[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: Interesting Reading About Windows Vista and Microsoft

[Robert Pearson]

>From Harry Newton's column for 8:30 AM EST Friday, April 21, 2006:
<<http://www.technologyinvestor.com/>>

...[Harry Newton'c comments]...

Sticking with the big guys---
NO! It's natural to believe (i.e. hope) that one day soon, the biggies in
technology -- Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Cisco, etc. -- will come roaring back.
Nice hope, but fantasy. Yesterday I talked about how Intel can't even
make a faster Pentium chip.
Today, I bring you Microsoft, courtesy, Paul Thurrott, who writes a
respected web site called "SuperSite for Windows".
Yesterday's long posting on Microsoft's new and every important
revision of the Windows operating system contained:

...[Begin excerpted quote from Paul Thurrott's article]...

Having dealt with Microsoft for many years, I can say this much with
certainty: The company is literally filled to the brim with some of
the brightest, smartest, most insightful, and friendliest people I've
ever met. Some of my best friends work at the company either directly
or indirectly (in some cases doing PR work), and I've established long
term friendly relationships with numerous people I've come into
contact with specifically because of my job writing about technology.
Despite these enviable assets, Microsoft has made some mind-numbing
mistakes. It (illegally, as it turns out) artificially bundled its
immature Internet Explorer (I.E.) Web browser so deeply into Windows
in order to harm Netscape that it's still paying the price for the
decision -- a full decade later -- in the form of regular critical
security flaws that have taken away time from developers that might
have otherwise been spent innovating new features. The company itself
has turned into that thing it most hated (read: IBM), an endlessly
complex hierarchy of semi-autonomous middle managers and vice
presidents of various levels and titles, many of whom can't seem to
make even the smallest of decisions. The company is too big and too
slow to ship updates to its biggest products. It's collapsing under
its own weight. ...

Conclusions

OK, let's not get silly here. I don't hate Windows Vista, and I
certainly don't hate Microsoft for disappointing me and countless
other customers with a product that doesn't even come close to meeting
its original promises. I'm sure the company learned something from
this debacle, and hopefully it will be more open and honest about what
it can and cannot do in the future. But you'd have to be special kind
of stupid to look at Windows Vista and see it as the be-all, end-all
of operating systems. It some ways, Windows Vista actually will exceed
Mac OS X and Linux, but not to the depth we were promised. Instead,
Windows Vista will do what so many other Windows releases have done,
and simply offer consumers and business users a few major changes and
many subtle or minor updates. That's not horrible. It's just not what
was promised. Because it failed so obviously with Vista, my guess is
that Microsoft is a bit gun shy about major OS releases and will be
for some time. And that's too bad. Windows Vista was Microsoft's first
chance since Windows 95 to reach for the golden ring. It may be
another decade before they try again.

For Paul Thurrott's entire article, click here---

<<http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp>>

Robert...