I had an epiphany the other day when I set my computer back up after taking it down to make room for a dozen or so Thanksgiving guests in our small apartment.I started up two computers and could not get online with either one. The problem confounded me and it was, as I suspected, user error, but for the hour or so that it took to figure that out, I had pushed the Internet on/off button to “off” on my cable modem. I realized I did not feel like I had a computer if I couldn’t connect to the outside world. When computing started, it was all about word processing and spreadsheets, saving your work, and cutting and pasting. Printing out was an achievement in itself. Your C: drive was your world, and a slow, just slightly better than useless modem merely icing on the computing cake.I realize this memory goes back to the 1980s and so many readers might not be able to relate. So what was an epiphany for me–if you can’t connect your computer, it is no better than a boat anchor–may be an everyday accepted response to younger users.I bring this up to point out why I awakened to the truth that Microsoft is toast. It happened while I was watching Bill Gates on the Charlie Rose interview show. I suddenly got the distinct feeling Microsoft is on its way out. Oh, not right away, at least not immediately; they have a great deal of cash reserves and a great many very talented people, after all, but in five or ten years certainly.Rose asked him about Google and the iPod and other competitors that are doing quite well. In Gates’ half-hearted response and admission that Microsoft had been outsmarted, I saw almost a psychological or perhaps spiritual admission that Microsoft will never be what it once was. This despite the usual, but very mechanical, bravado of Gates assuring Rose that Microsoft will catch up. But the bulk of Microsoft’s revenue still comes from Windows and Office. Now, with virtualization, and Linux and the Web as our virtual operating systems, the importance of Windows is fast diminishing and the premier desktop application suite, Office, will soon follow suit.In just a few short years Google has become a trusted brand. Trusted, I would vouchsafe as much if not more than Microsoft if only because it has been around for far fewer years and has had fewer opportunities to screw up.Google will soon leverage that trust to offer the world Google Office, perhaps not by that name but by whatever name it will be taken up by millions of users who trust Google to put out a good product and improve on it along the way. Sure Microsoft is trying to make itself more indispensable by embedding itself in major enterprise applications like its Duo partnership with SAP but it just may be too late when a mash up with a Google Office product and a Web-based, hosted application will do just as well.The truth is Microsoft carries within itself its own seeds of destruction. Built into to the very DNA of the company and its products is the need to feed off the computer to survive. But if Scott McNealy’s original statement, “the network is the computer” is true as it appears to be then computer is not the computer and Microsoft with all of its money will not be able to feed off its current revenue stream and it will starve to death. Technology Industry