These days must be an interesting time to be a Microsoft executive.

Gone are the days when all the software giant had to do was make a new version of its desktop operating system, wait for the hordes of consumers to buy their boxed copies of the CD containing the software, and listen to the never-ending chime of the cash machine.

Today, quite a different story has unfolded.

While Microsoft has held on to its desktop kingdom, it is finding out that most tech consumers’ world goes beyond the familiar territory. For one, its erstwhile rival in the desktop computing market, Apple, has moved on to other, more profitable markets.

Apple’s revenue from its bestselling smartphone, media player, and tablet computers makes Microsoft seem like a barely surviving pauper. Apple has become one of the most valuable companies, with shares of its stock approximating the $1,000 Holy Grail, while Microsoft’s stock stumbles along the sub-$30 nether region.

Meanwhile, Google continues its drubbing of the software giant online. Google’s online search and advertising revenue remains far out of reach of Microsoft.

While Microsoft’s Bing search engine, for example, is gradually gaining market share, it remains the lightest of lightweights compared with the superheavyweight, Google.

Might today’s tech world be too perplexing for Microsoft’s big shots?

Windows 8’s Slow Start

From various sources are coming reports about sales of Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS as significantly lower than the software vendor’s in-house forecasts.

Tech writer Paul Thurrot of the Supersite for Windows said, “Sales of Windows 8 PCs are well below Microsoft’s internal projections and have been described inside the company as disappointing.”

Meanwhile, tech retailer Newegg senior vice president Merle McIntosh also said sales of computers running Microsoft’s latest OS are not as strong as predicted. Nevertheless, he said his company is optimistic that sales of Windows 8 will pick up in 2013.

Also, Forrester analyst David Johnson said interest in Windows 8 among employees his company surveyed was higher than expected. This means that Windows 8 devices could become some of the most popular bring-your-own-device tools.

Not All Blues for MS

Last week’s news were not all that bad for Microsoft, however.

In Germany, for instance, the city council of Freiburg voted to abandon the open source platform OpenOffice to return to Microsoft Office. Apparently, complaints from city employees and problems with the open source productivity tools prompted the city council members to vote 25 to 20 in favor of the switch.

The disaffection must have been so bad, some open source groups’ last-minute protest could not dissuade the council members to change their mind.

Facebook Slows Down for Safety

Facebook began encrypting connections of its North American users with always-on Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure or HTTPS. The technology prevents account hijacking attacks over insecure networks and keeps governments from spying on their citizens’ Facebook activities, according to security experts and privacy advocates.

That’s the good part. The bad news is this will slow down Facebook access significantly. Are we about to hear loud complaints from definitely safer Facebook users who now find it takes longer to upload photos of them doing inane things?

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.