[sz4kerto]

This reminds me of the old joke:

Nietzsche: God is dead.

God (couple of years later): Nietzsche is dead.

pg: Microsoft is dead. http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html

Microsoft (couple of years later): Here's some gift* for your startups. :)

(*: please don't start explaining that it is not a gift, etc. -- I know. :) )

[drawkbox]

The old Microsoft (Ballmer era) is dead though.

Microsoft in the last 1-2 years is like a new scrappy competitor who lost market share on hubris. They are now willing to work how developers like to work not forcing them into the corral. Azure is the new OS at Microsoft, lock in higher up the stack but actually not as lock-in as before.

Microsoft went back to developer focus over biz/marketing focus and it is working like it always has.

[Galanwe]

Can you give explanations on what actually makes you think that way?

=> As a Microsoft employee, i totally disagree. I would even go as far as guessing that you either are talking about something you don't know, or are just one of those evangelists that are paid to write such comments everywhere on the web.

Microsoft is a desperately consumer/business-oriented company, with no interest in technology whatsoever. If you don't get that, then you haven't been paying attention

[cbhl]

So if they wanted to be a contender again, this is how they could do it:

- Buy all the good "Web 2.0" startups. They could get substantially all of them for less than they'd have to pay for Facebook.

- Put them all in a building in Silicon Valley, surrounded by lead shielding to protect them from any contact with Redmond.

I feel safe suggesting this, because they'd never do it.

I can't help but think that Microsoft has had quite a few acquisitions as of late, though. Minecraft (gaming), Acompli (mobile email), Sunrise (mobile calendar), and probably others.

[blumkvist]

Microsoft has been acquiring aprox. 1 company every two months for the last 28 years...

[desdiv]

The last two points aren't technically contradictory if one imagine pg as a grave robber :D