This is a poor article from Paul. I don't know why does he engage in this sort of stuff. Anyway Microsoft is maybe "off the spot" today in some popular stuff, but being "off the spot" is hardly equal to being dead. Microsoft acumulated so much value in their products/services today (built by them and assisted by the whole industry) that it would be crazy to think they are dead. And don't forget that lots of those smart emerging engineers from India, Pakistan etc. end up at Microsoft, soon they will produce interesting results. They have the desktop and without the desktop no browser can run, and they have a large part of the server too and server is where things really matters today, plus development tools & environments. Time will tell...