[M$] is planning to build 20 datacenters at a cost of about $1 billion each in hopes of dominating the cloud. ... Microsoft is the wrong company at the wrong time to dominate the architecture of the future. Here are four big negatives that will keep Microsoft out of the winner's circle. [wrong compensation structure for salesforce, lack of credibility, it would destroy Windows and Office, if they do it like Vista it will fail].

many consumers are opting for used computers with XP installed as a default, rather than buying an expensive new PC with Vista and downgrading. Big business, which typically thinks nothing about splashing out for newer, more up-to-date PCs, is also having trouble with Vista, with even firms like Intel noting XP would remain the dominant OS within the company for the foreseeable future.

What's really important about this is not so much that Vista is manifestly such a dog, but that the myth of upgrade inevitability has been destroyed. Companies have realised that they do have a choice — that they can simply say "no". From there, it's but a small step to realising that they can also walk away from Windows completely.... [similar problems with OOXML acceptance mean] we may well be near the tipping point for migrations to free software on the desktop.

In 1934, Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers (or "electric telescopes," as he called them) that would allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked documents, images, audio and video files. He described how people would use the devices to send messages to one another, share files and even congregate in online social networks. He called the whole thing a "réseau," which might be translated as "network" — or arguably, "web."