Microsoft’s biggest weakness is that they still don’t realize how much they suck. They still think they can write software in house. Maybe they can, by the standards of the desktop world. But that world ended a few years ago.
Paul Graham declared Microsoft dead, and his article strangely makes sense to me. Microsoft ruled the desktop for the past ten years or so, and I believe it’s becoming a much more difficult task.
Desktop software still has plenty of room. Just think of all the audio/video editing applications, photo manipulation, time-critical reporting, etc. If Microsoft figures out how to produce software that cannot possible be replaced by a Web-equivalent, they’d be back in the game.
I couldn’t help but smile a little when I read Paul Grahama’s article. Had it not been for Microsoft over-protective monopoly, we probably wouldn’t have had Linux “fighting back”, wouldn’t have witnessed Apple’s bounce-back, and wouldn’t have led FOSS into flourishing. We all needed a bully, and Microsoft was it.
Microsoft’s Dead. Long live Microsoft.