers with this copy on it. She told many things but didn't tell me, how can I uninstal the copy from my other computer which I actually don't have. She told me to ask the guy who sold me CD with windows for help. Yea usefull. (thats the typical reaction when they don't know how to solve your problem :\) I bet that the guy would tell me to ask microsoft for help. I decided to try linux ;) After 30 mins of instaling and few minutes of configuring a got fully working OS with almost all software that i need. I was just about to try it, but I don't thing im coming back to win. Maybe that windows is good OS, but I can do the same things(and better) on Linux which is for free. I read many things on forums like: Linux sux, it doesn't even have any good games. But it was true about four, maybe three years ago. BUT... i have to disagree that microsoft died. U know... its like game studios... most of the ppl know the game, but they don't know who made it. Microsoft have one BIG oponent... and its nothing but free software and open source. Microsoft can beat other companies, because it has got much more money. But free software can be defeated by nothing but quality. And thats where microsoft loses. They have to put money into things that many ppl do for free. Microsoft cannot buy it. Thats why some ppl from microsoft called free software "cancer". I believe that if there wasn't free software(i dont mean freeware software) and open source, windows and other products from microsoft wouldn't be as good as they are today, because microsoft wouldn't have any reason to make it this good. Ppl would buy it anyway. BUT :D I wonder, what will be microsoft like in four or five years. I remember when microsoft released winXP, many ppl went on winXP. But when microsoft released win vista, most of ppl kept their winXP. I haven't tryed win vista, but what I heard winXP and win vista are pretty much like UT2003 and UT2004. In UT 2004 there are many cool things, but without vehicles, new maps and some graphics details its just like improved UT2003. hmpf... so thats my opinion... i dont say its true... O just think its true. lol sorry for my english and thaks if u red the whole thing :)

Cisco · 2 years ago

For a company thats "dead" it seems to be doing pretty good. Better than some that are alive.

Paul, maybe you goofed when you said "Microsoft is dead"?

nowayjose · 2 years ago

"And that was the second cause of Microsoft's death: everyone can see the desktop is over. It now seems inevitable that applications will live on the web—not just email, but everything, right up to Photoshop. Even Microsoft sees that now."

Dude, are you out of your mind? I would be the last to defend the bloated,pointless MS products, but if you think that photosop is going to run over the net, and not in the desktop... please learn a little bit of communication & electronics and then talk about technology

John G. · 2 years ago

WiOW!!!!!!!!!!!!, but do you think Microsoft will come back from the dead now with Windows Vista?

John G. · 2 years ago

Microsoft is alive with Windows Vista to come back with and so is Mac with Mac OS X Leopard.
Both our doing rally good right now.
Microsoft was die untill Windows Vista.
Mac OS X Leopard is better then Windows Vista, but not much.
So next time you say Microsoft is dead waint for there new operating system.

Dylan J. · 2 years ago

Talk about nail in the coffin! Windows Vista is crap. Ok, it has a nice user interface. But under the glossy (also glitchy) good-looking skin, it's still Windows.

neo4reo · 1 year ago

AMEN TO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!

Julian · 2 years ago

Most of the people posting here about how OH NO MICROSOFT ISN'T DEAD OH LAWD WHAT KIND OF CRAP ARE YOU SAYING, are missing the point of this article completely, Microsoft does still hold 90% of the Desktop market, but it's just become irrelevant to the developers, such that no one fears the "benevolent monopoly" that Microsoft used to be, an IBM before it.

foof · 2 years ago

You're right that Microsoft is dead, if not dying -- at least in Web-based services. They do have a stranglehold on the desktop -- Apple has been nipping at their heels, too. It has been trouncing them in the hardware department with iPod and iPhone, even though Apple is as paranoidly closed as they are. As for Google, now that is a different story. I would like to see them succeed, but not just them -- other companies, too. What bothers me about Google is they are headed to be the new "Microsoft" a large behemoth company. Eric Schmidt said at a recent Google Analysts' Day that Google wants to have "the largest footprint" and "reach 100 billion dollars and we won't stop there." Eek. Even Microsoft isn't anywhere near that. If Google becomes the new Microsoft, they I find Googlers as hypocritical as Microfties. What do I want to see? Not just one Google, but lots of them - why should Google own the web by itself -- then it is just another monopoly. I want hundreds of Googles, so that their actions keep their other giants in check. Monopolies and oligopolies are evil. And Google is fast becoming another evil greedy arrogant company, -- just as Microsoft is being humbled.

mattyv · 2 years ago

been wired since 1993, but not as long as you and .. I will NEVER use web apps.
they are not going to harvest what i am doing and make money.
I will stick to desktop and kinda sorta keep my data off line thank you.

by the way, you cannot beat office 2007. tried to migrate to openoffice and 07 came out and reverted back. just cannot stand the time waste on finding solutions.

And by the way, nero became very evil and i believe possessed after Paul the apostle witnessed to him.

m@

neo4reo · 1 year ago

Ur living in a timeless digital age...the future is moving to the desktop...u must be something like 60+ yrs..so u probably wont be around to see microsoft begging for scraps..in 25+ years

Çognos · 2 years ago

Why is google the enemy of microsoft ? Because of GMail + some of online office products ? No way - thats not a reason ... ms is a little annoyed about that fact that they've lost that business - thats all.

ms main focus is the development and enforcement of standardized systems for developers and end users. And this is the reason why 90% of all software is running on win machines.
No talented and experienced developer wants to create software on unstandardized systems without any prudential way of interoperability , not to mention the absent marketing opportunities of desktop applications. So far, the online comms are another story - but ... time will tell - nobody wants to code crappy javascript code in conjunction with complex webapps.

Cognos · 2 years ago

Why is google the enemy of microsoft ? Because of GMail + some of online office products ? No way - thats not a reason ... ms is a little annoyed about that fact that they've lost that business - thats all.

ms main focus is the development and enforcement of standardized systems for developers and end users. And this is the reason why 90% of all software is running on win machines.
No talented and experienced developer wants to create software on unstandardized systems without any prudential way of interoperability , not to mention the absent marketing opportunities of desktop applications. So far, the online comms are another story - but ... time will tell - nobody wants to code crappy javascript code in conjunction with complex webapps.

George · 2 years ago

Really faulty logic you have there. Take your "Hiring is obsolete" article. Since a couple of successful companies were started by young people, then young people must therefore make great company starters. That's like saying that since Michael Jordan was such a great basketballer, anyone with the name of Michael will also be a great basketballer. And your 90% rate of failure doesn't even take into the effect of a sudden influx of morons following your advice to start their own companies.

Microsoft is dead. I want that to be true as much as anyone, but it's just not so, unfortunately, not even close. Microsoft is going to be with us for a very very long time.

foxtrot · 2 years ago

what unless we get 400MB/s internet connection then who would bother to use photoshop online rather than on your hard drive =\ Microsoft is not dead and wont be for decades. Google doesn't even make an operating system, and I highly doubt every computer will start running entirely off the internet on google.
And hotmail is way stronger than gmail as most people use msn.

GD · 2 years ago

in what ways hotmail is 'way stronger' than gmail? where I live most people use msn, but they never use the hotmail account for emailing, just for login on msn. I believe gmail has better usability, and not only that... it improves and innovates at a much faster rate than hotmail or yahoo, at least that's the way I see things. Why do you believe hotmail is stronger?

neo4reo · 1 year ago

My good friend foxxy...if we would think the way you do..then...rice would be the best food in the whole world since so many people..feed on it...reasons include--its the only thing the know about,its cheap to grow..etc..this doesnt make it the best...so is microsoft since the shove proprietary software down the througts of third worlg countrie i.e my own uganda...coupled with aid..and alot of other strings..attached...,iron being more in circulation doesnt make it more valuable than..Gold,..siver,platinum..etc..u get my drift

Jon · 1 year ago

Maybe Google doesn't make a Desktop OS because they know Desktop is dead?

*cough* Android *cough*

Ahmet Doruk · 2 years ago

Best Pardus Turkis OS like Linux :D

pglewis · 2 years ago

Microsoft can't hire smart people any longer? Just like the military draws the finest pilots because of their fantastic toys, MS still woos some of the best and brightest in the industry.

This is a rather short-sighted article. Microsoft may be dead in certain sectors, but I don't think they were particularly strong there to begin with. Elsewhere, .NET and ASP are apparently looming huge in your blind-spot. Take a look around local and regional job listings and see just how dead Microsoft technologies are. And before the flames begin: I have no allegiance to Microsoft. I pay no tribute by way of their certifications and would lose no sleep if they did perish.

Vesa · 2 years ago

One of my friends has installed Ubuntu on his dad's old computer, it runs Firefox and OpenOffice. Everyone is happy :o)

neo4reo · 1 year ago

Cheerio!!!..FSF rules

Mike · 1 year ago

Another way that Microsoft hurt themselves is that drove -off, bought-out or annihilated thier own community of developers.

In the early 90's, Microsoft actually put a lot of effort into getting the mind-share of the development community., particularly for Windows applications development. This is why one would by a PC over a Mac, there was more available software for the PC.

It seems that when Windows 3.x hit big, Microsoft claimed victory and then set out to consolidate thier platform, essentially targeting thier own citizens.

At some point every one knew that it is pointless to develop for the Windows desktop anymore, chances of hitting it big are slim and if you succeed you will just garner the wrath of the giant.

But as you so eloquently point out, the desk top ceased to be relevant anyway.

Daniel · 1 year ago

disgruntled linux user? microsoft is staying and becoming even bigger

neo4reo · 1 year ago

u must have been infected...with a virus i.e self-replicating automaton...

neo4reo · 1 year ago

BTW ..those are like windows...freebies....a little some thing from the great dictator..microsoft

someone · 1 year ago

it is better for you all guys to leave microsoft into some open source os just like linux

Josh Stodola · 1 year ago

I will always prefer desktop applications to their web-based equivalent. They are smoother, more reliable, and I can get stuff done quicklier from ANYWHERE. This makes your "second cause" complete rubbish. Your arguments for supporting this fallacy are also quite laughable.

While I can honestly say that MS is not as powerful as they once were with regards to market domination, in the developer community they stomp the colons of their competition. And that is the real reason why they will NEVER go way. They will NEVER die because they go to great lengths to secure the happiness of developers who build software based on their framework. Nobody in their right mind would stop writing C# and switch over to Java. Nobody. But you can always pray, I guess.

Go ahead, buy a Mac, and use Gmail. But what will you have to say when you realize that every worthwhile application is built on the .NET framework?

BehindTheScenes · 1 year ago

Amen!!

Jon · 1 year ago

I switched from .NET (C#) to Java for business reasons. Licensing, ugh!

Lindberg · 1 year ago

I see the sense of this articel however, I'm working in a small business which are a Microsoft partner, and I am sorry to tell you that Microsoft still sits on way more than half of the market and still will in the coming years.
It's not the nerds and advanced users that Microsoft put their money on, its casual people.

jim · 1 year ago

So because one young internet startup founder had a blank look on his face when you mentioned MS as being a threat, you've now deemed them "dead"?

Michael Schmidt · 1 year ago

Some interesting observations and opinions. If Microsoft (M$) is dying, they are in the early, preconscious stages of their death throes. I think they have contributed to their demise by making some serious missteps. First, they are certainly full of themselves, perhaps a reflection of their founders' personalities. They have adopted the old IBM philosophy of "if we build it, they will buy it". Recall that IBM's business model started to fail and it basically had to reinvent itself. Also, it took M$ quite a while to realize that being politically active and cultivating community good will were important.

Second, when confronted with antitrust accusations, they say they only want to be free to innovate. Yet their "innovations" appear to be limited to finding how much they can get away with in terms of unfair business practices. They have been sued successfully multiple times, and the recent EU suit has been pretty expensive, both in terms of money and in restricting their practices.

Third, they really don't innovate products - they copy those of others (they sometimes talk about "adopt and enhance" which is really "steal and cripple"). Think of their operating system (original kernel perhaps stolen from CPM, look-and-feel taken from Apple, other advances similar to OS/2), Internet Explorer (remember Netscape), M$ Office (Corel WordPerfect), Media Player (RealMedia), X Box (other game consoles), and databases (various others). There is nothing here that suggests M$ is a visionary company,and without vision they will fail.

Finally, their products receive significant consumer criticism. They are buggy, don't work, do everything automatically whether you want to or not, and often ignore backward compatibility with previous versions. They certainly don't seem to care about compatibility with products from other companies. Consider that an operating system is supposed to control - not dictate - the hardware. Note that recently there has been considerable resistance to adopting Vista, with some businesses requiring that new computers have XP installed instead. Their licensing practices have caused considerable grumbling as well.

I think M$ is currently living off the momentum built up with overwhelming market share. Yet in the server domain, Linux is extremely popular. M$ programming languages have serious challenges (Java, scripting languages). Other projects are using M$'s own strategies against them (giving away applications to drive competition out of business); this is seen in programming languages (e.g., Java), web applications (e.g., Mozilla), and OSs (e.g., Linux). A quite interesting development, in direct opposition to M$'s proprietary standards, has been the rise of open standards. I am particularly intrigued by the OpenDocument standard, a new XML based document standard that is gaining official recognition (e.g., some countries are going to require it be used).

Bottom line, I agree (and hope) that "the evil empire" of M$ is in trouble.

African Boy · 1 year ago

"The third cause of Microsoft's death was broadband Internet. Anyone who cares can have fast Internet access now. And the bigger the pipe to the server, the less you need the desktop"

I doubt if you've ever had to step outside of your comfort zone and visit countries where people still have to use dial up or go to cafes to work on the Internet. I cant imagine having to leave my "dead" office software, copy my files on a flash drive and go to a cafe just to work. Or having to wait 5 minutes for a web based "desktop replacement" application to open up.

Its your opinion (and it is wrong) and this is my opinion (and it is right), Microsoft is not dead.

Mukundan · 1 year ago

"And the bigger the pipe to the server, the less you need the desktop."

And what will the pipe run on? air? It is easy to dismiss the importance of the underlying OS and talk of some hypothetical Web-based device that will do everything. Just try to build one, and you'll see what you take for granted is not developed by some wild-eyed hackers in a week - or a month - or a decade.

Ben Lam · 1 year ago

The point is that Microsoft was the undisputed king of the desktop. Everything used to run on the desktop.

The desktop has been trumped by the Internet & a web browser. Now everything runs on the Net. (Think about how useful your computer would be without a Net connection. It'd be a heat producing paper weight).

Microsoft is dead in the water. Their attempt at purchasing Yahoo, is them grasping at a sizable flotation device. They'll get a good slice of the Web audience with their money. But, unless they do something amazing with it, they truly will be dead, having spent the equivalent of their on-hand cash assets.

Another Voice · 1 year ago

Complete crap. Microsoft missed the online advertising thing. Thats all. Or lets Just say they're late. Google has nothing absolutely nothing apart from their mundane ascii advertising and their customer-oriented search. You just have to change your default homepage to another search engine and you will never ever have to be touched by a single piece of google "technology" ever again in your whole life. So they have newsgroups search. Awesome! They even think they are now mobile developers and now finally people can really go mobile.. Huh huh .. There will be 20 million windows mobile licenses sold in 2008, apart from all the other mobile platforms every c++/java developer can develop for. truely zero impact technology. Take a look at their desktop search: Its SDK is based on COM and Windows only .. not that COM is particuarily bad, but for a cross-platform-comparny that is utter crap. Thats something I would have expected from Microsoft and not google. The System architect that made this decision should be fired.

Roman · 1 year ago

Last news from Microsoft about opening there standards, just mention the fact, that they are aware of there deadness, and trying to reanimate.

pam · 1 year ago

well microsoft used to be closed(like a closed circuit)..google is very open and innovative and nourish talent..everything we see of google..orkut/gmail..they were all once internal project of their employees. Today is the era of the people not the individual goal set. you have to read the people mind and get that out in very simple manner which google has done. Microsoft need new way of thinking (out of the box thinking) to even think of a come back..But no doubt microsoft has played its part very well in past. after all open source is the born because of microsoft hatred..they led path of the today.

Onin · 1 year ago

Hardly to say that M is dead. That would be when all their app would stop working, and I mean immediately. That would be proper death. For now we have still lots off M stuff we use. Which is not so bad. Imagine that M died today, that will cause chaos, at least for a while. And it would be a problem, to all of us. Cause there is no independent system. We all take part in this. So, for now we are not ready for the big M to die, not yet.

Deena Hiller · 1 year ago

"The last nail in the coffin came, of all places, from Apple. Thanks to OS X, Apple has come back from the dead in a way that is extremely rare in technology. [2] Their victory is so complete that I'm now surprised when I come across a computer running Windows. Nearly all the people we fund at Y Combinator use Apple laptops. It was the same in the audience at startup school. All the computer people use Macs or Linux now. Windows is for grandmas, like Macs used to be in the 90s. So not only does the desktop no longer matter, no one who cares about computers uses Microsoft's anyway."



The typical home user does not care about OOXML, source code, or libdvdcss. They simply want to compose e-mail, office documents, and watch the occasional DVD. They have no burning desire to code in C or to compile a new kernel for their Slackware box. Conversations over dinner are unlikely to include talk of the ZFS filesystem.

Timbaland and Snoop Dogg are on the Billboard Top 10 this week, not Shostakovich and Prokofiev, like it or not.

Arian · 1 year ago

There is an Apple microcosm out here in Silicon Valley that is not reflected in the rest of the world, software ISVs and startups included.

I was shocked when I moved out here and saw Apples, Apples, everywhere. It's just not the same in most of the rest of the world.

There are successful multi-million dollar software ventures in most major cities; you'll be hard pressed to even find an apple store in Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, Austin etc. But you'll find plenty of software companies and segments of the billion-dollar gaming industry aplenty. It's all windows.

I switched to OS X for work and it's admittedly nice minus absolute lack of worthwhile debuggers. However, I rarely ever had problems with Windows. I understood Windows quite deeply, and ran the same Windows 2000 build on a laptop for five years. The only times it didn't run right, I removed the guilty software and cleaned up the mess in the registry. Just like any good linux hacker.

The anti-windows angst out here is unusually sharp, but unreflective of most (not all, but most) of my experience with software development teams around the world. Starting around 2005 I also felt the anti-windows (anti-MS, really) vibe pick up in the EU -- w/major banks moving to *nix distros & LAMP apps, etc.

MasonCide · 1 year ago

I don't know if the author realizes, but there are human beings alive presently who are unaware there were 1950s. They like Microsoft software for the Attention Deficit Disorder calming effect of animated everything, and primarily entertainment oriented and/or time wasting applications.

I always thought of Microsoft Windows like a prostitute. She's easy, but she charges for it. When you think she's loyal, you find out she blabbed everything you told her in private all over cyberspace.

She's aways infected with something, if only herself, because she is the largest and most complex spyware trojan in existence. And let's face facts: Mac is BSD.

some dude · 1 year ago

yes microsoft is limping, but dead? after the yahoo buyout attempts (squashed by google, since google is still afraid of microsoft. afraid Microsoft could make a come back) we learned many are still questioning what microsoft will do next and how it might hurt them. the shadow has lessened but has not gone way. most people have never heard about oracle yet oracle still scares many who know about them. same goes for microsoft and i think it will always be that way

Industry Watcher · 1 year ago

I'd also like to point out that far beyond the bubble you live in, is the bubble you fail to acknowledge others may live in. You have adopted, for the premise you have presented, an us-versus-them stage where you, as the good guys, live in your Web 2.0 world, and basically everyone else as living in a "desktop world" i.e. Microsoft.

For many people, Windows is the only world. That's what was on their computer when they bought it. It came loaded with desktop applications. It came with AOL dial-up internet access, if it came with any at all. These people are not software geeks nor are they particularly interested in O/S wars.

They just wanna write their letters, surf the net, and occasionally make a report or use a spreadsheet.

They don't want to deal with an ISP, or network failure, which your little scenario fails to mention. Network failure crashes the whole Applications Online premise. If your apps & data sit on your desktop, you never have to worry that you don't have network access.

For a huge amount of people, your premise is brain-dead. Your argument can only appeal to people who are

A. sufficiently computer literate to understand the argument
B. have broadband access
C. are not afraid of losing access
D. concerned about keeping up appearances of being on the "cutting edge"
E. not concerned about not losing all their apps and data to an online
mishap including a denial of service attack against the server where
their work is locate.

There is the sense that this is largely an elite snob issue. I like many Microsoft products. Much of what they publish came from some company they bought, rather than something they wrote in-house. Much of my professional life has been spent troubleshooting Microsoft products for other people.

I dislike Apple for the layer the early O/S's imposed on the user/hacker trying to get under the hood, which was not a problem with early Windows; it sat on top of DOS, so you could get at it fairly easily.

I even like Linux, although it is an O/S you have to have had no prior experience with computers to use at its fullest capacity. Otherwise the paradigms with mess with you. I am slowly getting used to Linux in the guise of Ubuntu, but the command line is as non-intuitive as any other, and possibly a great deal worse.

This of course is debatable, and various other people are likely to make that point however only power users and other elites can make it debatable, which is the point I am making.

Your premise can only appeal to CompTech Elites simply because no one else will understand your premise. With that being the case, Microsoft is not dead. At least not to the millions who can't tell otherwise, and don't care to.

dreish · 1 year ago

By "dead", pg just means "no longer a fearsome dominating force that can crush any high-tech opposition at will". You might be too young to remember what it was like when they were.

You seem to be reinforcing pg's point that Windows is now the OS of choice mainly for grandmas. That's a deliberate exaggeration of course -- there are other groups, such as gamers and Fortune 500 spreadsheet slingers -- but the basic point is that they just don't have the unchecked power over the computer industry that they had just a few years ago, because the action has finally moved beyond what they, as a lumbering procedure-filled behemoth, can keep up with.

MSLiveWatch · 1 year ago

Well this article is a year old and it seems that Microsoft is buying some big web 2.0 companies and also they are no where near dead. I think the article might have been true a year ago but with Ray Ozzie taking over, Microsoft is becoming more open and they're getting back into the game.

James Mitchell · 1 year ago

I am both a business user and someone who supervises developers. I work in teams of 5 to 25 people. I could not live without Microsoft software.

I always use Exchange Server for group e-mail. gmail is impressive but without folders, I cannot use it. The other Web based email systems are even more primitive. The traditional competitors to Exchange Server -- Novell Groupwise and Lotus Notes -- are old technologies that have not kept up. For corporate e-mail, Exchange Server is the most logical choice.

If you are using Exchange Server, Microsoft Outlook is the client you should use. The Mac version, Entourage, simply does not work well with ES.

I spend a lot of time slicing and dicing data stored in a relational DBMS. All of the DBMSs work very well. But you need a front end that is easy to use if you want to save time. There is nothing that comes close to Microsoft Access as a front end for forms, queries and reports.

We prepare a lot of complex documents. Google Docs in ten years might be able to handle these, but not now. The main advantage offered by Docs is multi-user access to the same file at the same time, and in effect a free virtual private network so that anyone can access your files, if you allow them. Those are signficant advantages but not enough.

As a development environment, nothing comes close to Microsoft Visual Studio.

Office 2007 is impressive. They finally have a file format that is not binary but is XML based. The fluent interface (aka the ribbon) is the next generation in interface design.

Microsoft products are not perfect and God knows they sometimes take a long time to get it right. As of today, 2008, they are clearly the most logical choice for a sophisticated business user.

James Mitchell
jmitchell@kensingtonllc.com

billy goat · 1 year ago

"As a development environment, nothing comes close to Microsoft Visual Studio."

honestly have you tried eclipse?

kuni45 · 1 year ago

Microsoft seems to be losing some battles and winning others. IE, in my mind and the mind of most people who surf the internet is as obsolete as netscape. I would be hard-pressed to find one person in my block who still uses it. I live in canada, not in the heart of silicon valley.

They are also losing the battle against piracy. I can download a good copy of vista (why would i do that?) or xp and a keygen in a day or less.

Vista is another failure. I can run xp on my dad's old 98 junker with a few mod's. But with Vista, I would have to build a whole new computer and a $150 gpu (graphics card, ect...). No freakin way!

HOWEVER, they are starting to dominate the multibillion dollar gaming console market. PS3's are nonexistant where I live. I just run Fedora Linux on it. Their embrace of online gaming is it's strength. I consider microsoft an innovative gaming company now. Even if it's os and software fails (20 years, then we will see where Linux and open source is) it will never relinquish it's hold on the gaming market.

Satish Srinivasan · 1 year ago

Microsoft? What !? No, I'm not selling mine to ya!

Jon Mattel · 1 year ago

Very ill-informed article. Just because this person has a keyboard to type on he has an opinion to put out there. Idiots like Paul should be banned from the Internet!

G58 · 1 year ago

If asked, would you count Adolf Hitler in YOUR list of heroes? Don't answer right away, you may need time to think about it.

Here's an easier one: Would you count Bill Gates in your list of heroes?

I'm guessing maybe you would. But this isn't what makes you a sheep. It's not even what makes you behave like a proto Nazi on here. But is what makes you wrong.

I've never really liked organised religion. Indeed I've never liked organisation that much. But I'll defend to the death anyone's right to their choice of religion and right to worship it. Some refer to this as 'The Church of the Golden Rule' - Do unto others as you would have then do unto you.

What I won't support is the book burners and witch hunters and those too dumb to ask enough questions. But call for them to be banned from the internet or anywhere else? No. Some people need them around - as examples of some of the biggest mistakes ever made in human history.

So where are you on Her Leutnant Schicklgruber? Why stop at banning free speech. Why not gas the people we disagree with? What do you really do with your spare time?

Corey · 1 year ago

While I was reading this post, I started to notice a pattern appear.. Denial.

You're in denial of Microsoft's dominance and power. You use words & phrases like "Microsoft is dead!" and "nail in the coffin" as if you are saying that Microsoft, Inc. is no longer the richest, largest & most powerful software company on Earth, which we all know is not true.

Microsoft is alive and well. Just go to Microsoft.com and check it out for yourself. Would a dead company be actively developing software? Unless... What you meant was that Microsoft, Inc. is now the living dead? A ZOMBIE?

The first ZOMBIE corporation. What happens in Zombie movies kids? That's right, the Zombies spread and infect others until they're all that is left.

Just accept it and use your time and intelligence on something that is actually useful besides posting untrue BS like this on your site.

You say Microsoft is dead. Okay, well, I checked and it's not dead. You lied.

You can say that an apple is an orange as many times as you want, but it doesn't make it true.

So just STOP IT.

-Senator

Frank · 1 year ago

I'm the older half and I agree with you anyway. How old, you ask, well let's just say that my first computer was made by Radio Shack, my first programming language was Microsoft Basic, and I built my own DOS box back in the early 80's.

Microsoft was my hero for 20 years - not anymore. I left Visual Studio and IIS for the world of Java programming in 2000. In 2005 I switched to Linux servers and MySQL. Finally just this year I bought two Macs instead of upgrading anything to Vista. I even work at one of those "Web 2.0" startup companies that are all the rage.

Who says you can't be young forever?

I'm not naieve about Microsoft's power as a company. I still buy their stock, and I expect them to be around for a long time. I just don't expect them to do much that I care about, in the same way that Chrysler makes cars that I'd never consider buying.

BXP · 1 year ago

The Chrysler 300 was named Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 2005. Your basis for not considering Chrysler cars is emotional vs. rational. You don't want a Chrysler because of your perception of the company--not because you don't feel their cars will successfully get you from point A to point B.

In the same way, it seems decisions about your software development platform are following suit. You stopped liking Microsoft, not because their products no longer were sufficient, but because, in your eyes, the company became something you didn't want to be associated with.

Please, don't take my reply to be harsh--that's not my intent. In some way or another, we're all guilty of wanting to support companies that we feel align with our values or image. And many companies strive to build customer bases with such zealous advocates.

However, a company's responsibility isn't just to these ardent fans. Microsoft never asked to be your hero, so when the company doesn't live up to your ideals, can you really hold it against it? MS needs to do what it feels is best for itself, its customers and its shareholders.

Be Real · 1 year ago

Yes, dead. A company with 92% marketshare on desktops, 40% marketshare in servers, no debt, 20 billion dollars in cash, and has managed to turn the competition between OSes from Win vs Mac to competition between two of it's OWN products (Windows XP vs Vista) is dead, right?

BXP · 1 year ago

The irony of articles like this is their failure to see the cyclical underpinnings of their premise. Big, lumbering Goliath is defeated by the nimble David. In this case, it's Microsoft vs. Google. But the problem is, David isn't simply satisfied with this one victory. David eventually will become Goliath, and in 10 years, you'll be writing the same article with Google going up against some hot, young startup. Hot, young startups don't stay hot and certainly don't stay young. It's starting to happen already. You could say Microsoft is afraid of Google, but is Google not showing fear through their attempts to thwart Microsoft's purchase of Yahoo?

What's interesting is that you used the example of IBM as a precedent. You pointed out the shadow cast by IBM, but you missed the part of history where IBM was hot and sexy, just like Google. And look at IBM now: is it dead? Far from it. Sure, it's not young and sexy anymore, but that's not its goal: its goal is to provide sustained value to their shareholders.

That said, there are some good points in your article. The desktop is evolving and of course Microsoft is will want to influence that change as much as possible. But, you don't think MS sees the changes ahead? Microsoft has very talented employees and the company will adjust just like IBM adjusted when PCs became commodity hardware. Heck, it already showed the ability to predict change and react during the Internet Explorer vs. Netscape battle.

As for Apple, how can you say the desktop is dead and then point to OS X as a reason why? Fundamentally, OS X is no different than Vista. It's a big, feature-rich OS with a pretty interface. Granted, it's less resource-intensive, but Apple also cut out native support for older applications. Instead, it chooses to support them through emulation, which is a hit-or-miss proposition. This would have been unacceptable for MS's business customers. So, the Windows code base kept expanding.

Secondly, Apple doesn't have a huge installed base to support. I'm gonna guess that most OS X growth is through new computer purchases--not upgrades. Apple doesn't have to worry about people trying to upgrade legacy hardware. Plus, Apple has proprietary control over supported hardware.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to Apple-bash. I just see Apple as more of a usability company and media platform (iTunes is a tremendous achievement). But, Apple didn't invent the MP3 player: it just made it stylish and easy-to-use. Apple didn't invent the operating system: it just made it pretty and easy-to-use. But Apple did so at the expensive of flexibility. Apple's products cater to consumers who use technology as a form of self-expression. While that's fine and dandy, you can't really argue that Microsoft's products haven't been great solutions for many users and businesses. And there's no reason to think that Microsoft won't strive to develop solutions to future problems.

billy goat · 1 year ago

"Heck, it already showed the ability to predict change and react during the Internet Explorer vs. Netscape battle."

Let's be honest here, the best browser did not win here. It was a simple business tactic that did the job.


"Fundamentally, OS X is no different than Vista."

Heard of BSD unix core in the os X? Well us geeks have. Almost all universities based on the planet earth, use unix as the defacto platform for educating future legions of coders. And guess what, those coders would most prolly develop software in a platform akin to *nix.

Oh one more thing, the line should have read -

"Fundamentally, Vista is no different than OS X."

"Granted, it's less resource-intensive, but Apple also cut out native support for older applications. Instead, it chooses to support them through emulation, which is a hit-or-miss proposition."

And MS never did emulation? Ask Raymond Chen. Someone seems to be forgetting a lot of applications are becoming web-based and the chances those need adapting to future operating systems are minimal.

The only real application that really does require back-word compatibility is Excel. Almost everything else has a good enough web counterpart to do the job. As M$ has recently opened up the office data format with ooxml, I am not sure how it will work to its advantage. Can see some major financial institutions doing pilot programs of getting their habit kicked?

The only exceptions to this argument is games and media. And something tells me gamers do not really care for backwards compatibility. Plus there are excellent consoles out there which do a better job at improving the experience. Will give props to M$ for the 360, they got something right! As for media, I hope line should explain - "Apple's products cater to consumers who use technology as a form of self-expression. "

Anyways all this said, I really would be more worried about the gutsy gibbon. Can see the third world swallowing it whole.

"While that's fine and dandy, you can't really argue that Microsoft's products haven't been great solutions for many users and businesses."

And thats why users can relate, to those annoying mac windows smack talk ads?

"And there's no reason to think that Microsoft won't strive to develop solutions to future problems."

LOL, sure. Two words - SENIOR MANAGEMENT.

BXP · 1 year ago

"Let's be honest here, the best browser did not win here. It was a simple business tactic that did the job."

That was my point. Microsoft saw how important the Web and the browser would be and aggressively competed in the browser market until it was #1. If MS was able to respond to industry developments then, why would we suddenly think they won't respond now?

"Heard of BSD unix core in the os X? Well us geeks have. Almost all universities based on the planet earth, use unix as the defacto platform for educating future legions of coders. And guess what, those coders would most prolly develop software in a platform akin to *nix."

What do BSD and UNIX have to do with anything? I wasn't making an architectural comparison. Besides, you're ignoring 16 years of MacOS history: there was no BSD or UNIX in their operating system until OS X. And from Joe Consumer's standpoint, I don't think that a new kernel resulted in a dramatically different user experience from OS 9.x.

From a functional standpoint, Vista and OS X are the same: they are operating systems designed to run applications. Heck, throw *nix in the mix too, if you want. In his essay, Paul implies that developments such as Web 2.0, Ajax, etc. are making the operating system less relevant. But then he talks about the success of OS X. OS X *may* be a better operating system, but people have been saying Macs are better for years. And if operating systems are becoming less relevant, doesn't that impact OS X? Of course it does.

Furthermore, I wouldn't say OS X is the reason for Apple's comeback; I attribute that to the iPod and iTunes.

"And MS never did emulation? Ask Raymond Chen. Someone seems to be forgetting a lot of applications are becoming web-based and the chances those need adapting to future operating systems are minimal."

I'm not forgetting about Web apps. That's my point: if more and more apps are web-based, who cares if OS X is a better operating system than Vista. It, too, will be less relevant. I cited backwards-compatibility as an example of a trade-off: Apple sacrificed some backwards compatibility to have a leaner, more stable (OPENSTEP-based) OS. MS didn't go that route and now is dealing with an incredibly large code base.

"The only real application that really does require back-word compatibility is Excel. Almost everything else has a good enough web counterpart to do the job."

I wasn't talking about whether or not there are alternative solutions to MS applications. Sure, for user who just need a typical desktop with some productivity apps, there plenty of options. But do you realize how many custom, legacy applications are in use at enterprises? Do you think these organizations want to upgrade their OS and be forced to spend a ton of money to re-write their custom apps because the OS isn't backwards-compatible?

"And thats why users can relate, to those annoying mac windows smack talk ads?"

It's an ad. Again, the ad is targeting people who relate to rebellion or who want what's "cool". If Macs had the user base that PCs have, guess what, they wouldn't be so cool anymore. Then MS could come around with their "different" OS and be just like Apple is now. Plus, if Macs had been deployed in PC-like numbers, the flaws of the OS would've been exposed.

"LOL, sure. Two words - SENIOR MANAGEMENT."

How old is Steve Jobs? Warren Buffet? Brett Favre? Age doesn't necessarily impact one's ability to compete.

Sebastian · 1 year ago

Quote: Apple didn't invent the operating system: it just made it pretty and easy-to-use

¿Are you 20?

BXP · 1 year ago

Uhh, if this is an attempt to dispute my statement, I don't get it...

Sebastian · 1 year ago

Sorry, in the 80' apple invented an OS operated by a mouse. And microsoft made it friendly. But this seems to be ignored by most people.

Anyway, this page is waaaay over my league, so

BXP · 1 year ago

Ah, ok, got it. Yeah, I didn't remember that detail. But you're right: people remember what they want.

My first home computer was a Mac around the System 7 days. A buddy of mine was an ardent Apple fan. I learned tons from him, but I also was exposed to a healthy dose of Mac evangelism--"RISC-based PowerPC chips are faster than Intel chips," "MacOS is easier to use," "MacOS more advanced than Windows," etc. But, I'm into that kind of corporate evangelism stuff so these topics made for good discussion.

I switched to a PC though. Despite the claims for faster chips, I found that the MacOS felt more sluggish than Windows--no matter how fast the processor was. Also, while I guess it's true that there were fewer application crashes with Macs, when you did have a crash on a Mac, it pretty much always required a restart. The CTRL-ALT-DEL-equivalent use to "Force Quit" the app didn't really work well, often freezing the system and requiring a restart.

I did think Macs had a good file system and a good way of handling app and OS preferences. And while OS X may be a pretty good operating system, I doubt it's so great that everyone should switch over to it immediately. I just think Macs are en vogue now, largely due to their sleek formfactors.

G58 · 1 year ago

Oh dear, it's so obvious you haven't used a Mac in a long while. The use of the 'formfactor' argument to dismiss Apple's current success is only ever made by people who just don't get it.

And that's okay, there are always dumb sheep in the world. Dumb sheep lack the ability to recognise or define why something is right or what makes it great. Dumb sheep need to be guided... and still not all dumb sheep will get it.

But opining on a subject you have limited or inadequate knowledge of is a sure-fire way to get caught out.

And when several of your most intuitive and broad thinking PC using friends buy iPod Touches and iPhones - because of how well they work... the evidence of the utter stupidity of this argument becomes clear.

BXP · 1 year ago

I qualified my comments by stating that i haven't used OS X to any great extent. As for being a sheep, could the same not be said about the Mac evangelists? Sure, they're fewer of them, but the only real difference is that Apple is their shepherd.

I think you need to refresh your memory regarding all the Apple products that flopped: http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/top_10_appl...

Remember the Apple Pippin? I'm sure the Mac die-hards proclaimed Apple to be the next big player in the gaming industry with that product. But they were wrong.

All I'm saying is that the sheep argument goes both ways.

G58 · 1 year ago

Well maybe you should try Mac OS X. If you're still thinking of Mac OS in terms of 7, 8 or 9, OS X is going to really surprise you. In fact it's so good, the version the majority of users upgraded from, three versions ago, was what MS tried to copy to make Vista. Tried being the operative word here.

As for Mac users being sheep, I think you're missing the fundamental fact that as the most advanced operating system on the planet, actually all we're doing is choosing the best combination of software and hardware available. No-one ever got hung for doing that!

But I certainly don't "need to refresh [my] memory regarding all the Apple products that flopped". They're almost all irrelevant. Only the Apple Puck Mouse and the Motorola ROKR fall into the current time period following Steve Jobs' return and marked by conspicuous success.

The ROKR was a contractual agreement with Motorola who were about to loose the contract to supply PowerPC CPUs to Apple - they just didn't know it yet. Any good business would do the same.

It's what Apple learned from the Motorola ROKR experience that is important. But if I educate you on this one, I'm not convinced you're willing or able to get beyond viewing me as an Apple fanboy/sheep! But here goes anyway:

In the beginning there was Apple. Most people thought of Apples as a computers for graphic designers. Then there was iPod and iTunes. Then everyone started to look at Apple as cool. And Apple started to make money and the share price went through the roof.

Whilst Apple was still tied to Motorola's PowerPC development programme, Apple would always be 'The Others'. Apple decided to test the market with a phone - one they didn't have to make themselves, but one that did what people wanted phones to do.

Then came Intel and Motorola was history.

The first ROKR lesson was that ROKR was a crap name. The second ROKR lesson was that Motorola couldn't really do the job very well. The third lesson was that what the market really wanted was a phone that did all those things, but also did what Apple does best: They wanted a phone made by Apple.

And who are these people? Apple sheep? No. They're everyone!

BXP · 1 year ago

Like I said, I'm sure OS X is a good operating system...obviously it's the best Macintosh OS. The idea that MS tried to copy Apple is neither new nor realistic. Maybe they tried to capture the visual element, but who's to say they didn't have that in mind years ago? What held them back? Probably the hardware requirements...again, there's a lot of legacy hardware out there. Plus, it's not like Apple invented all the visual elements...many of them came from the NeXT acquisition. So did Apple "copy" NeXT? But more importantly, to think that MS sits idly waiting for Apple to something before making its own move is naive. Look up how much MS spends on R&D.

As for Intel in Macs, for years Mac fans had been proclaiming how PowerPC RISC-based chips were so much faster than Intel's CISC-based chips...they had all kind of benchmarks to "prove" it too...interesting how all that suddenly didn't matter anymore...

Real reason: Apple wanted to be on the same chip rev cycle as its PC counterparts and wanted to leverage the Intel name. Plus, it would end the PowerPC supply issues.

"They're almost all irrelevant."

Uhh yeah, products that flop tend to be irrelevant...unless they're Sony Betamax or something...

"The third lesson was that what the market really wanted was a phone that did all those things, but also did what Apple does best: They wanted a phone made by Apple."

Right, which gets back to something I said in above posts: I see Apple as a usability enhancer. They take things and figure out how to make them sleek and simple yet elegant. Apple does make some cool things and I have no problem giving them kudos for it. I just don't act as if Apple products are the only ones that matter.

G58 · 1 year ago

"The idea that MS tried to copy Apple is neither new nor realistic."

I work in marketing and design and trust me, everyone in our industry is aware that Microsoft's focus was Apple. I've worked with people who were actually briefed to research the market's wants. All they got back was: "I want Windows to work better" and "I want Windows to look and work like Mac OS X." Note the word: 'work'.

When you put the two together you get a desire to have something that works intuitively. If MS had the ability to design an OS that works intuitively, don't you think they would have done it - without copying Apple? The timeline speaks for itself.

No, [sigh] of course Apple didn't invent "...all the visual elements..." Indeed many of them did "...came from the NeXT acquisition." "So did Apple "copy" NeXT?" YES! But they did it with the blessing of the bloke who owned the company, and his name was Steve Jobs!! Doh!

"...to think that MS sits idly waiting for Apple to something before making its own move is naive."

I've been accused of many things and have been guilty of quite a few, but naivety isn't one of them. Naive people are prepared to act on 40% of the information. I ask too many questions to be satisfied with anything less that 75% and always aim for 90% plus. If this concept doesn't make sense to you...

"Look up how much MS spends on R&D."

Never make the mistake of assuming that a high level of R&D spend necessarily equals either great innovation or user ready products. In this sad corner I give you the turd coloured Zune and 'Surface' - a PC in a coffee table for god's sake! The errors embodied in these two products alone are enough to make MS a laughing stock in the industry.

But more importantly they're so bad they would destroy a company that wasn't living off a 90% monopoly in its core activity.

And why stop at their colossally bad failures? They also lose tons of money on their so-called successes. How much do you think they lose on every games console they sell? Their most successful consumer hardware product loses them money. Think about that. R&D? Don't make me laugh.

This is a business model from hell. Without the fact that they're still benefiting from their first deal with IBM and have lived off a lazy market happy to mainline the same unstable, insecure, ugly OS for 20 years, there isn't a shred of evidence that MS is worthy of its place in the industry. When heroin and crack dealers create addicts through a cruel process of dependency, they are rightfully vilified and imprisoned when caught. When MS do the same thing, Gates is applauded, and someone lets Ballmer out of his cage!

"As for Intel in Macs ...interesting how all that suddenly didn't matter anymore..."

Road map.

"Real reason: Apple wanted to be on the same chip rev cycle as its PC counterparts and wanted to leverage the Intel name. Plus, it would end the PowerPC supply issues."

That's part of the reason. This one was all about timing. Gaining market share in key areas was the goal. This could never have been achieved without all the relevant factors falling into place at the right time. One rather important one was the successful music industry legal case against Napster.

I've no interest in entering into a pissing contest over CPU speeds and benchmarks and timelines. Intel in Macs happened at the right time for everyone, and had a lot to do with respect - the respect two industry giants have for each other, what their companies are doing and where they are going. There's an obvious chemistry between Jobs and Otellini. Contrast this with the hapless Michael Dell!

"...products that flop tend to be irrelevant...unless they're Sony Betamax or something..."

True. Apple tried games consoles before games consoles were ready and before the world was ready for games consoles. And again, all this was before Jobs' return in '97.

It's Apple post '97 that's relevant here. No-one has ever run a business like Jobs runs Apple. It's more than the dedication and the passion, more than the charisma, much more than the infamous temper tantrums and alleged fear he generates, or even the legendary collaborative choices he makessuch as the one with Jonathan Ive. At its core, Jobs' philosophy has deep roots in Eastern teachings.

Where suited businessmen in the '80s were told by proto Gordon Gekkos to read Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' because they thought it was a text on how to beat the opposition, Jobs was quietly learning how to understand people. You can't replicate that. But you can admire it - without being a sheep.

Finally, I can agree with your last comment up to the point that it states the obvious and simplifies what's actually going on. Before the first Bondai blue iMacs were announced to the world in May 1998, nearly all computers were beige boxes. 20 years later, most PC manufacturers still produce beige boxes, if not in actual colour then in style. For them, 'design' is what they can bolt onto a box to make it 'look' different. Evidence: Alienware! OMFGG!!

There have been attempts to imitate Apple's design style. Sony have got the sexiest logo since Google in their VAIO. But most of their PCs are cluttered, unimaginative, look cheap and are frankly ugly. And they're at the top of the alternatives list box design-wise.

Design is about emotions to subliminal messages. Design is a discipline that if it can be described, it isn't design - it's gimmickry.

If Apple's designs weren't the only ones that matter right now, why are MS, LG et al so keen to launch 'me too' products that so closely resemble them?

Melvin · 1 year ago

I know who's affraid of Microsoft. Dell.

http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/07/11/dell-payi...

G58 · 1 year ago

"Dell: do you really think we’re idiots?"

All the evidence of Dell's business model suggests that this is exactly how they view their customers.

Everyone I know who's bought a Dell is someone who, when challenged or simply probed for a few minutes, turns out to be the type of person who asks very few questions.

And I don't mean those rare creatures who actually are clever, and don't have to prove it. I mean the ones who read the 'get a life' books on self improvement or went on NLP courses and learned how to imitate being clever.

These are the people who run IT departments and inflict their supercilious, self-satisfied, know-it-all bullshit on the world to cover up the fact that they're idiots.

So yes, idiots buy Dell.

Tony Danza · 1 year ago

Wow you Google/Apple fan boys are getting pretty desperate. Ideology makes people so blind and stupid!

Sean Price · 1 year ago

Microsoft doesn't make the best products anymore. I think all you religious M$ nuts need to just face that. They lost their monopoly as the only IT company on earth with anything to offer. Apple and Google could be IBM and Dell for all I care. We want good products that break new ground. Microsoft is not offering that to the same degree it used to.

crazytazo · 1 year ago

hm, really?

ig · 1 year ago

Very insightful article. I see in some of the other comments that the Bill-worshipping sheeple are dutifully reciting the tired old lines about Microsoft's billions of dollars in revenue ... as if that makes them relevant somehow. They don't understand that this doesn't stop the decline. The desktop is in decline, and Microsoft with it. They've got a long way to fall, but they *are* falling.

Daniel L. Taylor · 1 year ago

This article gave me flashbacks to arguments I had a decade ago with people who swore Java was the end of the desktop.

The desktop won't be dead so long as it takes an order of magnitude more work to create a web application than it does a desktop application, features and UI being equal. (Assuming, of course, that the features and UI desired can even be done in a web app. It's not that hard to come across projects which remain beyond the scope and power of Web 2.0.)

I develop desktop and web applications for clients, and it never ceases to amaze me how much easier and faster it is to implement a given specification in the desktop world than in the web world. Web 2.0 apps often brag about things like drag and drop, animation, or a clipboard. Those have been solved problems in the desktop world for two decades. People continue to use Flash specifically because that level of interactive behavior is a royal PIA to implement and debug in HTML/JavaScript.

The web has a lot of problems as a computing platform, not the least of which is the number of very different and quirky languages one must deal with to get anything complex done. So long as we depend upon this ad hoc platform for Internet applications, the desktop will continue to have tremendous appeal.

Daniel L. Taylor · 1 year ago

Case in point regarding my previous post: comparing Snipshot to Photoshop is like comparing a Big Wheel to a Harley. It doesn't have the feature set, UI, or handling of a real image editor. I could not get my photography work done in it. It's impressive for a web application, but wouldn't make good freeware as a desktop app.

The web was never intended to be a platform for the deployment of applications like Photoshop.

LameDuck · 1 year ago

The web was never intended to be a platform for the deployment of applications period. That didn't stop people from doing that. Don't assume web capabilities will stop advancing. Granted, photoshop sounds a bit far fetched, but the line is being pushed towards that direction a little bit every day.

Sean Price · 1 year ago

I have been a Microsoft developer for many years but am now more into OSS. Microsoft may be losing the internet battle but I think its fair they will be leaders in the OS market for many years to come. And that market is not exactly small. Microsoft wants to lead in everything and thats the problem. Corporate greed! Google are not proposing a desktop OS as far as I know, they realise that Apple and Microsoft are taking care of that part of the IT arena.

George Rogers · 1 year ago

Only change would be that Linux is the bigger threat to Microsoft than apple because of the ability to run on generic X-86 hardware

superhobo · 1 year ago

"Their victory is so complete that I'm now surprised when I come across a computer running Windows. "


Mac fanboy living in his own delusional Apply world detected.

CaptainReality · 1 year ago

Windows fanboy living in his own delusional Microsofty world detected.

See? I can write meaningless comments that demonstrate nothing but my prejudice as well. Again, Paul is engaging in a bit of hyperbole here, but in my experience, more an more people in the industry are dumping Windows. It mightn't have made much difference yet, but the trend today is definitely away from Microsoft on the desktop, and in the server-room. I haven't seen a system administrator use Windows for their personal machine for years, and big banks are embracing Linux like you wouldn't believe.

superhobo · 1 year ago

Linux, ok.

But Macs? Hell no.

Zantoro · 1 year ago

jeez guys, you sound like unsatisfied housewives... Microsoft will always be there! the percentage of people using OSS for personal use is still minimal and it won't get any better until there will be a central authority releasing drivers and application because so far, let's face it... Linux sucks (a part from Apache). Have you guys ever tried squirrel?? do you want to compare it to exchange?

Have fun dreaming

TECH1 · 1 year ago

Microsoft is dead... your an idiot. Work in the industry for a year and then maybe talk about the subject.

CaptainReality · 1 year ago

"your an idiot"...

Is that satire? The word you're looking for is 'you're', you semi-literate goon!

Did you read the article, or just the title? While 'Microsoft is Dead" is to some degree hyperbole, it is true that Microsoft have much less power than they used to, and there has been a degree of desperate hubris about everything they've done for the last few years, none of which has been impressive. They may very well have their lunch eaten by others (Apple, Google, Sun, Oracle, and other as yet unforeseen entities) in the next 10 years.

cyfaws · 1 year ago

:caugh: Here are some facts from the real world: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

There seems to be a huge number of grannies out there.

nobody · 1 year ago

You cannot run Crysis or Assassin's creed off a web server or a mac or a linux and you wont be able too any time soon.
And a lot of people in the world arent going to buy Xboxes or ps3s
So i guess microsoft will be around a bit more time.
whether you like it or not.

LameDuck · 1 year ago

Yes they will. But that's not the point of the article. IBM is still around and makes a lot of money. It's just that they don't matter. They don't innovate any more. Just as Microsoft doesn't either.

OMG! · 1 year ago

The author of this article is clearly delusional and hasn’t ever worked in a large corporate IT environment.
May be try something else to do in your free time, say… cooking??

LameDuck · 1 year ago

Please read the article again. Yes, Microsoft will still be around. Yes they will still make money. Yes, they will still serve the corporate IT world. The point is, they are no longer innovating. They are boring. No innovation coming out of Redmond. Please read the article (with your eyes open, this time).

Joe · 1 year ago

Does everyone seem to forget that without the desktop, there would be no web applications? Whether it be OSX, Vista, or Hardy Heron, there still needs to be a platform in which to access web apps. What if, for example, someone simply does not have an internet connection? Where are their applications? Stuck on the internet with no way to access them. There are too many scenarios where the internet may not be access which would render web apps useless. While desktops are being used, why not just stick your applications on there? Saves time from loading on the net, there's no risk of losing data from remote servers crashing, and they may be used without an internet connection! Holy sh!t that's amazing! WOW!

Clay · 1 year ago

I just watch a documentary on Bill Gates. The guy is a genius! His business ideas are awesome, his way of getting staff to create is second to now and now he is giving away his fortune to the needy. I don't think MS are dead but a little quiet at the moment and they realise that. MS will continue to create hardware and software for many years to come and they will still be good at it because they hire the most creative people on the planet, they can afford them.

So what if they can't beat google or struggle with Firefox. I use both because they are the best for their ease of use and reliablity. If MS created something that was better I would use that.

I think people are just a little wary of MS these days with the US govt suing them for billions, they are portrayed as the beast. They are OK. MS do some shit and some good. Better to focus on the good than battering them down for the bad.

Just my 2p worth

Paul · 1 year ago

This author puts two impressions on me. One of the typical people who have become really good at not using MS products for years. They have a disdain for MS, many times rightfully so, but its almost trendy to discount MS and sometimes is a little to overzealous of an attitude.

Second. That this article is brilliant before its time. All of those reasons are looming in front of MS and are just too young to be a reality today. yes those are the trends for techies, young people and those on the leading edge. But there are too many barriers such as market penetration and internet availability and up time. What about those who travel and may not always have an internet connection. MS will find ways to not die by the time the authors reason TRULY become a reality for MS.

Windows is not just for grannies, even though most use it...and there are MANY of them...but I know young people too who prefer Windows because they have learned to be productive with it.

This author is typical of the leading edge, trendy techies. Shielded in a bubble with an ignorant arrogance about them. Not that they don't have good opinions based on what they know, there is just A LOT they don't know.

John · 1 year ago

" It now seems inevitable that applications will live on the web."

This argument has been around for years now. Although Google's stuff is interesting, Web applications have some major hurdles to overcome. One mentioned below is - what do you do when you don't have an internet connection? Another - how well will something like AutoCAD run in a browser window? Or other video or processor intensive programs like games?

Another hurdle is how to make money with web apps? Google gives them away. I guess they are paid for by advertising. The photoshop site hopes you'll pay $9 a month to use their site.

Web apps runs counter to the open software movement. I can pay $9 a month to use the on-line photoshop, or use paint.net for free. And I don't need the internet connection on to use it.

The final issue is - where's your data? On someone else's server? Some may be comfortable with that.

Web apps may have a niche, but I don't think they'll replace programs installed on the user's machine.

The author's statement "All the computer people use Macs or Linux now" might be true, but "computer people" make up a small fraction of people with PC's. And from what I've seen so far, corporate America is not ready to use anything but Windows.

IDIFL · 1 year ago

this was a very good troll

Varun · 1 year ago

MS is still alive and they will fight hard before they are completely dead.They don't give up easily they will try hard to bounce back with their own strategies and money.

Antenore · 1 year ago

First of all I'm not a M$ fan... Of course not!!! I'm using only Linux since 4 years in enterprise environment and sometimes I feel to be rounded by enemies. I just want to use what I want without bother nobodyelse.

But to speak honestly and openly, M$ is not dead and it's even not possible to predict its end.

That most of all of the M$ products are loosing their hegemony is an evident fact, Mac OSX, Linux (all the variants), Firefox, Thunderbird are just examples.

That OSS need to become better is an evident fact as well, several good OSS products don't have some needed features and because of this M$ products are still there...

While I'm writing M$ market capital is 250.08B$, do you have an idea of what you can do with these (virtual) money? Which is the power of this Mkt Cap?

In any case M$ in the last 2 years lost about 2.3%, on the contrary IBM gained 26%. If you consider the last Year M$ lost 23% and IBM gained 20%.

Well, I always work for really large companies and for desktop M$ is the leader (even if it sucks), but not for web technologies, not for billing solutions, not for CRM solutions, not for backend solutions, not for DBs. I see always more and more Linux and Mac OSx installations around me.

But M$ is not dead yet, and what I really hope is that it will not die, but that it will improve, because what we really need are good products, new technologies and only who has money can help this improvement..

steve brallmar · 1 year ago

Linux still is on beta, apple makes shit icrap which breaks every month and their operating system is a joke, god bless microsoft, clearly microsoft was created by god to lead the world to a better future.

Kirsty · 1 year ago

It's totally true, however I would have said that they are dying, not that they are dead. And yes the last nail in Ballmers chest will come from Apple, believe it or not.

They have a terrible product plan, backed only terrible products, and are slowly losing all relevance within the computing world. Because they have a huge marketshare, don't be fooled, this is due to legacy products, and businesses, in reality over 20%, nearly 30% of all computers sold in the home market are Macs.

The single reason people dislike Macs is because of their price, and just like every other asshole in this country, buy products based on price and not how long they will last or how little headaches they will give you. And what people can't afford, they hate, just like the plague that they are.

OS X beats Windows into the ground in every way imaginable, yet even if a Mac was $5 more, they would no doubt buy a cheap, junk ass Dell.

All the OEM's, all the software developers despise Microsoft after 20 years of them forcing their crap upon everyone, and dead they will be. And good riddance.

bill gates · 1 year ago

your an idiot if you think OS x is better than windows, what would you expect from a fanatic mac fan.

Marco · 1 year ago

I think microsoft is a different type of company then apple, yahoo and google. The problem is that they think they are figthing against each other and sometimes even against the world. Life is not a race. You are not gains the world your are with them. Same for companys. What they need is to stop to trying to be like google and start building the real future. The future of technology is not only WEB 2.0. With all this money, microsoft shoud invest to bring Quantum Comput to reality, Parallel still being shit and non software for normal people can really use the power of one qadcore for examplo. There´s a world of possibilities that ONLY MICROSOFT WITH THEIR MONEY AND EXPERIENCE CAN EXPLORE but they insist on smell google´s ass. LET THE GOOGLE BE WHATEVER. Focus on people and people are claiming for new solutions that only microsoft can bring. Sory but the comon limited vision for what BUSINESS can be makes me seek ! Sory for the bad english too.

Dave · 1 year ago

Yea! The witch is dead!

Wickywild46 · 1 year ago

You have no idea what your talking about and you dont understand the process behind developing software

Vn · 1 year ago

"I'm now surprised when I come across a computer running Windows."

Are you kidding me? What parts of the world are you isolating yourself to? Almost every single corporate entity runs Windows computers (including Google and Yahoo themselves). If you are restricting yourself to only Y-Comb companies, and college kids; then maybe you are only seeing Macs.

To make a statement that you are surprised to see a Windows computer just proves how off base you are. Simply look at the sales figures across any geographic region of the world. Windows dominates the market. Are Mac sales increasing? Absolutely. Going from 5-10 is a great increase; but not when compared with a competitor that is already at 10 million.

E · 1 year ago

envy! please try to accept that Microsoft is powerful!

Matt Trousdale · 1 year ago

Try analysing the hits you get on this web-site for agent. I'm guessing
at about -

IE 93%
FF 5%
Others 2%

Facts are facts.

Big Lebowsky · 1 year ago

I´m not sure you actually mean what you´re saying. Perhaps many people nowadays use linux distros and apple laptops, but the fact is undeniable that more than 90% of the people in the world use Microsoft software, from Windows to Office to whatever others. On one part, linux distros are mostly incompatible between themselves, i.e. software deisgned for ubuntu might not work on smaller distros, and so on. Also, Mac OS has had a great advantage thanks to Virtual Machines, which allow MS Software to be run on them. I don´t know, maybe you´re just trying to fire up some controversy here.

ig · 1 year ago

Finally, someone who gets it!! Microsoft is rapidly becoming irrelevant. It doesn't matter if they continue to own the desktop -- the desktop is becoming irrelevant, and Microsoft will decline with it -- just like IBM lost control of the industry when the mainframe declined.

gechurch · 1 year ago

People have pointed out the huge market share Windows continues to enjoy, and the ludicrousness of your statement that you can't remember the last time you saw someone using Windows; instead of supporting your theory, it goes to show the distorted perspective you have on the issue.

Neither of those things is hugely relevant though. Your point isn't that Microsoft isn't big or dominant, but that they aren't dangerous. The main problem I have with your essay though is the premise that the desktop is dead. Web apps with functionality comparable to dekstop apps is still quite a new thing. That's why there are lots of new web-based apps coming out. Extrapolating this new trend and suggesting that eventually most or all applications will have good web-based counterparts is not realistic though. Even applications that do lend themselves quite well to the web paradigm like office productivity suites are largely unsuccessful. Google and Adobe both have, for example, online word processors. But people still use Office. Your example of the online photoshop "replacement" is almost the perfect example of why most categories of applications suck as web-apps; it's just too frickin slow. I tried it and it took more than 7 seconds to change the contrast on a photo no more than about 600 pixels wide. Now imagine doing something semi-serious with this program - I don't even want to know how long it takes for a normal size digital photo to be uploaded and then re-downloaded every time I make a change. No thanks.

John · 1 year ago

While OS X looks nice, it's a question of cash. The new MacBook costs 12000 SEK over here (the cheapest of the new ones, not the Pro). I can get a laptop from HP, Acer etc with more disk and RAM for 6000 SEK, which is a heck of a difference. Also, once I've paid for XP, I get all updates for free until they shut it down in 2014, while the Mac folks have to pay for upgrades every other year or so.

If I had unlimited resources, I'd get a MacBook. But my resources are limited.

linux0 · 1 year ago

do you take pills after you wake up?? get real man..
dont write just for the sake of it! hocus pocus.. lol.. lame content with lame reasons.

Dave · 1 year ago

you just may be right about microsoft being "dead" figuratively
but i wouldn't bet on apple not shooting themselves in the foot again like they did in the past with their famous (holier than thou) attitude that almost got them bankrupted. They may have made better hardware but if you treat the vendors and customers like sh*t they will go out of their way to avoid you like the plague, even as far as buying an inferior product (windows loaded PCs).
But i guess even with the bad memory that PC/mac users have
Apple still managed to carve a niche for them selves and some windows users were not able to take the boosting that microsoft gave them and some did switch to either linux or maybe what apple offered. It's a windows world for now mostly and that does not suprise me "the year of the linux desktop" has not finally opened the eyes of the windoze zombies yet and maybe won't until they are all gone. I would say i agree for the most part with what you are saying, not a bad article, but the jury is still out on web based apps as far as i can see and software as a service
so the user can be ripped off and be at the mercy of whomever is offering the on-line app or service. the commercial model is sound enough but as for the financial implications for the end user i will have to wait and see on this one

cosmos · 1 year ago

I totally agree. As someone who worked - albeit briefly, and as a cynic - at Microsoft, their operation can be described as frenetic chaos. You stated, "Microsoft's biggest weakness is that they still don't realize how much they suck." This too is absolutely true. They are definitely a pretentious bunch. And I classify most "permanent" employees as either "devil worshippers" or those who have "sold their souls to the devil." It amuses me.

My standard illustration for my assertions of them being essentially "dead": How can a company with approximately 90K full time employees and 70K contingent staffers not be able to create a search engine anywhere close to Google? It's amazing and mind-boggling. It's hillarious.

The other thing is now Microsoft has finally caught on to the future as services via the "cloud." But what do you think their execution will be like? They can't even get Hotmail/Live running reliably - or IE. LOL.

'Nuf said.

quantum flux · 1 year ago

Nuf said is right.... do you realize you sound like a lunatic? Seriously. And a hopelessly naive one at that? You dont realize how big corporations, weighed down by red tape, can often not do what a small startup can? And how small sexy startups (like prodigy GOOG) get less agile DAILY? Go back to school then bud, if you dont know these things.

Anyone using terms like "evil" and "devil" in the context doing business is either a moron or deranged. And that applies to Google also (because the articles are starting now "is Google evil?")

Are tech guys REALLY this pathetic? I guess so. As for MSFT, I'd LOVE to be as "dead" as them. Everytime there is a lukewarm product release the vultures come out and declare them "dead". I've been watching this trend for as long as I've been in the industry - over 20 years now. Before some of the posters here were born.

Cosmos... all I can really say is some day, if you're lucky, you'll look back on arrogant and dellusional posts like this one (where you're ironically calling OTHERS arrogant) and say "MAN what the HECK was I thinking?!)

Bassam · 1 year ago

"MS is dead and Desktop software is also dead"

Are you living in planet earth? guess not , look at Gartner market share in all software directions , then you will know you are very wrong.

Office , SQL Server , IE , .NET , Windows , ... , ...

They are No. 1 by far except SQL Server which is No3 and the fastest growing DB in 2007, larger than IBM+Oracle combined

Maybe you "Wish" they are dead, that's another story.

alm · 1 year ago

I never understand how somebody could use a mac. 1st you pay more, not only for the HW but also for the updates. I really like to see MS ask me every 2 Years ( at least ) to get an update for their not so good OS. But if i pay 3 to 4 times the money i pay for MS Win XP. I could also ask 3 to 4 time the power, which there is not. I know that most people like you point out that the "quality" of MS products is not so good. Well they should get somethign like a sony or samsung top of the line NB or quite simpler the Dell Business line with overnight switch ( we got it here at our business, it simply means : pick up the phone, say dvd is not working. Next morning the new one is here. And please don´t send the old one back. They also send more complicated parts like the keyboard etc. ). This model is much cheaper than the so called high quality mac stuff. They also have a lot construction problems, even with the iphone ( the so called hair crack ). So why do most news people think the apple is so much better? I think it´s like short dic*** guys tend to drive a porsche to impress. They know they are not really working, just trying to catch on the main stream and put it in words. Like MS bashing was and is good at the moment. I can remember a time when people were happy that there is a MS, but today they just see the bad side. The lower they are the more crap they install = the more often their system crashes. Which is not a problem on an apple, because there is no SW. I hope you guys do a comparision of freeware on MS Linux and MAC. The last two simply fail in that regard. Yes Linux freeware is apart from the so called Tower software like Gimp etc. is crap! To sum it all up: Apple forces you to buy overprized software and hardware. The hardware is naturally better then PC Standard, but if you are an idiot and spend as much money on a PC you get the same. Cheap Apple Stuff = you are out of luck. SW is no Problem on a MAC because there is nothing to chose from. Especially the OS is a joke, you pay more than double than what you pay for MS XP or MS Vista and what do you get ? Nice gimmicks.

I used both systems, and i like MS XP much more. Even Vista is much better than OS X today, considering the price.

Hal · 1 year ago

So, You could be right (or not), I don't know... But so, what will you do now ? You think you don't need Microsoft anymore, do you everybody doesn't need Microsoft anymore ?
Will you report Microsoft use on Apple ? What make you think Apple is making things different from Microsoft ? Design ? hum... What make you think Apple could make differents things than Microsoft, if Microsoft wasn't here anymore ?

Lot of people used to say Apple was dead in late 90's...
Computing needs Microsoft, as it need Apple. Apple needs Microsoft as Microsoft needs Apple. If Microsoft dies, Apple will follow it. Cause the reasons you're using to demonstrate the Microsoft dead is the same that could kill an Apple without a Microsoft.
Cause if Google can get off Microsoft, it will not need Apple anyway.
If desktop is really off, MacOS desktop will not be needed anymore than Windows desktop...
If net broadband evolving could cause Microsoft desktop dead, it will be the same for any desktop based company, and Apple is one. More : Apple is an old fashion company... Their computing vision is one of the older : One computer, one OS, one company. So its real face isn't really much different than Microsoft and bigger Apple will become, the more it will be a fact and the more bigger Apple is becoming and the more it will be harder for them to change.
Yes Apple actual succes is due by their amazing way to comeback (on the desktop). It is also due to the very big Windows position : the big can stay big for ever as the little have lot of chance to grow.
So, I should not say Microsoft is dead, as lot of people shouldn't have said that for Apple in late 90's.

Danny · 1 year ago

I'm always amused by people who say the desktop is dead. It's like people in the 1890s proclaiming that the invention of the telegraph heralded the end of books and newspapers. We NEED the desktop because the web simple isn't ready to take over. It may never be ready. There is no consistency on among webpages, no clear guidelines and a mass of competing technologies, none of which can solve all the problems. Bandwidth is a huge problem as is the assumption that a PC must always be online to make use of it's services. The technical standards (for what they are) remain weak and cover only the most basic things. They are reliant on desktop browsers and plugins to deliver the contents and those are desktop apps. Flash, Java, sliverlight whatever.

C made the desktop what is. There is no dominant equal to C on the web. For that to happen, the major desktop players will have to coorperate and who would want to? Apple and MS have everything to loose.

It's about politics and the web today is a child of those politics. People who talk about the obsolescence of the desktop are usually really trying to convince us to stop using WIndows. If you feel that way, switch Mac or Linux. The web is not the panacea you're looking for.

bizvn · 1 year ago

yes, a great article!