Internet Software Patents
philip.greenspun.com
philip.greenspun.com
Likewise, the computer industry in the 1980s had some promising developments in massively parallel computing. This included wafer scale integration and parallel processor microkernels. In 1987, Sir Clive Sinclair was granted a patent for creating massively parallel, fault tolerant computing. Rather than making a wafer of chips then packaging and testing each unit, it is possible for processors to self-test and self-assemble into a working network. This would allow an eight inch wafer to be packaged with minimal additional steps. Furthermore, this would have been an asyncronous processor design. Microkernels, such as HeliOS could have been adapted to run on such hardware and the user level programs may not have required any changes. You may also wish to research the Meiko Computing Surface which used Inmos Transputers or the Connexion Machine. Unfortunately, none of these developments were compatible with Windows.
Finally, if you enjoy alternative history, you'd probably enjoy The Gernsback Continuum from William Gibson's book of short stories, Burning Chrome ( http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/burning_chrome/ ).
They also built AutoCAD, ecommerce, Google maps, and put personal communication devices in a billion pockets. (And hacker.news too!)
Not fair to use Microsoft for comparisons in the history of computing. It is an aberation that achieved financial success not through technical excellence, but by building a monopoly with unfair business practices and legal and political maneuvering.
Microsoft reputedly engages in a fair amount of this kind of inane patent activity.
The other factor affecting Vista, which Greenspun refers to obliquely when he talks about the "natural progression of an industry", is that the pioneers in a field get to work in an open space. Backward compatibility is not an issue. Installed base is not an issue. Your market is too small to have developed hundreds of independent, politically powerful splinter groups that are each fighting for their own agenda. And your competitors are too few and too poor to have hired lawyers to scrutinize your every move and force you to document exactly how you answer the phone.
This is the real point. In typical Greenspun fashion, he is pretending to call us all stupid, but he doesn't really mean that we're intrinsically stupid. He's appalled by the fact that we live and work in a tangle of legal nonsense that makes us effectively stupid.
I still say Microsoft is not representative of today's best and brightest. When you have $20 billion cash, 85% market share (in some sectors), and total PHB support, you don't have to be as good. So they aren't.