[1] is utterly unreadable. The original Vanity Fair article is 1000x better by comparison. Microsoft started to crack around 97. They failed several times to b

[1] is utterly unreadable. The original Vanity Fair article is 1000x better by comparison. Microsoft started to crack around 97. They failed several times to build a database application for Windows/Office. Eventually, they managed to get MS Access (Cirrus) out, and Visual C++ 1.0 had been out for a while already. That period was the last time that Microsoft really did anything exciting. aside from .NET perhaps. Not to say that much of what they've done hasn't been good. But XBox, they ground that one out. Bing, they ground that one out. Courier, killed. Surface, Windows 8, ground it out in response to external events. Ballmer needs to go, but even Ballmer leaving won't fix them. Maybe Jim Allchin was their last great hope as a leader, but that opportunity has now passed.