Now Don Dodge is writing about Paul's essay

I love microsofties, they go straight for the throat. The circumspect ex-softies trash MS these days for MS's lack of focus & ability to adapt. This is because MS has lost their core asset, their API.

'... The cornerstone of Microsoft's monopoly power and incredibly profitable Windows and Office franchises, which account for virtually all of Microsoft's income and covers up a huge array of unprofitable or marginally profitable product lines, the Windows API is no longer of much interest to developers ...' [1]

There is still some great stuff coming out of MS, but they hardly excite the next generation of developers of software. Some of these issues revolve around the dollar costs associated with owning MS operating systems & associated software. Cheaper and more open alternatives don't help. [2]

To hear Office, Corporate ownership and X-Box [3] demonstrates to me the developers have left, and marketroids are bleating the 'marketing & business' advantages, where in the past it would have been technical advantages. [4]

'... Defaults. Microsoft will design Windows so as to enable computer manufacturers and users to set non-Microsoft programs to operate by default in key categories, such as Web browsing and media playback, in lieu of corresponding end-user functionality in Windows ...' [5]

And as for Microsoft being benevolent, all I have to do is look at Don's own first post in his blog to see Microsoft priorities in print. [6]

Reference

[0] Don Dodge, 'Linked in Bio'

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dondodge?trk=btn_typepad

[1] Joel Spolsky, 'How Microsoft Lost the API War'

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

[2] Why is it Windows OS has got more expensive, while hardware has got cheaper? It's not distribution nor the OEM's installing the software. So why has MS consistently increased the cost of owning their OS?

[3] Well maybe not X-Box. But how many developers have access to X-Box tools, can develop for it & release software?

[4] MS did a great job unifying the hardware market from DOS to Windows meaning you just plugged hardware in and it worked.

[5] Don Dodge, 19th July 2006, 'Microsoft's 12 principles to promote competition. Read the comments concerning defaults and MS software settings'

http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2006/07/microsofts_12_p.html

[6] Don Dodge, 'Microsoft's 12 principles to promote competition' Ibid.

Please, this is a well paid executive. He has business meetings with other executives, oversees the big transactions. Paul may very well be right about the future of our industry, of the Internet...

The problem is not that Microsoft is not feared, or that they are not agile, or even that they are not aware. I don't think they really even care. As long as the Citigroup's and other GIANT Fortune 50 companies are buying MS products, they will be in the green for decades to come.

The fact that they are interested at all in what we like/think warrants some credit, however little we collectively may give them. I like to keep it in perspective, it's just a software company after all.

Eh. I personally didn't enjoy working with Microsoft. Strange mix of arrogance and mediocrity.

He then called Google a "consumer search company." Has he forgotten about GMail and the power of web apps based around powerful search?

I completely understand if Mr. Dodge was taken aback by Paul's essay, but I really do hope (at least for Microsoft shareholders) that Microsoft's Emerging Business Group doesn't actually buy into these "classifications."

Saying "Since when does growing $4 Billion a year = Dead?" sounds a lot like a cancer patient in denial to me, "How can I have cancer, look I can still run and jump today so I must be fine".

He completely missed the PG's main point that no one is afraid of MS anymore. He's pointing to revenues and yet he fails to mention MS's abysmal share performance. Come on Don, at least read more than the title next time.

"I already know what the reaction to this essay will be. Half the readers will say that Microsoft is still an enormously profitable company, and that I should be more careful about drawing conclusions based on what a few people think in our insular little "Web 2.0" bubble. The other half, the younger half, will complain that this is old news."

Last night a friend of mine said this to me: "these websites will be empty places 5 to 10 years later". That pretty much sums up the web 2.0. Sure it's not another dot-com bust but it still not a long-term thing. Only the biggies can survive while the niches will eventually died.