I think the stock was about $31 when I sold it, and I don't believe it has ever re-attained that level.

Maybe it's paid its debt to society and is worth a look again. As I said earlier, it's a cash machine that apears to be a screaming buy. But I wouldn't buy it until it turns upward. As you said, there's something the market doesn't like about the stock or its prospects. Maybe it is Ballmer. (Those clips were priceless!)It may be as simple as the realization that the monopoly power behind Microsoft's early success is waning. It's not gone yet as the business results show, and I suppose the company could post respectable numbers on just the fumes of its earlier achievements.

But when the future of computing is seen to be Internet-based, and Microsoft is seen as having bungled and continuing to bungle the Internet, then Microsoft's future appears cloudy.

For instance, while many people are not eager to put confidential information online yet, the fact that more and more people do it every day for free is itself a cause for concern. Between Acrobat.com, Google Docs, OpenOffice.org, ThinkFree, Zoho, and whatever else is in the works, there are a lot of ways to get work done without paying through the nose for MS Office. Perception: users don't need Microsoft to do work anymore.

Browsing the Internet is best handled by Firefox, and that just gets better every year -- for free. Perception: users don't need Microsoft to get online.

The Internet has quickly rendered compatibility issues moot (unless you're still tethered to Microsoft's proprietary formats), which means that more people are for the first time free to choose Apple's elegant products for their computing needs. That makes Apple's non-open platform strategy finally sensible because if you want an Apple computer you have to get one made by Apple. Perception: users don't need Microsoft Windows on their new computer.

And on and on. So far, even though people don't need Microsoft across these and other categories, they're still ending up using them or choosing to use them. For investors, though, the lack of need means that eventually Microsoft will need to prove that its products stack up to the competition, and win loyalty on merit rather than monopoly -- and it has a poor track record there.

Microsoft is not known for its innovation or quality, it's known for its business acumen at boxing users into having only one choice: Microsoft.

When that list expands to include others, Microsoft loses its edge. The perception that the list of alternatives to Microsoft is growing in all categories and that Microsoft's edge is dulling may be the dim future that has investors hesitating to pay much for the company's business results.