Friday, April 06, 2007

Microsoft died in 2005.


I just read a great essay by Paul Graham that made me stop dead in my mental tracks and go oh yea... damn! I love Paul's writing. He's generally dead on with his observations and this one's right in line with that trend.

His claim? Microsoft died in 2005.

How?

1) Google. Need I say more?

2) XmlHttpRequest- Created by MS for Outlook, Mixed with JavaScript you get AJAX and that was the beginning of the end for desktop applications. This made it possible to move applications to the web. One of the first was Gmail. Now you can get photoshop functionality on a webpage.

3) Broadband internet. The faster your connection, the less you need the desktop.

4) Apple. Ever check out anyone working on what's next? Chances are he or she's on a Mac. Windows? For grandma.

Read the whole thing. It's here and by Paul Graham standards, fairly short. Anyone who's been around for awhile will go.. oh, yea... that's it. Damn!

2 comments:

Helen said...

So... are you going to be the prodigal son, and return to your first computer love/home? Do you really still like PC's better than Macs?

Scott Converse said...

Helen, Maybe. I've got one Mac (and about half a dozen PC's). Interestingly, my Mac, running XP with bootcamp, is my best PC. :)

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