It has been 2 years since microsoft announced .Net, and still nobody really knows what it is, but Bill has no problem saying that, whatever it is, it's slow in becoming a reality. True, there is a new language (C#), new tools (Visual Studio .Net) and a bunch of new features on their toolkits and OSes, and there's WinXP. But has anything really changed? All of those things would have been made simply to counteract the effect of Java, web applications and web environments, and the growth of Linux.

Scott Rosenberg defined .Net as vaporware in Salon, right after it was announced. It still is. But it doesn't matter. Microsoft is still dominant, and its competitors are in trouble. They are still making money from Office and Windows, and no serious threat to them has emerged from the web. Microsoft has little pressure to change the status quo. And .Net and its FUD will keep some people from switching over to other products for years to come, even if it never delivers what it promises.