Microsoft is Dead: The Cliffs Notes

It's a good thing people react and then look. Google "microsoft is dead" and the number 2 result is headlined "Eight signs Microsoft is dead in the water - MarketWatch" dated May 3, 2006.

Is Dow Jones also irrelevant if no one is paying attention to it?

I think the most interesting thing about article is that people who fall into the "old news" camp probably didn't need the Cliffs Notes to understand what Paul meant. Once I understood what the original essay was about, I wasn't reminded of Microsoft's balance sheet, nor did I think they would be going out of business. The fact that they aren't non-existent but are no longer relevant just seems... intuitive.

It saddens me that people needed the Cliff's Notes (Registered, Trademark, OMG WE PWNZ YOU) to understand what Paul was getting at.

I didn't actively think about it; however, when I submitted my YC app, Microsoft didn't even enter my mind as a potential competitor. I guess they COULD be, but it is a remote concern. Paul basically just put into words what was being subconsciously realized in the minds of web-geeks everywhere.

After reading comments on Slashdot (not generally a source for enlightened comments, I know), I also can't believe how people fixated on the "everyone uses Apples" remark. It should be obvious that Paul was referring to the group of innovative, young people that are developing the next wave of software.

And I am writing this from a Mac. (Yay!)

Apropos of Microsoft versus Google

A senior researcher from Google gave a talk at the compter science colloquium at my institution in December 2005. It was supposed to be about such things as the Google Maps API, but it really was a talk about how great it was to work at Google.

At the time, while doing research for my Strategic Defenestration Initiative (another story), I had read an editorial (URL: http://linux.sys-con.com/read/84967.htm -- the editor could use some editing) in Linux SYS CON which argued that LAMP and open source technology enabled Google and Amazon.com to grow "...quickly into industry leaders." The author pointed out that Amazon and Google were successful partly because LAMP technology allowed them to compete on an equal footing with Fortune 500 companies. And now they were successful enough to replace their open source Linux and Apache infrastructure with proprietary software systems (Windows) if they wanted, but they had not done so.

During the question and answer period, I asked the speaker whether Google had the financial and technical means to migrate their servers from Linux to Windows. He replied that they could do this. I couldn't resist: I then asked the speaker whether Google would go ahead and migrate all their servers to Windows.

His reply brought down the house: "if we did that, 90 percent of our engineers would quit on the spot."

'In fact "Microsoft is Dead" was what we in the trade call a metaphor.'

It kind of saddens me that this clarification was necessary, but at least I got a good laugh out of it :)