Hey you kids, get off my lawn!”
Software vision ain’t what it used to be at Microsoft | Channel Register — Worth a read. In my opinion naming Ray Ozzie (Lotus Notes) as CTO of Microsoft is like giving the chief designers job at GM to the guy who designed the Ford Edsel.
It was meant to usher in a new era for Microsoft. Bill Gates, along with recently appointed CTO Ray Ozzie and an entourage of lesser-known vice presidents pitched presentations and demos to press and analysts in San Francisco, California, to convince them Microsoft has a vision for “software as a service”.
True to Microsoft style, the company will not be using the accepted industry name of “software as a service” but has coined its own moniker – “live software”…
Live software is pure Web 2.0 pop culture. It’s based on a well-established “service in the cloud” architecture that fuses – and confuses – things already in the market – from IM, social networking, downloadable music services and blogs to hosted email, business intelligence and customer relationship management (CRM) services.
The first implementations of live software are Windows Live and Office Live. Windows Live is a refreshed version of MSN with services like Hotmail updated to use Asynchronous Java Script and XML (AJAX) and feature an improved, almost Google-like, search and interface layer, and the ability to link to, and expose, profiles of buddies on your IM list as if you were using LinkedIn.
related link:
Ozzie’s Blog
This looks like it was layed out by someone in middle school. Though there is one funny note. If you arrive there using Firefox, you get the note: “Firefox support is coming soon. Please be patient.”
Was this “designed” over the weekend?
When a company’s vision starts being based on Powerpoint slides and flashy presentations, you know the whole thing is doomed. That’s not a way an agile company wants to work. That’s not how small, highly productive companies, work.
When small companies turn big they tend to lose sight of this simple reality – that best work comes from small teams. Microsoft is bloated, no way around it, and that may be impossible to solve. They should try to focus on a small group of core products and then innovate them insanely. IMHO Apple is doing this well, as is Google. That doesn’t mean they’ll survive longterm, as what matters most in a large corporation survival in the long term is the ability of the bureaucracy to preserve itself, and it’s cash cow(s), while providing as little value for money and customer care as possible. That’s why huge companies die a long. slow, protracted death, usually spanning several decades… while at the same time supporting huge fortunes for those in the hierarchy… CEOs, Directors, Members of the board… 30 years is all it takes, frequently even less…
So what should MS do?
Simplify Windows and Office – not with wizards, but by removing stuff and making the use of features consistent – only one way of doing anything. Them keep those features consistent for a few years, thus enabling us IT people to not look like ignorant fools just because the way something was done in version 2000 is totally different from the new 2005 version . That would get them a lot of goodwill capital.
I’m not even going into bugs, but if you do the above, debugging should be much simpler.
Then maybe try to stop ‘me-too’ projects, like msn search, virtual earth and so on… I mean, if you do have a great idea and it happens that someone comes up with something at the same time, OK, go ahead and fight. But just come up with something because someone else has and you can, that’s silly…
Dividing into smaller, manageable companies, might be a good idea. Nobody has ever come up with a good method for managing hypercorporations. Not in a way that provides any value to society, and/or value for shareholders.
If you don’t have good ideas of what to do with the buckets of cash you have, give it to people who have them – become a venture capitalist. Then you’ll stand a better chance of improving your return on investment than the current strategy of investing in dead cows…
So many naysayers when it comes to Microsoft. Have you guys seen the next Office and Vista? At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I’m so ridiculously impressed. The problem isn’t that Microsoft doesn’t have good ideas, it’s that things are too slow to come down the pipe.
I agree that Office and Vista look great, but at this point more is expected of M$.
Realistically, they’ve become IBM: Too big to move fast, too locked in to make a move outside of their box (OS and office software).
I was impressed when Vista features were first announced, but so much has been cut, I’ve lost interest – and am too much Apple to swing sides now. Live wasn’t very impressive to me at all.
As a side note, since Safari passed the acid 2 test, and your site still isn’t fixed — it isn’t safari that’s the problem obviously. Fix this weblog or hire someone who knows how. Hell, just ask and I’ll take the time posting up a fix if you’d like, or contact me in private to fix the bug — it’s getting annoying, ‘s no need for this to fester guys, it’s simple weblog. You’re about 99% there (though I still see no reason for an h1 id, why not style the h1 proper — multiple h1’s is an invalid step anyhow).
Mr. Frey I have the distinct impression that Mr. Dvorak and company knows how the make the site Safari friendly. They’re just being stubborn, and taking a morbid pleasure in it. So if you have a need to post after two postings, you will do like I do and open Firefox to do it. 😉
I would be interested in what percentage of Safari users comprises site visits.
There are a number of folks, myself included, who’ve given up on using Safari at DU; so, the current use numbers might not be accurate about preference. And I’m part of that “company”.
Okaaaaaa….. Last night I spent five or so minutes typing an answer to the poor chap who got zapped by a hot mic. I was finishing up what I thought was a good explanation in Safari, when I realized that there was no scroll bar or submit button…… Color me pissed as I don’t like wasting time in this manner. I want to decide how I waste my time…. 🙂
Being new here, I was unaware of the bug so tonight I was going to respond but noticed, after seven comments, no “Say it!” button. You might fool me once but not twice… I fired up my Firefox out of mothballs and sure enough…. I was able to finish my reponse.
I hope someone fixes this as I always use Safari and my semi informed voice will be stilled……… 😉
Two items:
a) Best commentary on the new Microsoft “Live” thing:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2005/11/microsoft_windo.html
b) Safari is THE worst browser out there, by far. Standards based, but real world broken. People that insist on using it are just being hard headed, with the “it’s made by Apple, it should be the best” mentaility, when it is really, really bad. The only worse browser on a Mac is IE5, mainly because it is outdated, but it still works better in many ways than Safari. If you are a Mac user, just accept reality (Safari sucks), get a copy of Firefox, and stop complaining.
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