Paul Graham Claims "Microsoft is Dead"

netbuzz writes "He doesn't mean dead as in six feet under, but rather that the software giant no longer instills the kind of fear — particularly among entrepreneurs — that it did back in the day when it was making road kill out of companies like Netscape. Microsoft obits have been around for almost as long as the company, but Graham's stature, style and devoted following are likely to make this one a classic."

Comments

It's not dead yet

[scwizard]

But if it keeps releasing "upgrades" that serve to only make your computer slower and slower then it will be soon.

Re:It's not dead yet

[Izaak]

No one wants to have to worry about distro, GUI, etc. and compatibility issues, hunting for drivers,etc.

Have you tried Ubuntu? Your argument might have been true at one time, but it doesn't hold water anymore. Ubuntu is actually easier to install and manage than Windows, and installing software is waaaaay easier with their point and click Add/Remove Applications interface. It even trumps Vista in the eye candy department when you install Beryl. The only advantage Windows has at this point is availability of various popular applications and games, and that gap is steadily narrowing.

The truth is, most users have no loyalty to Windows; their loyalty is to applications. As the Linux application market matures (and it is, rapidly), arguments against migration dissolve.

Thad

It Depends, Really

[p3net]

While many large companies don't fear Microsoft as they used to, there are still multiple small ones who still have a fear of being swallowed whole or being beaten out of business. Microsoft, if nothing else, still has the power it needs in order to take another (smaller) companies ideas and launch them themselves, creating a hit and effectively driving their competition out of business.

Microsoft isn't dead...

[Anonymous Coward]

...it's just pining for the fjords.

What killed the dinosaurs?

[HangingChad]

I think Microsoft's fatal flaw is summed up in this quote:

Microsoft's biggest weakness is that they still don't realize how much they suck.

And they never will. That's why they won't be able to adapt to changing climate conditions in technology and the nimble little warm-blooded creatures they barely notice will thrive and ultimately outlive them.

I mean look, they haven't even gotten rid of Ballmer yet. As long as he's on top it's going to remain the same stodgy old company it is now. MSFT reminds me of some 40 year old guy who thinks he's cool hitting on his daughter's college friends. He's the only one who doesn't realize he's creepy and pathetic.

I Claim

[roman_mir]

I claim that the word 'dead' is dead. Not dead like 6 feet under, but dead as a meaningful word. It still applies to loss of life, empty batteries and forgotten projects but now it also means 'changed' now, which makes it more ambiguous.

I actually RTFA

[porkThreeWays]

I know there are going to be hundreds of posts claiming Microsoft isn't dead and that they are still a very profitable company etc etc, but that's not what the article is about, so you might as well mod those posts down now. The idea is that Microsoft's throne as supreme monopoly that can do whatever they want and everyone will follow is over. I whole heartedly agree.

There was a time 5 years ago that if MS released a technology, now matter how bad, would become the de-facto standard for no other reason than MS released it. MS has yet to do anything new in about 2 years that has become the supreme technology just because they blessed it. Their game of catchup with Google has yielded nothing powerful. Their strategy has been mostly centered around Windows Live, which has yet to garner any real interest. All their Web 2.0 stuff is massively better than what they were releasing 5 years ago (their mapping software isn't half bad), but I've yet to interact with someone who's excited over it. I know a lot of web developers who get a boner over the Google maps API though. Even their desktop software hasn't yielded anything terribly popular. People will keep using Windows and Office, but be extremely slow to adopt any of their new technology.

I guess the real nail in the coffin is that there's no single company for MS to set their sights on. The entire web is surpassing them, not just Google. Google is giving important direction and acting sort of as a leader for the industry, but I see just as many interesting things coming from outside of Google as in. How can MS compete with that? They can keep trying to break IE as much as possible, but even there they are being forced by the market to become more standards compliant.

I don't think MS will just go away and they probably will be relegated to Windows and Office until those are slowly chipped at. The OS market will one day reach the maturity hardware has and there will be standards and most common software will be written in cross platform toolkits. It will happen so slowly that we'll step back and say "Remember Microsoft 15 years ago?" just as we are saying today "Remember Microsoft 5 years ago".