4 ms·
People misunderstood PG's essay because he misstated his thesis. "Dead", put simply, was the wrong word to use. Microsoft is not "dead" any more than Apple was
by yef 18y ago
People misunderstood PG's essay because he misstated his thesis. "Dead", put simply, was the wrong word to use.
Microsoft is not "dead" any more than Apple was dead in the mid to late nineties (and boy, was that a popular statement at the time).
Microsoft still has cash, people, and a position in the industry that, with the right leadership, can be turned around to be competitive with Google, Amazon and Apple.
Please back up all prognostications with evidence, or submit yourself to wrongtomorrow.com :)
- r7000 18y agoNo it was not the wrong wording at all. "X is dead" is a very well-established rhetorical phrase. The only controversy that resulted was due to the enormously over-literal nature of argument on the net. The "Microsoft" in the title means the "Microsoft as bogeyman of the tech industry". This is implied. That Microsoft "still has cash, people, and ... position" is neither here nor there.
- yef 18y agoTo me, "dead" means something like "checkmated". "X is dead" means that X is in a situation that it can't get out of. Can you please point me to your definition?
- r7000 18y agoYes that is it. Microsoft as the bogeyman of the tech industry (i.e. a factor one must consider). That concept is "checkmated"/dead. It no longer holds true. And there's nothing immediately obvious MS can do to reverse that situation ("get out of it").