A reporter can make a good living just covering Microsoft.

This is not a good thing.

One fact that attracted me to technology journalism in the first place was its social mobility. I often write about companies I call "Clueless" and find they have disappeared practically before I can get the piece into digital print. Those that are "Clued-in" can also fall quickly, corporate management in this space being much like tightrope walking.

Intense competition makes for rapid evolution. Call this Dana's First Law of Competition. Markets in India and China are intensely competitive. You can't let your guard down for an instant. This is a very good thing.

It's not what human nature wants, of course. As people we want to relax, to enjoy our lives, to set the competition aside sometimes so we can, say, raise our families, get more education, or retire with dignity.

Both Microsoft and the government had opportunities to prevent this, to re-ignite competition. They chose not to take these opportunities.

Bill Gates had one vision for Microsoft, but the company has gone beyond it. He was wise to pass the baton to his majordomo, Steve Ballmer. Ballmer is all sales, all the time, a whirling picture of aggression. (He's also, admittedly, what we call on this blog a Truly Handsome Man (grass don't grow on a busy street) but looks ain't everything.)

Ballmer's vision isn't really about technology. It's about exploiting advantages and making money.

So at Microsoft's recent Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis (Minneapolis?) we got headlines like these:

• This used to be about software partners. Now it's mainly about hardware partners, like tablet PC makers. This is an important change.
  
• Microsoft continues to eat its young, entering profitable small business niches, aimed at engulfing and devouring them.
  
• Ballmer told his software developers to "stick it to IBM" even while Microsoft sticks it to them.
  
• Microsoft is telling its partners to "push Office ugrades," more evidence that the idea of Windows as a "software ecosystem" are ending.
  

This is just one corner of the news Microsoft made last week.

• Microsoft is hinting around at offering its applications under Linux. This is not as much of a stretch as it sounds. Windows has been Unix-based for years. Update: I was thinking of the Mac, and it's late at night. Sorry.
• Microsoft announced new critical security flaws in its Java Virtual Machine, SQL Server, Word, and Internet Explorer.

Microsoft's size and dominance make it a target. The company has to spend so much attention fighting off these threats it has precious little time or energy left to fight the real battles in the market.

A smaller Microsoft would have been a leaner, even healthier Microsoft, competing against several other mini-Microsofts in operating systems and applications. Microsoft's stock has barely nudged upward in years. Financially it's the new AT&T.

And we know how that ended.

So excuse me if I don't enjoy spending the rest of my career watching this play out, and instead continue looking ahead to pastures new.