microsoft losing ground in many areas..
Microsoft are *finally* getting the attention deserved for their lack of - hmm - open partnership.
For years, they've blithley forged a path as the "trend setters", creating competing standards (I know they aren't alone in this, but are the main protagonists), with a "we're too big to co-operate" attitude.
Take any web tech you can think of and Microsoft will have created an alternative - sometimes this succeeds, sometimes not. Think 'Silverlight vs Flash' or microsoft trying to create an alternative to PDF, or way before that, creating Internet Explorer only markup and scripting. (which so many corporate intranets and extranets still rely on, hence the current security debacle)
Instead of embracing the current platform leader and striving for open standards, they use mighty marketing muscle and many 'bums on seats' to churn out thier version of how things should be, attempting to control the internet and other technologies in the same way they've controlled the desktop for decades.
In recent years, they've started failing - or at least, failing to achieve the kinds of success they once had in most areas. Zune was a flop, Silverlight has failed to gain significant inroads, Vista was an unmitigated disaster - the list goes on.
There's nothing specifically wrong with trying to forge your own path, until you start ignoring better ideas, or buying them out, or squashing them - a typical microsoft tactic.
With balmer at the helm, blundering around like an embodiment of the legendary '800lb gorilla', we're seeing the stiching start to unravel.
Witness this oaf of a man in a recent 'Click' interview, at CES in Las Vegas - denial and FUD just trip out of his mouth - you get the impression that he'll use violence to get his own way, to push his point home. "I'm right, always right, if you don't like it, I'll squash you"
But the reality is, the behemoth is struggling to shrug off it's legacy - the crumbling facade of XP and Internet Explorer, sitting on a technology base that's way past it's sell by date.
Is it any wonder the cracks are starting to widen? - no amount of plaster is going to stop the inevitable collapse, as leaner, meaner, smarter organisations leap ahead.
It's going to be a long, painful, protracted demise, unless microsoft can shed some of it's heft and ditch Balmer.
...er, or something like that, ramble ramble... too much coffee... what was the article about again?
Paris, because as a classy dame of legendary intellect, she likes a bit of Opera and because I've had another cup of coffee..
Biting the hand that feeds IT
