I could, I suppose, call myself a prophet for being co-author of a science fiction novel that, in passing, mentioned Bill Gates as devoting the final portion of his life to philanthropy. The initial draft, for example, was actually written before Gates and his wife started that foundation with which to hand out most of […]

Do you remember the first great browser war era of the last decade? In this corner, there was Netscape, and in the far corner, coming up faster than anyone expected, was Microsoft. At the time, Microsoft actually did a smart thing. They built a better application, so it wasn’t just a matter of tying it […]

The other day, I had a brief exchange in a message board about operating system preferences and taste. The poster maintained that Windows is used on more than 90% of the world’s PC desktops because customers voted their preference, that they liked it better than all the rest. Now I suppose it’s easy to reach […]

Once upon a time, the name Microsoft invoked feelings of abject fear from most of its competitors. And no wonder. The world’s largest software company was notorious for entering PC-related markets and squeezing out competitors. Its victories over the Mac and Netscape are legendary. However, as Apple continues to dominate the headlines, not just in […]