4 ms·

> Microsoft isn't nuts. Yep. Their spectacular mediocrity is only now being revealed, that's all. Look, they've been great simply by virtue of being in the ri

> Microsoft isn't nuts. Yep. Their spectacular mediocrity is only now being revealed, that's all. Look, they've been great simply by virtue of being in the right place at the right time. There was an incredibly TREMENDOUS hidden demand for a PC and an operating system for it, and MS happened to be there at the time. A half-blind monkey in the same place at the same time would have made a truckload of money too. It was impossible to avoid being dragged up to (at least financial) greatness by that gigantic wave of history - if you happened to hang around in the right neighborhood at the time. And that was a market that worked well if unified on a single standard. As luck would have had it, that was Windows. Okay, not entirely luck, Bill Gates is also a shrewd businessman. But from a technical perspective, MS has always been mind-numbingly mediocre and uninspired and anti-visionary. Remember how they got dragged kicking and screaming into the Internet era? That's the real Microsoft. Well, now the tremendous hurricane lifting MS up is dying down, and it's becoming apparent that it really takes gale-force winds to keep flying an object with all the graceful aerodynamics of a brick. With the tides of history turning against them, it's now obvious to everyone that they are really inept at innovation. What's funny is that this is considered "news". Good riddance, MS. You've kept the whole industry back far too long. You've probably cost us all perhaps a decade of progress. Nobody of consequence is going to miss you.

tzs 13y ago
> It was impossible to avoid being dragged up to (at least financial) greatness by that gigantic wave of history - if you happened to hang around in the right neighborhood at the time Not impossible, as Gary Kildall demonstrated.
jimbokun 13y ago
"A half-blind monkey in the same place at the same time would have made a truckload of money too." I guess that makes Gary Kildall a completely-blind monkey. Edit: HA! tzs, I guess great minds think alike! :)
bluedino 13y ago
>> Good riddance, MS. You've kept the whole industry back far too long. Don't be so harsh. The industry wouldn't exist as we know it without Microsoft. There'd still be 10+ different platforms.
- fmap 13y ago
  There'd be 10+ different platforms which would be competing and innovating? Did I miss the implied sarcasm tag? If you look at OS research from the 80s it seems pretty clear that the industry never caught up.
- dgregd 13y ago
  Really? How many mobile platform do we have now?
  - bluedino 13y ago
    That matter? 3. Just like how many desktop platforms we have. Windows, iOS, and Android Windows, Mac, and Linux
pmelendez 13y ago
> "Their spectacular mediocrity is only now being revealed" me·di·o·cre adjective 1. of only moderate quality; not very good. I beg your pardon, but there are people out there who think that Visual Studio, Office and even WP8 are vastly superior in comparison with the alternatives. Quality not always guarantee success (You can ask Apple with the original Macintosh but there are several examples of that in history)
spion 13y ago
They aren't really inept. Its just that they want to do everything themselves, disregarding others. "It runs on our Microsoft platform, works well with our Microsoft tools and you can even store your stuff on our Microsoft cloud, provided that you run the Microsoft sync tool on your Microsoft operating system" They really need to learn to stop doing that, because they're not able to afford it anymore.
twoodfin 13y ago
Remember how they got dragged kicking and screaming into the Internet era? That's the real Microsoft. Kicking and screaming? This myth has developed that Microsoft completely missed the Internet bus, and only billg's belated realization and just-in-time gamble saved them from market disaster. Except billg's famous "Internet Tidal Wave" memo was written in May of 1995! Netscape Navigator 1.0 had been released a whole five months earlier. Essentially nobody from the old PC guard saw and acted on the web's potential before Microsoft did.
mark_integerdsv 13y ago
Although I share your sentiment in this regard there is something you have overlooked IMO. Now I can't put my finger on it exactly but... Spreadsheets. Seriously. Spreadsheets are most likely the original reason that anyone ever needed a PC. MS certainly did not miss that boat and a large part of their dominance today is centered around Excel and more recently SQL. The OS is almost incidental. MS does understand that value of being able to store and exploit data. I hope I have put my point clearly enough, I'm aware that I haven't articulated it very well at all.

tzs 13y ago

> It was impossible to avoid being dragged up to (at least financial) greatness by that gigantic wave of history - if you happened to hang around in the right neighborhood at the time Not impossible, as Gary Kildall demonstrated.

jimbokun 13y ago

"A half-blind monkey in the same place at the same time would have made a truckload of money too." I guess that makes Gary Kildall a completely-blind monkey. Edit: HA! tzs, I guess great minds think alike! :)

bluedino 13y ago

>> Good riddance, MS. You've kept the whole industry back far too long. Don't be so harsh. The industry wouldn't exist as we know it without Microsoft. There'd still be 10+ different platforms.

fmap 13y ago
There'd be 10+ different platforms which would be competing and innovating? Did I miss the implied sarcasm tag? If you look at OS research from the 80s it seems pretty clear that the industry never caught up.
dgregd 13y ago
Really? How many mobile platform do we have now?
- bluedino 13y ago
  That matter? 3. Just like how many desktop platforms we have. Windows, iOS, and Android Windows, Mac, and Linux

pmelendez 13y ago

> "Their spectacular mediocrity is only now being revealed" me·di·o·cre adjective 1. of only moderate quality; not very good. I beg your pardon, but there are people out there who think that Visual Studio, Office and even WP8 are vastly superior in comparison with the alternatives. Quality not always guarantee success (You can ask Apple with the original Macintosh but there are several examples of that in history)

spion 13y ago

They aren't really inept. Its just that they want to do everything themselves, disregarding others. "It runs on our Microsoft platform, works well with our Microsoft tools and you can even store your stuff on our Microsoft cloud, provided that you run the Microsoft sync tool on your Microsoft operating system" They really need to learn to stop doing that, because they're not able to afford it anymore.

twoodfin 13y ago

Remember how they got dragged kicking and screaming into the Internet era? That's the real Microsoft. Kicking and screaming? This myth has developed that Microsoft completely missed the Internet bus, and only billg's belated realization and just-in-time gamble saved them from market disaster. Except billg's famous "Internet Tidal Wave" memo was written in May of 1995! Netscape Navigator 1.0 had been released a whole five months earlier. Essentially nobody from the old PC guard saw and acted on the web's potential before Microsoft did.

mark_integerdsv 13y ago

Although I share your sentiment in this regard there is something you have overlooked IMO. Now I can't put my finger on it exactly but... Spreadsheets. Seriously. Spreadsheets are most likely the original reason that anyone ever needed a PC. MS certainly did not miss that boat and a large part of their dominance today is centered around Excel and more recently SQL. The OS is almost incidental. MS does understand that value of being able to store and exploit data. I hope I have put my point clearly enough, I'm aware that I haven't articulated it very well at all.