Linked List: November 25, 2012

Sunday, 25 November 2012

‘Microsoft Has Failed’ ★: Compelling argument by Charlie Demerjian at SemiAccurate that Microsoft has already entered its death spiral:

The problem is that if you are locked in with a choice of 100% Microsoft or 0% Microsoft, once someone goes, it isn’t a baby step, they are gone. Once you start using Google Docs and the related suites, you have no need for Office. That means you, or likely your company, saves several hundred dollars a head. No need for Office means no need for Exchange. No need for Exchange means no need for Windows Server. No need for Office means no need for Windows. Once the snowball starts rolling, it picks up speed at a frightening pace. And that is where we are. The barriers to exit are now even more potent barriers to entry.
Mark Evanier’s Larry Hagman Story ★: If the bit about negotiating via whistles doesn’t make you laugh, you’re not hooked up right.
AnandTech Doubtful on Chances for Retina iPad Mini Next Year ★: I feel certain the Mini will go retina, and that when it does, it will do so exactly like all previous iOS devices: same physical size, double the pixel resolution. The only question is when. The iPhone went retina in the fourth generation; the full-size iPad in the third. Seems like too much to ask for the Mini to do so in its second.