>I have it marked and I'm watching for the fall-out. I don't expect it to massive and sudden. I expect that slowly but surely people will drift away from Microsoft and one day MS will wake up and notice the drift. Competitors cannot easily pull customers from Microsoft. But Microsoft can certainly push customers away.

Of course. For those of us that are already tied up with MS software it's difficult to switch; but for people coming on-stream, I no longer see debates on the merits of a MS compiler vs another. The automatic choice is the alternative.

>And I believe they'll adjust to bring people back to them. Gates is a champion. He ~must~ win. It's just that right now I think they're taking steps that will make many [honest] customers furious.

BG has picked his hill to die on; I think it's .NET.

It reminds me of the 80's when successful companies were gobbling up competitors and embarking on questionable initiatives (sort of like the past .COM frenzy), and in the end had nothing to show for it except a lot of red ink.

Considering the resources that could have been spent "getting along and surpassing", and that have instead been squandered (IMO) to make another (not better) mouse-trap, I think MS has lost its vision and is now simply out to "win" at all costs. Most of the stuff MS is now producing is rapidly starting to pale compared to what the "community" is producing; MS should spend more time being innovative instead of "competitive". They're turning into another Computer Associates.