Windows in the Enterprise I read Breaking Windows yesterday, which recounts how Bill Gates' unyeilding attitude towards the Justice Department caused its current legal woes. The book ends with a sunny chapter on Web Services, and how Microsoft is excited about a bright future for the controversial .NET.

The truth of the matter is that .NET is far from nailed, and we'll probably see egregious things like Hailstorm be rejected by a suspicious market. Moreover, 0 utility plus 0 bandwidth conspire to make .NET services essentially useless for home users (where Apple offers the best system, bar none). Basically, people don't need Word to be a server. So that leaves the enterprise, where Microsoft has fierce competitors, where they offer little of competitive value (except for "richer client experience", which enterprises don't care about--remember, they were quite happy using windows), and where they have no ISV support (all of whom prefer GNU/Linux).