A crack in the Microsoft fortress?
Dell's decision to offer an older operating system on some of its computers is not a good sign for the company.
By Tom Reganfrom the May 2, 2007 edition
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At first, I couldn't quite believe what I saw. Surfing around the Dell computer website, I noticed that the company had decided to continue to offer Microsoft's Windows XP as one of the operating systems on its Inspiron line of computers instead of the new Microsoft Vista operating system alone.
Say what!?
In the past, Dell has been one of – if not the – most loyal foot soldiers when it came to offering Microsoft software on its products. The moment a new version of software was available, the old software disappeared faster than a snowball in a heat wave. It was these kinds of deals with computermakers that allowed Microsoft to gain the huge hold it has on the installed base of computer users.
So what did this mean? Was Vista – which had opened to so-so reviews and lukewarm praise from Microsoft officials – a total bust? Is Microsoft's hold on the planet slipping? (One posting that bounced around the blogosphere late last month argued that Microsoft is dead. The author later explained that he meant that the company was irrelevant.) Or did it mean nothing at all? Just a mosquito on the windshield of the Microsoft juggernaut?
Probably a little of all of the above. At least that's the opinion of two of the people who spend a lot of time thinking about and writing about Microsoft.
Robert Scoble, former Microsoft employee and author of the popular blog, the Scobleizer (http://scobleizer.com/), readily admits that he has a soft spot in his heart for the computing giant. But he's also disappointed in Microsoft's performance in recent years.
"I find that I'm getting a bit more anti-Microsoft, like some of the other bloggers, because the company is not living up to its potential," he says in a telephone interview. "Look at the resources Microsoft has." In fact, the company reported a lucrative quarter of earnings last week. "But they have so much trouble dealing with challenges from smaller companies. It's hard to figure out."
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