From: "John Beamish" 

I remember a quote from many years ago about MS and its then tremendous
cash horde (don't know what it is now but I'm sure it has a few bucks
stashed away).  When asked about it, Bill apparently replied that he was
paranoid that someone would take over their space and he wanted to be able
to operate the company without any revenue for a full year.

The glib observation:  he may have to.

The real observation:  MS as a desktop platform will continue to be the
prime desktop throughout computing for decades to come.  Linux, for a
variety of reasons (all hashed out well elsewhere) will make niche inroads
but will not be the dominent or even majority desktop/laptop platform of
choice.  Yes, yes, I know all about China and India and Africa.  It just
ain't gonna happen.  At the server level, Linux will do well but since so
much business is already tied into environments provided by MS the idea of
migrating just isn't on the cards.  There's too much infrastructure (SW,
people, training, ...) that needs to be migrated and the number of people
with the necessary Linux experience just aren't there.

When it comes to things like Search, Google has the market substantially
locked up.  Apple OSes are to MS OSes as Microsoft Search will be to Google
search.  MS's problem isn't an inability to deliver the kind of search
product that Google is delivering; MS's problem is that it has lost focus
on what it does well:  deliver software that works with the existing
"wetware" (people) already in positions of technical
infrastructure support.


On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:58:49 -0400, mike  wrote:

>
> http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q2.07/2152AFA3-DE5C-4A92-BE17-672C7
858E854.html
>
> ===
> What happens when the core values of an empire are exposed as a fraud?
> Does it prompt it change? More likely, it results in the generation of
> more false information to cover up the embarrassing failings.
> Such is the case with Microsoft Corp., which has lost its leadership
> position in the tech world after six years of failed consumer products
> initiatives and the inability to innovate beyond--or even keep pace
> with--faster moving rivals, including Apple and Google.

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