On Feb 28, 9:38 am, ray <r...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Judging by the increasing traffic in FUD - the wintrolls must REALLY be
> scared to death!!
There was an upsurge in troll activity about last November or
December, as far as I could tell. They certainly are out in force
now, although flatfish and his thousand nyms and sockpuppets count for
more than half. Something has changed, anyway, and lots of
commentators have remarked about how Microsoft is scared. For
example, there's been a lot of commentary on the Yahoo deal that it is
an attempt to save the very life of the company, something that may
seem strange in view of the large flow from the cash cows. But it
might nevertheless be true if reflective of the state of mind of
Ballmer and his henchmen, who not only have to look at current cash
flows but also future threats to them and opportunities for new
markets to take over etc. As for the threats, they keep growing, and
as for the markets to expand into, Microsoft keeps failing there, most
recently HD.
I was reflecting recently on the issues that Ballmer has had to think
about in the last year, some of which have only recently become
apparent. They include: 1) the Yahoo deal, which was evidently made
and rebuffed earlier last year; 2) the threats of law suits over
supposed IP infringement by Linux users, and the Novell-Linspire etc
deals; 3) the OOXML propaganda, bribery and ballot-box stuffing
campaigns; 4) the fines from the EU and pressures to open up
protocols; 4) the burning Xbox failures and recalls; 5) the relative
failure of Microsoft in consumer electronics space, especially
compared to the home runs one after the other by Apple (Zune vs iPod,
WinCE vs iPhone, etc); 6) the erosion of Windows share on the desktop
by Apple, small but an ominous trend; 7) the disappointment of Vista,
"upgrades" to XP, and frustrations of ambitions to lock in markets via
a Vista-based monopoly; 8) the threat from OLPC, with the necessity of
rushing into 3rd world countries with bribes and offers of free
software to counter it. Did I miss any?
No wonder he doesn't have time to spend on developing quality
products, apart from his disinclination to ever do this, I mean.
Everyone has the same 24 hours a day to think about his/her problems,
and a large portion of Ballmer's must have been taken up by the ones
I've listed. Think about how the same 24 hours might have been used
by Steve Jobs, who has his own worries but certainly nothing like the
list above.
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