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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Microsoft's Sacred Cash Cow

According to the Seattle Times, this article is about "A former Microsoftie says addiction to Windows revenue, mediocre products, and missed opportunities could doom Seattle’s most successful company." It sounds interesting, but the author gets so much so wrong.

"I worked for Microsoft from 1991 to 1999 as a technology manager. For many years, I was a Microsoft loyalist. While aware of Microsoft’s shortcomings, I always believed that the Soft did its best to improve products over time, as it did with Windows XP. But recently, I’ve had a crisis of faith. Perhaps I’ve rebooted Windows one too many times."

Perhaps. But it's more likely that you're so far removed from Microsoft that your opinion is no longer valid. In 1999, Microsoft had yet to lose two antitrust cases and still had Bill Gates installed as CEO, calling the shots.

"Finally, last month I went out and bought an Apple Macintosh G5 and began using the new Mac operating system, OS X. It had been years since I’d used a Macintosh. Until recently, I dismissed those who did as impractical, elitist hipsters, and I mocked the Mac 'switch' ads on TV. But in the first five minutes on my new Mac, I was surfing the Internet, sending e-mail, and ripping a CD. OS X has been a breath of badly needed fresh air after Windows."

Sure. But you're an experienced, technical user. You know how old-school desktop GUIs work, so Mac OS X is no problem for you. Stick a poor inexperienced user in front of it, however, and ... bam! Where do you start? Where do you get help? What do you do when it doesn't work? And so on. This is the concept most technical users don't get: They already know how it works, and where to go for help. So many other users, however, do not.

Anyway, two huge problems make this article way less compelling than it could be. First, his experience at Microsoft: He worked on getting "Windows into fax machines" for four years, MSN for less than a year, spent two years at non-profit coffee houses (?), one year on what he (ironically?) calls "unfocused" Windows prototypes, and then left the company to found a gift certificates Web site. Seriously.

Second, he makes some glaring factual errors. For example.

"Recently, though, Microsoft announced that its next major Windows release, code-named Longhorn, might be delayed beyond 2006 unless it is significantly pared down."

Too bad they never said that. They said, recently, that they expected to ship Longhorn in 2006. They are not "significantly paring down features."

"Microsoft is so concerned about Windows XP security that it will likely give away its next upgrade to fix vulnerabilities and make it easier to deliver future fixes automatically."

Microsoft always gives away service packs. Always. This isn't a special deal they're doing now out of concern for security. A more correct assertion would be, "Microsoft is so concerned about Windows XP security that it restructured its second service pack to focus pervasively on security features." Apple, meanwhile, charges $129 for point upgrades to the "friendly" OS X he just adopted.

And so on. These types of errors show me that this guy is either out to lunch or willing to bend facts to make his point. Which is too bad, frankly, because his comments about .Mac--and Microsoft's inability to do something similar with MSN--completely mirror an article I wrote TWO YEARS AGO.

In short, the intended audience for this article--Mac lovers--will suck it up, just as they do everything pro-Apple and anti-Microsoft. But it's frustrating that other people may read it and think the guy has a point. Because, ultimately, he gets a lot wrong on the one hand and parrots opinions that have been floating around the Web a long time on the other.

[ Posted at 10:25 AM | Permalink ]