More than ever with the release of Leopard and my deep annoyance of Windows (in general but mainly Vista) have I wanted to write a short article on what I find that is so wrong with Microsoft right now. Luckily for me, some people share my exact view on the mater and how it can’t go on forever.

C|Net blogger Don Reisinger writes an excellent article about the 3 majors facts Microsoft is not going the right way. Although I don’t agree with everything he writes, the three reasons follow my train of thought and here’s my own view on them.

• Reason1: The Vista debacle

Computer makers have been asking Microsoft the right to continue bundling Windows XP with their hardware because some believe that Vista has slowed down sales. I’d like to add the fact that I know one single person who loves Vista very much, and he admitted to me yesterday he was coming from XP Home and that he never actually used or seen Mac OS X. Vista annoys the hell out of everyone and from everything with security pop-ups. Haven’t they heard of the fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf? Microsoft is only training its users to mindlessly click “Allow” on all those scary security threads (such as changing the date and time), until a real security breach occurs, which will of course get the standard “Allow” treatment. This is 1. Annoying 2. Ineffective 3. Not user-friendly (from Microsoft, surprise surprise). One could go endlessly here about Vista (DRM anyone?) …

• Reason2: Google envy

This is one of my favorite argument against how bad Microsoft has become. First, Microsoft is losing focus (mainly in online advertisement) so it can try to catch up to Google. The Search Giant buys DoubleClick: Microsoft buys a random advertisement firm for $6 billions. And this doesn’t only apply to Google. Second, Microsoft aims at beating others, unlike others who try to beat themselves first, which subsequently allows them to beat others. All that Microsoft does is trying to go against others to annoy them: when Google bought this 1.6% stake into Facebook, it did only because Google was also after it.

All of this from the company who’s CEO once said: “I’m going to fucking bury that guy [Eric Schmidt], I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google”. Ahh! What an exemplary well tempered and rational chief executive officer.

I’m sorry but no one can keep up with such a business model forever. Having a truckload of money and a complete monopoly on the corporate world (read: sign deals with key upper-management people who have zero clue about technology and/or when huge bonuses are involved) only postpones their fate.

• Reseaon3: It’s beyond Microsoft’s control

Basically, Microsoft doesn’t drive innovation (oh really!). Not a single Microsoft product was meant to innovate (even Microsoft Surface, which we have been seeing for a few years at MIT’s Media Lab). Luckily, the guys at the Microsoft Research Centers come save the day on this one.

It’s a sad thing innovation only comes from a handful of players. If they were to disappear (say for example if Microsoft assimilates them), I don’t want to imagine what would happen to the tech world.