...the one I made in 2004. We will never see an interesting, competent or remotely innovative product from Microsoft, ever again. It's over, and they will continue to turn the money crank on bloated "enterprise" software for years to come as they slowly but certainly slip into irrelevance. It's the business model. It doesn't matter what engineers they hire. And it's over.

Grown people still play shoot-em-ups? Seriously? Simulated violence is considered fun, and there is nothing better to do? That anybody over the age of 14 cares I find amazing.

As a middle aged guy with teenage kids who (long ago) went to school with the geekiest of them, I find it hard to believe that anyone can maintain an interest in video games once adulthood sets in. I have seen very, very few games that are anything more than elaborate adolescent fantasies, and it's difficult to imagine that as still interesting once you have a life. I sure as hell don't wish to revisit my teens and twenties! Really, go play outside and get some fresh air. And get off my lawn.

If MS had simply created a standards-compliant browser years ago, then this problem wouldn't exist. By buying into a Microsoft-dominated vision of the future of computing (which will never come to pass) the government agencies and other business simply hurt themselves. A REAL browser upgrade is simply to one that meets standards. IE doesn't count in that regard.

Interesting. I have never, ever seen a SharePoint setup that worked for users very well, and seen a high abandonment rate. I would like to see what it is "supposed" to look like. My current company's SharePoint site is a disorganized disaster that frankly serves very little purpose, really. The higher-ups try to use it, but it is rarely up-to-date or relevant. And the search is a mess. Count me as "don't get it" about any positive value to SharePoint.

I thought they simply arranged to be paid by hostages -er, I mean OEMs. Not exactly a regular marketplace, more like protection money. Selling involves making product that offers users something useful for which they willingly pay. In the absence of meaningful competition (numerically speaking) MS hasn't "competed" for a very long time. They simply expect to be paid. Oddly enough, it shows.

Ah, just another small piece of evidence that Microsoft is a culture completely lacking in imagination and spirit to pull off anything of any further importance. The writing's been on the wall since 2001, but here it is again: there will never, ever be another significant product out of Microsoft. Profits from the legacy, yes. Entrenched backoffice tools (a la IBM), yes. But anything that the public cares about? No. The only direction left to go is slowly downward. I am sure there are some talented folks at MS, but as a culture the company is finished. The truly creative are leaving for better places to shine. And drink beer.

... won't be bothered with Vista or even XP anytime soon, 64-bit or not. I have enough of that junk to deal with at work, and home I don't need one bit of it. If there was even one Windows application that truly mattered to me, perhaps - but there ain't. It is difficult to imagine why I would ever bother with a dual boot setup in order to get real things accomplished. That's just sad. It is true that I don't play games on computers, and if I did I might want Windows for that (at least for the next couple of years until Windows is less common) - but there are plenty of other things to do in my life right now. I barely have time for all the people and projects in my First Life, and so there is no Second Life!