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2005-02-11

Microsoft in decline. 

Ever since my visit to Comdex in 1999, I've noted that the buzz / feel / smell around Linux and the open source movement is very reminiscent of the early days of Microsoft and Windows [circa 1985]. Evidently I'm not the only industry watcher that seems to think that Microsoft isn't doing as well as it once was. I tend to agree with Michael Malone's recent article that there is a faint smell of rot about MS. I see definite similarities between where Microsoft and Longhorn are today with where IBM was in 1987 with it's ill-fated attempt at industry remonoplization, the PS/2 and Micro-Channel Architecture.

If nothing else Big Bad Bill and company have lost the coolness that is the hallmark of the up and coming in the tech world. The real innovation is not in OS upgrades, security patches and the pathetic myth that is digital rights management. [Does anyone else remember copy protected software flop of the 1980s?]

Cool today are Slashdot, Google, Mozilla/Firefox LAMP and the blogosphere.

# posted by TomS : 4:58 PM
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Copyright by Tom Sayles.

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