Is Microsoft the New Old IBM: a Ponderous Innot-vator?

an innovator. They are at best an "immovator". By that I mean they immitate other's innovations and claim them as their own.

Altair BASIC? An immitation of Digital BASIC. MS-DOS? An immitation of CP/M that they bought rather than developed in-house. Windows? An immitation of the Mac OS, which was in itself an immitation of Xerox's UI...

etc.

I can't think of one truly original, innovative thing that Microsoft has done in house. Given that they've been around over 30 years and been the 800lb gorilla of an industry that is pretty telling.

And as for threats, intimidation and other bad behavior... not new for Microsoft although they are becoming more and more brazen about it all the time given the lack of anyone (or any government) with the ability and willingness to stand up to them and follow through with it in any meaningful sort of way.

It seems like they've gotten so big and ponderous that they are having trouble being successful at copying others as well and as quickly as they used to. Plus they've stabbed so many of their former partners and supporters in the back over the years that few actually trust them even if they are too afraid to do anything to risk MS's ire.

Quoting:Microsoft has never been... an innovator. They are at best an "immovator". By that I mean they immitate other's innovations and claim them as their own.

... and directly appropriate to this is LXer's 'Patents Microsoft may be infringing...' This is the fourth item at the very topmost line of every single LXer page; direct link http://lxer.com/module/db/viewby.php?dbn=13&uid=115

One source I read said that BillG and s-jobs each observed the Xerox GUI independently, and the cross-pollination didn't start until the Alto was already doomed by neglect. It's testified by multiple people from Xerox PARC's greatest era.

(I think it was Dealers of Lightning by Michael A. Hiltzik. Alas, it's packed away ATM.)

Clippy is the height of MS innovation!

6x - Sorry, but you're wrong.

The height is represented by 2 little letters (one repeated): B-O-B

http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taouu/html/graphics/bobhome1p....

Nah MS has pioneered insecure systems technology. :)

@dino:

Microsoft Bob was dismembered and eviscerated, and the pieces were sent to other Microsoft projects for them to feast on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob#Legacy

@chalbersma I don't know if I'd say pioneered... Perfected? I might have more trouble protesting that one...

Gotta admit in the nineties they were the best in marketing & binding customers, that's where their real innovation is.

Quoting:I can't think of one truly original, innovative thing that Microsoft has done in house.

I can.

They created COM (DCOM, ActiveX), systems that expose the internals of the operating system while providing the ability interconnect Documents on a large scale. In other words they created all by themselves the least secure method for interconnecting documents on a computer system.

How Dare You? SoftwareJanitor?

MS NOT innovative? Then tell me who made the Mafia Business Plan respectable in elite circles. MS, that's who.

Now take Astroturfing, that unlike the real thing does not wear out in a few years and ruin your investments in prime, athletic bodies. It's good for the ages.

So may I suggest you stop crapping on my favorite company that innovates in business methods that the laggards in Fortune 500 eagerly follow once the path is made clear by MS. They showed how to beat a clear cut case of monopolistic leveraging so well all others stand in awe. Then they follow it up with brazen, serial blackmailing countries small and large to push their products to the top of the approved purchase list.

Talk about Innovation ... nothing and nobody (meaning corporations) comes close, except the corner case of the Chinese Communist Party*.

YBT

* But that is a misnomer, since they are all business now.