It does seem incredibly easy to criticize Microsoft's marketing staff and vendors. To witness such a blatant and public pummeling is frustrating.

Quoted: Either way, Microsoft needs to fire a chunk of its marketing staff and get on the ball. If Microsoft cannot craft a clear, concise message as to why one should choose its products over Apple's, no one will do so, and Microsoft is going to lose.

I wouldn't go so far (at least not at this point) to say "Microsoft is going to lose", but it's certainly an up hill battle.

Ah, shame. So sad to see poor Apple and Google in antitrust litigation. My real question is, why is Apple Janet and Chrissy is Google? I would have defintiely put it the other way around. And Jack is the DOJ? Is Engadget trying to say that the DOJ is a fumbling idiot? Hm, ok, there is some correlation there.

Quoted: ...the relationship between the two companies is so tight they actually share board members: Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson take meetings in both Cupertino and Mountain View. That's apparently raised some hackles at the Federal Trade Commission, which has reportedly informed both companies they're being investigated for violating a rarely-enforced section of the Clayton Antitrust Act prohibiting "interlocking directorates" when it reduces competition.

Ugh. Not encouraging news. It makes one wonder though, how important is it really which browser people are using? Browsers may become irrelevant commodoties since it's really about the content that's being reached. What value add do the browsers offer? Speed? Security? Are the deltas really that big?

I certainly hope it doesn't come to commoditization or significant loss in market share. I'm confident that Microsoft can demonstrate that it's the best software maker in the world, and that browsing anything via IE is a superior experience. ;-)

Quoted: In February, I used a simple mathematical analysis to project that IE's days of domination are numbered. Put simply, if these trends continue, Microsoft's stronghold on the browser market will slip away sooner than most may think.

Quoted: So is the battle effectively over? Maybe. Given that IE 8 was hyped as the company's big leap into outperforming its competitors, and given the dismal results we're seeing so far, one has to wonder what further tricks Microsoft could possibly have up its sleeve.

Oops. Not the kind of PR MSFT needs..

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Microsoft on Monday said it goofed in trying to get back money it overpaid departing employees in severance packages and sent word to the former workers to keep the cash.

The US software giant said that last week it told 25 recently-departed employees they had accidentally been paid too much in severance and that the overages should be returned to the company.

"This was a mistake on our part," a Microsoft spokesman said Monday in response to an AFP inquiry.

"We should have handled this situation in a more thoughtful manner. We are reaching out to those impacted to relay that we will not seek any payment from those individuals."

Wow. Great write-up of Windows 7...

Quoted: Windows Client division is now best example and model for every other Microsoft division to follow. Windows 7 Beta 1 is remarkable resurrection. From the crash called Windows Vista comes a phoenix. Management clearly is the difference between Seven and Vista.

Quoted: Under former Platform and Services division president Jim Allchin's leadership, or lack of it, Windows ran to ruin. Windows Vista is a management, development and marketing disaster. The product has done irreparable harm to Microsoft's corporate identity and to the Windows brand. Windows Vista is a failure by every milestone that matters: Performance, compatibility, usability and adoption.

Quoted: Now contrast Vista development to Windows 7. The management team has done what a year ago I would have asserted as impossible: Fix Vista's problems and reinvent Windows. Seven is a solid and exciting product, even in beta.

Quoted: Only focused, disciplined management could produce from the Vista train wreck a better locomotive. Seven is much more dramatically different than the modest makeover I expected.

A good article by Robert Scoble on PDC coverage...

Quoted: This week Microsoft didn’t get much hype for its three major announcements. Certainly it didn’t stay on top of TechMeme as long as, say, if Steve Jobs gets a sniffle. But don’t miss what they did.

Quoted: 1. On day 1 of the PDC they announced Azure, which is a set of cloud services that competes with Amazon’s S3 and Rackspace’s Mosso and will radically change enterprises’ acceptance of cloud services for a whole lot of reasons.

Quoted: 2. On day 2 of the PDC they showed off Windows 7 which is getting high praise from my blogging friends who were lent laptops with it on there (I didn’t get Windows 7 yet).

Quoted: 3. On day 3 of the PDC they showed off new Web-based versions of Microsoft Office that were really nice. Will the new PowerPoint have the collaborative features, of, say, SlideRocket? Will Zoho go out of business? No, and no, but this is a significant move into the Web for a group that’s tried to pretend that the Web didn’t matter that much.

Quoted: 4. They also released new Mac and Mobile versions of Mesh and further explained how that’ll enable new kinds of Internet-connected apps to be built.

Quoted: Translation: It doesn’t matter that Microsoft didn’t get all that much hype this year at the PDC or that it didn’t sell out or that other companies like Amazon, Google, and Rackspace are ahead in the cloud game. You just saw Ray Ozzie turn the creaky old cruiseliner hard to port and damn, it is impressive.

Some of the comments are good to... here are a couple of my favorites:

Quoted: After watching what Microsoft is doing to the EDM space with SharePoint, nothing surprises me. When Microsoft decides to come to the game, they come strong. Never count these guys out.

Quoted: I think you are spot on. Microsoft isn’t going anywhere and I think Ray Ozzie is awesome and glad he’s such a big part of the Microsoft “cruiseliner” as you put it :) //g

Quoted: Like one commentator on Twitter said, it’s as if this is a new Microsoft 2.0 which doesn’t have any shred of the old bunker mentality and “must not cannibalize our own base at any cost” thinking.

The comments aren't all positive, but it's nice to see something in the blogosphere that is overall positive about Microsoft.

Nice article on Win7 from Gizmodo...

Quoted: Like Elvis in '68, Microsoft is itching for a "comeback," and Windows 7 is the perfect excuse. In fact, this week in LA at the Professional Developers Conference, Windows 7 officially shoved Vista aside. Having suffered through the often deserved criticisms of that ill-fated OS installment, Microsoft's people are thrilled to tears to be able to talk about something (anything!) else. On Sunday, they took journalists through a lively 7-hour orientation on Win 7, then handed off a Dell XPS M1330 loaded with pre-beta Build 6801.

Quoted: Thankfully for the overworked, underappreciated developers at Redmond, it's surprisingly stable, and its look and feel already puts Vista to shame.

Some of my favorites comments...

Quoted: Looking good, probably will upgrade.
Quoted: so they finished vista, it took them long enough
Quoted: ALL of this should be in Vista SP2. Now another $300 upgrade
Quoted: Vista!!!! Clever you changing your identity, still trying to get into my pants?
Quoted: Looks like a slightly upgraded Microsoft BOB OS.microsoft Windows Walkthrough Boot Video and

Interesting comments and perspective from Brad Brooks. I like the "i" way vs. the "you" way juxtaposition. Windows "without walls" is an effective campaign against the walled garden Apple offers. Still, it's hard to compete in certain scenarios with the elegant, reliable and deterministic Apple experience.

Quoted: Ahead of what many expect to be the introduction of cheaper Macs, a top Windows exec says Apple users pay hidden costs.

Quoted: There really is a tax around there for people that are evaluating their choices going into this holiday season and going forward. There's a choice tax that we talked about, which is, hey, you want to buy a machine that's other than black, white, or silver, and if you want to get it in multiple different configurations or price points, you're going to be paying a tax if you go the Apple way.

Yep.

Quoted: Microsoft confirmed Tuesday that several services currently found within Windows XP and Windows Vista will be dropped for Windows 7, and replaced with similar versions of its Live services.

Quoted: Starting with the next release of Windows – internally known as Windows 7 - Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker will no longer be available in the Windows operating system," a spokesman for Microsoft said in an email on Tuesday.

Quoted: Similar functionality for email, contact, calendar, photo and movie making will be available for free from Windows Live, removing the duplication of functionality for our consumers between Windows and Windows Live," the spokesman added.