Microsoft Has Been Quiet Lately . . .
So on a different note from all the Apple-love stories lately, I just thought I would mention that Microsoft has been uncharactaristically quiet lately. The only real news from them has been the quiet acceptance that Bill Gates is finally moving on and completely giving up any control of his old company. Otherwise, it has been strangely quiet in Redmond.
I, for one, am rather surprised by this because normally I expect Microsoft to make a couple of stupid moves every few months, if for no other reason than to give the impression that they are still alive. But sadly we've heard nothing. In fact, I was shocked when Apple showed off the new iPhone and Microsoft didn't immediately announce the ZPhone. It will be a blending of the Zune and a phone, it will have a bigger screen and a better interface, it will print Word documents and squirt PowerPoint presentations to up to 5 lucky people, and it will come out "some time in 2259." Only no such announcement was made. How odd.
It is almost as if Apple is innovating so fast, Microsoft doesn't even have time to pretend they are going to compete. Personally, I think that the failure to buy Yahoo has taken the wind out of Microsoft's sails. Buying Yahoo was going to be the "next big thing," and when that didn't work out Ballmer just couldn't think of a new direction to move in. Oh, eventually they'll start doing something if for no other reason than to keep their shareholders happy, but to me it looks like Microsoft really and truly has no idea what to do next.
They've tried the gaming market, they've tried the online advertising market, they've tried the cell phone market, and nothing seems to be working out that well for them. Now they are just standing still, watching the rest of the tech world leave them behind, and they just don't know what to do next. And this should be a really sad moment for all true Apple fans, because all heroes need a villain to fight. All underdogs need a champ to beat. And now, finally, it looks like Apple's main competition might finally die, not from a glorius fight with Apple, but rather from the weight of its own stupid decisions.
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Cheer up, I’m sure the Microsoft checks will pay for this sewer for a few more years.
If MS has got any clues, it will have to start dancing with “open source”. Yes, Bill & Steve B’s eternal nightmares will be MS’ savior. How odd. How uncharacteristic.
There is no freakin way the current “road map” of .Net will ever be finished. Win32 is just about dead with Vista’s mess. Hang on to XP until Win10 or X? No way! The time to lose the legacy bagage is Win7.
Why not follow the Apple playbook: OS Transitions 101. Support legacy by your hyped-up Hyper-V hypervisor environment while “innovate” with the new architecture, plumbing, the core services a-la OSX, the middle services layers - DX10, .Net, and leave the app innovations to your countless developers, eh?
Windows, as we know it, is stuck with so much baggage that it will never be fixed. The security holes manifest themselves as they get plugged.
Look at OSX owners, I haven’t heard one spend time scanning malware (virus/spies/trojans/bots) or Registry cleaning or hard drive defragging and so on. OSX just works. Windows must be overhauled to reach this kind of expectation from a customer who just shelled out $399. I mean OSX = $129 for this kind of polish.
Now, back to MS and Open Source. MS could be served well if they change their closed culture now that Bill is never gonna be nosing around the management meetings, brainstorming sessions, and the engineering labs. Now is the time to walk the walk. Now is the time to fight fire with fire.
MS have 10,000 or so developers. Get them to start working with OSS projects. Buy OSS projects and nurture them in-house (like CUPS with Apple or MySQL at Sun or JBOSS at Red Hat).
C’mon MS, I know you have the $$$. Now, do you have the big balls to compete in a fair and square arena? Apple does. Linux too.
Well, the big deal has been Bill leaving, and a load of stories going over his achievements over the last few decades. Plus, they’re gunning for Google these days, not Apple.