It seems to have become trendy to sound the death knell for Microsoft these days. I guess I'm not quite as much of a purveyor of doom and gloom when it comes to the Redmond software vendor's prospects for the future. That doesn't mean Microsoft doesn't face serious challenges, some of which can be attributed directly to its sound but scary policy of listening to customers. But to claim the smell of rot is in the air (with some pretty flimsy evidence supporting that premise) seems a bit premature to me.