Dave Winer, soon to be ex-blogger, comments on why he thinks Bill Gates is stepping down from the helm at Microsoft. He displays a stock graph which shows the stock in freefall (though if you examine the key it’s not a dramatic drop). The big drop is only in the last month though – previous to the announcement of Bill’s departure (though may be timed close to the latest in a long series of “When Vista is coming” delays.
The impression we get from talking to geeks, those pre-Chasm adopters, is that Microsoft has lost all but the most faithful and Bill is deserting so he can say “Well, that ship was sailing when I was in charge!”
Dave also expounds on the idea that Microsoft’s current fortunes are based on pre-2000s code. That they’re just rehashing old code in Office and Windows and making cash off that. That’s a much easier pill to swallow considering that they’ve been selling XP for five years now with nary a significant change.
The question he leaves us with is something that bothered me. If you’re leaving, then leave. Why announce that you’re leaving in two years? The tongue in cheek response is that they’ve forgotten that Bill leaving is not a “new feature” – that they’re treating it like everything else they announce at Microsoft.
Coming Real Soon Now: Bill Leaving!!!
Wanna lay bets that the ship date of THAT feature will slip?
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