I think Siegler is missing the forest for the trees. The real question is not whether Microsoft should have dumped "legacy Windows"; in many respects, for ARM-b

I think Siegler is missing the forest for the trees. The real question is not whether Microsoft should have dumped "legacy Windows"; in many respects, for ARM-based mobile devices, it actually has. The more interesting issues are around two industry-wide trends -- the increasing commodification of software, and the re-verticalization of software and hardware -- and whether the Windows business model itself might be in danger of obsolescence. Also worth noting: for Windows Phone 7, Microsoft did actually ditch backwards compatibility in favor of "the new thing". And despite generally favorable reviews, it's not exactly burning up the sales charts.