Just a Router

Via Todd Bishop on Microsoft's Seattle-area buses running Linux-based wi-fi...

"Obviously this could be a sensitive issue for an operating system company like Microsoft," Polson said of the Linux issue, "but it's just a router, and that happens to be the operating system."

Just a router. Problem is for an operating system company like Microsoft, the operating system is disappearing as quick as it can. No one cares, nor should they.

Before long no one will care about Word, SQL-Server, or SharePoint. Excel may last a bit longer, but most people will realize they don't need 3/4 of what's in that, and there are better ways of getting at the 1/4 they do care about.

Microsoft has shown few signs of being a successful "design shop" in an age of increasingly boutique long tails running on increasingly simple, open, common foundations that have little to do with any specific piece of hardware sitting right in front of you.

I know, I know. They've got a lot of money, past success, patents, and Silverspoon. There's hope for them yet.

And they are a sponsor of the Open Router Platform project.