Quo vadis?
I think MS has trodden its path for so long it has lost its direction. Watch Gates talking about the Kitchen of the Future as opposed to doing a great operating system, or copying its way into every possible market, and you see how MS is simply a marketing company with crappy technology, hence the proliferation of BS MS marketing consultants each etching out a justification for their own existence. Compare Apple - a tech company with great marketing - it has a direction.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
