Scripting News: Microsoft in it to win?

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Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Microsoft in it to win?

I see Scoble is up pretty late too. ";->"

I had this thought when I read that Microsoft is "in it to win," even before I read Scoble's essay.

I'm a fan of Deal or No Deal. I know it's a stupid show, and that's why I like it.

I can't believe the misplaced arrogance of some of the contestants. Last night I saw a guy who had one big number left on the board decide to go for it. The box he opened of course was the big number. So he went from having an offer on the table of $40K to $1K in a single move. That's okay, I'm still going to win, he says. His family backs him up.

Okay, what else is he supposed to say, you might ask? Well, good question.

He should be saying "My it's nice to have made $40K for 25 minutes worth of work."

In other words, when you boast of how smart you are, when smarts has nothing to do with winning or losing, you look pretty fcuking dumb.

Microsoft isn't in it to win because Microsoft can't win, any more than the guy with just one big number on the board can. Sure there's a infinitesmal sliver of hope, but not enough to bet your future on.

I don't know what I'd say if I were Microsoft now. I would try to divest in the system that produced Vista as much as I possibly could. When a big tree falls, it creates room for new growth. It takes a long time for a tree the size of Microsoft to fall on its own. And it's very hard for an exec at such a company to make big parts of it fall before they have to.

That's why IBM was the last of the Big Iron companies to collapse after the advent of the fractional horsepower computer (aka the PC). They were the biggest, so they had the furthest to fall. Microsoft is in the unenviable position of being the IBM of our age.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:34 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

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Feb Apr