So you think that Microsoft is dead, because they have lost the leader role in invention. It's true, they have no popular initiation. But Microsoft used to steal the new technologies: they did it in Windows, in which they used the user interface inveted by Apple. Microsoft is following the technical engineering nowadays too, look at the view of XP and Vista. Microsoft realised, that an OS must be not only useful, but beautiful, too, and they followed this trend. And they have mixed it with the common Windows experience, which means Windows will be a real alternative for years. Maybe they don't have the leadership, but after some years Microsoft will plead the traditions in the computer world. Don't forget that there are millions of grandmas, and their claims are real claims from a new technology. Microsoft seems dead from a technology-invertory view, but Microsoft's spirit is still alive, and Microsoft has written informatical history. Even if they are dead, even if they aren't the future, Microsoft's influence is not unimportant for the future.