What's behind Microsoft's fall from dominance?

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Dead Dead Dead

Problem being - Windows originally came out in 1985 (1.0)...

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Hack article, at best.

Elop stands a fair chance, but a shoe in?  That's a real stretch.

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MS dropped it because it wasn't worth the additional expense it tacked onto things, which they had to pass on to the consumer.  Optical media is going the way of the dodo, anyways.  Keeping it around would have prevented them from the super cheap ($40) W8 upgrade offerings they were making.  You can still get it in Media Center editions or via upgrade if you absolutely need it.  Most don't.  With Mac's, you're lucky if they even offer an optical drive on them these days.  The current iMac has no optical drive at all, unless you want to go for an optional external one.

John, your statements about Linux are simply not correct.  Install Ubuntu and you'd also find out it's missing it as well.  Linux distros cannot simply chuck in proprietary software that otherwise needs to be licensed because they aren't charging for a distro.  It's not a charity mission when it comes to intellectual property.

Install VLC or something.  Problem solved.

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Smerf - MS isn't the one omitting their own patented technology, if they owned the tech behind it it wouldn't cost them a dime to provide it.  They don't own it.  They have to pay to include it just like any other company.  They left it out of Windows 8 (the dvd play ability) so they would not have to license the tech and pass the costs onto the consumer.

It's patented and not by MS, and no one is stopping you from installing a third party codec or app to play them - many of which say "to hell with the license fees!" and essentially break the law.  MS doesn't have that luxury.
Again, VLC works a treat.

Not sure where you are getting the idea it's MS screwing the customer or community - they simply don't own the patents for the technology, and therefore would have to license them and pass on the costs.  It's simply not worth doing when watching DVD's on a PC is going the way of the dodo in this age of Netflix and Hulu.

I haven't bought nor built a PC in like 5 years that even had an optical drive, so I certainly don't miss it, but YMMV.  The last optical media I purchased for sole computer use was Simply Accounting - in 2006 or so.

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If Microsoft is suffering a "fall from dominance", I wish I'd experience a fall from dominance of their caliber with my own business.

MS did EIGHTEEN BILLION DOLLARS+ in one quarter in revenue (period ending June 30, 2012).  In one quarter of a year, folks.

If that's failure, most people would give their eye teeth to experience a failure of that caliber.  They are making money hand over fist, and it'll be a long time before Enterprise weans itself off MS product - if they ever do.

Honestly makes me giggle how people figure MS make the lions share profits wise off the consumer market on their products.  Enterprise and Office sales make up the bulk of their revenue - they make millions of dollars a day off enterprise and/or Office suite sales, and their cloud offerings are really picking up steam and is one of the most increasingly profitable arms of the corporation growth wise.  Office 365 and Azure are great offerings.

I'm not a MS apologist at all.  I really am not a fan of the default Windows 8 experience, and that's coming from a MCSE/MCSA.  Estimated number of Windows 8 sales are over 40 million copies, and while the initial offering for W8 was a bit of a stinker, 8.1 is a lot more enterprise friendly.  I could honestly park you in front of my 8.1 machine, and you'd be hard pressed to find it gimped in the least.

But hey, don't let me interject irrefutable numerical sales numbers into your arguments

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Was microsoft really ever dominant?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

I'd take that as a yes.

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Good article on patent trolls:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-17/troll-fighting-anatomy-of-a-patent-lawsuit#r=hp-ls