I have been seeing more and more articles like this. And from my limited experience with the OS I think that commercials like:

are pretty accurate. I used to be a huge windows fan. I would signup and do all the beta test just so I could get the software early to play with it. I had lots of computers when I was younger and they all ran windows.

A few years ago with the introduction of the intel macs I found myself converting. At first it was comfortable because you could still run windows if you wanted to and got the benefits of trying out OSX. Now I find myself not ever wanting to touch windows. When friends ask for help on a PC I shudder because I don't think I remember how to fix it...and I just have to ask myself why they are still using it. Now the only time I use windows is via parallels to test out web sites.

I am sure they have sold a lot of copies of vista. Most of those sales come from vista being bundled up with new computers. Then the new computer owners are stuck with vista, if you ask most of them they would be happy with what they knew XP.

Now this brings me to the point of this entry. Microsoft is dying. They have spread themselves out too thin. They have gotten too big internally. Tried to expand into new territories without mastering the ones they have. Vista is just one small example. All of microsoft web 2.0 sites are lightyears behind googles. Brand wise they have turned themselves into that evil category no brand ever wants to be in. When I see a microsoft site I don't have the same trust that I would have for a smaller company I get scared and I don't bother to check it out.

They spend millions (billions?) on building a new windows operating system - that is a year delayed. Instead they should have been trying to inovate on XP since they day the launched it and give away updates / fixes and focus on building the next frontier web based OS. It is the next logical step and what google is doing. When google is ready to launch their web OS if Microsoft still has its hands in its pockets and doesn't have a competitor they will die. Not right away beacuse they have boatloads of $$ but at some point.

When I was a kid I dreamed of working for Microsoft. Now the dreamers work for Google or Apple and grown ups work for Microsoft. Too much business being done not enough innovation.