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Microsoft Is a Great/Terrible Enemy

Well - the basic point is true "Microsoft is a juggernaut, a terrible enemy to have.", quoted by Mozilla's Scott Collins.

But not for the reasons noted in the article, I prefer to think about how Guy Kawasaki looked at Microsoft (paraphrased):

Microsoft has the ability to turn on a dime. They missed the first Internet revolution - Gates changed the entire company to be internet-focused in less time than it took to release a new product.

Yes, Microsoft is an elephant - but it's an elephant that can turn faster than most mice and that is Microsoft's competitive advantage.

In truth, people would likely prefer IBM or some larger monolith as an enemy - a company that basically takes time to print out blank pages (intentionally left blank) instead of one who basically says "our goal is to beat the market out of whoever we compete with".

Now that's the "theory" of MS competitiveness - the reality of course gets you dealing with lawyers, license agreements and EULAs (enough people have complained about this that I'm not even going to comment anymore).

Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger

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