Does fixing Microsoft mean ending Microsoft as we know it?
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Fantastic insigth. I think getting whealt sometimes does not mean making perfect products. In fact MS has made money from their own faults, as well as their big hits. This way of doing things sometimes implies evil eating some smart competitors, but I think it has the seeds of their own ending, once the initial creative force faded. I can remenber the compuserve issue. When internet started, compuserve saw it as a threat, and fougth against, instead of becoming the biggest USA ISP. Similary, MS could have had the most important linux (or BSD) distribution, but Google and Apple took his place.
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Fantastic insigth. I think getting whealt sometimes does not mean making perfect products. In fact MS has made money from their own faults, as well as their big hits. This way of doing things sometimes implies evil eating some smart competitors, but I think it has the seeds of their own ending, once the initial creative force faded. I can remenber the compuserve issue. When internet started, compuserve saw it as a threat, and fougth against, instead of becoming the biggest USA ISP. Similary, MS could have had the most important linux (or BSD) distribution, but Google and Apple took his place.
I think I agree, yes. We used to say that Microsoft does it's best when it's the underdog, or at least competing with someone (Borland, WordPerfect, Lotus). But after you've beaten everyone, there's only yourself to consume. I hadn't thought of the Compuserve comparison. That is pretty accurate, I think, and a good point. On the Linux/BSD: yes, yes, and more yes. People have forgotten (or ignore) that Apple is just a pretty face on BSD, and Android is mostly a Linux distro. Microsoft could have done the same thing years ago and dominated (more than they do now). Instead, they wasted many years on Vista, and have only now gotten to the MinWin paradise.
-------------- TTFN - Kent
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Fantastic insigth. I think getting whealt sometimes does not mean making perfect products. In fact MS has made money from their own faults, as well as their big hits. This way of doing things sometimes implies evil eating some smart competitors, but I think it has the seeds of their own ending, once the initial creative force faded. I can remenber the compuserve issue. When internet started, compuserve saw it as a threat, and fougth against, instead of becoming the biggest USA ISP. Similary, MS could have had the most important linux (or BSD) distribution, but Google and Apple took his place.
altomaltes wrote:
I can remenber the compuserve issue. When internet started, compuserve saw it as a threat, and fougth against, instead of becoming the biggest USA ISP.
Considering what ended up happening to AOL it probably wouldn't've mattered much in the end. They dominated the dialup era and were moving strongly into offering service over DSL when the FCC yanked the rug out from under all the 3rd party DSL resellers and gave the phone companies the same monopoly rights that the cable cos had. While AOL's got a decent internet content business still running they're a pale ghost of their former self. The same would've almost certainly have happened to CompuServe.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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I keep hearing about the "Post PC" era, but every office I've ever visited seems to demonstrate that this isn't the case. Office is still pretty well untouched by competition, sure there are other Office suites, but take up in business seems to be minimal. Exchange is a massive part of that, but rarely mentioned in these articles. Similarly, Windows Server dominates in office environments, Linux may power most web servers, but Windows 8 alone is used more often to access the web than any competitor, let alone when you add in Win7, XP, Vista, etc. Indeed, more people access the Web from just IE in July this year than all mobile platforms together - and I assume those run on Windows - add in Chrome and Firefox (both of which have more Windows users than all other O/S together) and, it seems to me, the Post PC era is not quite here yet. I know counting usage is tricky, but when pretty well all measures agree, I think we may be on safe territory: Wiki[^] W3 Schools[^] Stat Counter[^] I suspect a lot of this is Jounalistic bias - Journalists generally work in media organisations where, indubitably, Apple has a much larger traction than Microsoft. Maybe they should get out more.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.
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altomaltes wrote:
I can remenber the compuserve issue. When internet started, compuserve saw it as a threat, and fougth against, instead of becoming the biggest USA ISP.
Considering what ended up happening to AOL it probably wouldn't've mattered much in the end. They dominated the dialup era and were moving strongly into offering service over DSL when the FCC yanked the rug out from under all the 3rd party DSL resellers and gave the phone companies the same monopoly rights that the cable cos had. While AOL's got a decent internet content business still running they're a pale ghost of their former self. The same would've almost certainly have happened to CompuServe.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
I enjoyed your comment, It has rhythm, and this makes its reading pleasurable. I think you're absolutely rigth. I'm trying to show how even wealthy groups made big strategic mistakes as well as big strategic hits, and how is size prestige can hide the diference between. So the CompuServe example if far from perfect, but is a try.
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I keep hearing about the "Post PC" era, but every office I've ever visited seems to demonstrate that this isn't the case. Office is still pretty well untouched by competition, sure there are other Office suites, but take up in business seems to be minimal. Exchange is a massive part of that, but rarely mentioned in these articles. Similarly, Windows Server dominates in office environments, Linux may power most web servers, but Windows 8 alone is used more often to access the web than any competitor, let alone when you add in Win7, XP, Vista, etc. Indeed, more people access the Web from just IE in July this year than all mobile platforms together - and I assume those run on Windows - add in Chrome and Firefox (both of which have more Windows users than all other O/S together) and, it seems to me, the Post PC era is not quite here yet. I know counting usage is tricky, but when pretty well all measures agree, I think we may be on safe territory: Wiki[^] W3 Schools[^] Stat Counter[^] I suspect a lot of this is Jounalistic bias - Journalists generally work in media organisations where, indubitably, Apple has a much larger traction than Microsoft. Maybe they should get out more.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.
I agree with you on this. Also, have you tried using Libre Office and the like? A few hours of that has driven me towards looking to buy a copy of MS Office.
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