And on a semi-related note.

Microsoft has long relied on it’s ability to leverage existing market strength with clones of decent, novel software to one-up competitors and ultimately force them into a second-tier - and therefore obsolete - position.

Now however, because of the popularity and use of the web as a mechanism to keep users informed of decent, novel technology, Microsoft no longer seems able to play “catch-up” by leveraging it’s brand name alone. The technology Microsoft rips off and clones is usually one step behind the original, due to the fact that while it is busy re-creating and re-implementing the ideas of someone else, that someone else is building on their existing framework and growing their user base.

It’s the same reason why nobody can catch Google in search - why would a user move from the technology they are already accustomed to, to a technology that is exactly the same (or in most cases in some way inferior) but cloned and produced by another company? There is no benefit there, and thus, no reason to make a change.

The problem with Microsoft is that it doesn’t innovate, it replicates. And that business model is dead now that it doesn’t take an existing super-company with a billion dollar marketing department to get the word out about a new product, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee and Google.