Paul Graham with another entertaining (if not inarguable) essay: Microsoft is Dead, wherein he outlines the evidence of Microsoft's irrelevance and the industry changes that led them there. I like the closing paragraph:
I already know what the reaction to this essay will be. Half the readers will say that Microsoft is still an enormously profitable company, and that I should be more careful about drawing conclusions based on what a few people think in our insular little "Web 2.0" bubble. The other half, the younger half, will complain that this is old news.
Although I'm certainly not in the younger half age-wise, my feelings are more in line with the latter. The dichotomy reminds me of the first of Arthur C. Clarke's Laws: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
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