Microsoft asleep at the wheel?

After reading the current issue of Fortune's article about Microsoft being displaced by search engine Google in desktop applications I see the passing of Microsoft market dominance once and for all disintergrating. Alas Microsoft has become complaisant and lazy and failed to stow away any R&D for a rainy day. Clawing up the side of the search engine mountain only for the mountain to grow taller every day and the alternative applications nipping away at their heels. I had wondered why so many had invested in what I considered way overvalued Google stock. I just could not understand why anyone would pay quadruple what other search engine stocks were listing for and once more while not having half the services the others do. Now I see the bigger picture. Google is aiming at taking down Microsoft in a different sort of way. They will develop opensource solutions for their instant messaging, calendaring, internet browser, and so forth from existing products while simultaneously pursuing lesser known applications. Makes sense. They operate more efficiently letting others do more of the coding for them to adapt to while spending their acquired capital on building new and exciting applications. I never thought Google would go this direction but they have certainly caught Microsoft off guard. I also found out that Microsoft employees are leaving in effigy. This is not a good sign for ole' Bill. When your top talent leaves the company is going to be on life support soon. This is one indication of corporate decline. Will the future have Google all over it? Too early to say. I hope not. Getting rid of one monarch just for another is not a step forward. I also have learned that Microsoft has finally decided to make Linux portable to it's server systems tools so the two can be intergrated. While I know less about servers than the desktop I still find this a Linux triumph! With such enormous sums of cash reserves you would think that Microsoft would have the brains enough to develop its own flavor of Linux considering it is half done for them already. As a friend of mine says "they're just stuck on stupid" I guess. They can't see the forest for the trees or Linux as superior.