Over the years, I have watched a lot of films purportedly about aliens.  In most situations, the alien is normally portrayed as odious, scary, blood thirsty, and most likely ugly.  I don’t recall seeing any aliens that is better creatively designed or conceptualized that can match the beauty or balance of a human being.

Is our perception of beauty shaped by what we see daily, and therefore what we don’t normally see, we don’t learn to appreciate?  Or is all our creative wisdom not able to come up with something visually better than what conceivably was the being that evolved into who we are now? 

I am a fan of both companies.  I learned computing on MS DOS 2.0, and programming on GWBasic.  Our company has been a certified Microsoft Partner for 12 years, and is its largest reseller this part of the country.  We have various technologies on development, but .NET is the predominant platform of choice.  I am also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for the last 4 years now.

However, I do search using Google, and have both bought ads in Google Adwords, and also sold ads through Adsense.  Although I used hotmail since 1997, I have been using ever Gmail more ( in addition to company mail)  since it started offering 1 gigabyte and then 2 gigabyte, and for a long while, Hotmail stuck with only 2 megabytes.  Now hotmail is vastly improved, and offers 2 gigabytes, but it won’t offer POP for free.  Maybe it is a measure of the stinginess that the article was talking about.

I have been to the Microsoft campus several times (not yet to Google), and while I eagerly noted that Google is offering gourmet foods to its employees, you ( and all MS employees) get free drinks in Microsoft but you pay for the food.  However, if you do want specialty drinks like Starbucks you still would need to pay yourself.

I have read several books on Bill Gates, as well as on the many analytical books about Google.

I admire both companies, and its CEOs, but while Google has grown its revenues faster, I still am hats off to Bill who have shown consistent performances in more categories over a longer period of time ( Operating system, Office productivity,  Applications, servers, databases, game machines, communications software, MObile OS, programming languages).  However, as they say, past performance may not necessarily be indicative of future performance, and Microsoft is getting a little bit big, and its employees getting a little bit too many, and probably have been too much successes for so long, which sometimes handicaps a person to be responsive and to change.  Momentum is definitely not in Microsoft’s favor.

There is some truth in Warren Buffet who recently wrote, " Size seems to make many organizations slow-thinking, resistant to change, and smug."  MIcrosoft is not exempted.

I see various new products coming out of both companies, and I must say both have very strong suits, though I still think Google is trying to make war on too many fronts a little too early, and so far, I still see them strong in only a few categories.

However, I still vote for ‘aging’ Microsoft or as they say now, the Ballzilla T-Rex.  This article highlights the stinginess and judiciousness in not growing too fast, and I must say that I would definitely go for this kind.  As an executive, I do not see how a company can consistently grow headcount to double in a year, and not experience problems ( whether it is from 100 to 200 or 11,000 to 22,000).  Whether the market offers that kind of opportunities or not, I don’t see historically how any company has ever done it well.   Over a long term,  I think Google is playing all its hands too aggressively and I think that will create some hiccups. 

Business is always a long term proposition, and I see it as a marathon.  I believe always in keeping a company healthy, and not try to run it as a 100 meter dash speed.

Google is giving too much benefits ( free rides, free food, etc) and trying to gobble up too many companies ( Double click, Youtube etc) , in an all front war to try to be in the forefront) that I believe ultimately would create some issues.  Long term, it can grow, but I believe not without consolidation, and certainly not without some setbacks.

Microsoft still also have something Google don’t — personal relationships with thousands of companies using its technologies, as well as thousands of partners all over the world pushing its platforms, and alliances and collaboration with almost all major technology firms, like HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, Accenture, etc.  These relationships cannot just be governed over the web, and takes years and man hours to inculcate.

Personally i still like Bill.  Maybe its my upbring, or my being un-American, but I still disdain people who ride in flashy cars or flaunts their wealth.  I still have a soft spot on business people and entrepreneurs who are frugal, who don’t show off, and who is prepared to give out a lot of money and time for community and philanthropic purposes.

Why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can’t stop bashing Google. - April 30, 2007

He runs a company that always has been focused and disciplined and exceedingly pragmatic, ever since it was just a few hundred furry freak brothers taking on Big Blue’s tens of thousands of starched white stiffs. Bill Gates has always been stingy, and especially so during Microsoft’s formative years. I remember how it caught everyone by surprise when Gates first became a billionaire back in 1987, 12 years after starting Microsoft in a strip mall in Albuquerque. He was 31, still had acne flare-ups, and looked as if he had just slept under a desk - which was, in fact, quite often the case. Even after his net worth reached the tens of billions, he was still flying coach. And Gates was never stingier than when it came to hiring. Right up until he relinquished the title of CEO in 2000, he gave Ballmer a hard time whenever his pal asked for the founder’s blessing to "grow headcount." Invariably Gates would dicker him down until Ballmer settled for far fewer hires than he wanted.

 I could be wrong! There are certainly tons and thousands of opinions out there on the clash of these titans. What do you think?

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