Being a Mac user, a lot of people expect me to loathe everything Microsoft. Also, having come from a Unix background, equally as many people expect me to loathe everything Microsoft. I’ll be honest – I have no great fondness for them, but I’m also practical enough to recognise that the chances of them falling over in a heap at any point are microscopically small. I also wouldn’t wish it on them. Instead, what I hope is that they eventually learn cooperative engagement in the marketplace.
To me, Microsoft has been over the last few years suffering the sort of decline that comes not from a larger competitor taking it on, but what I describe as “death by a thousand mosquito bites”. No one single failing of theirs, and no one single competitor of theirs, is causing them catastrophic harm; however, the combination of their failings, and their competitors, is actually starting to dig in.
Over at Daring Fireball, John Gruber has one of his typically insightful commentaries on Microsoft’s decline. Yes, it’s told from an Apple perspective, but Gruber is one of the leading Apple bloggers these days, so that’s to be expected. If you’re at all interested in a “non-Microsoft” perspective, Gruber’s commentary is worth spending 10 minutes to read.