The biggest gripe (aside from gas prices!) June 17, 2008
Posted by Andrew Berkuta in Computer Industry Trends and Comments.Tags: Linux, MAC, Microsoft, Vista, Windows 7
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Seems like everywhere I read, someone is making comments on the inadequacies of Microsoft Vista. I keep hearing that [especially with the announcement that XP will soon be meeting the do-do bird] Vista is not ready for prime time and is still error prone. On the same token, people are saying that Vista is better than XP.
“Better at what?” I ask myself. Better at graphics performance, um, not really – just some rendering and smoothing. Graphics editing and such takes hours on a PC, where it is very intuitive with a MAC….even a Amiga (remember those?!) with Video Toaster would rip video edits in a flash (no pun).
Better at security then?! , again, um, not really as they only succeeded in causing issues with real security products. By designing a system where you protect the core from privileged calls, it certainly has the right flavor of something that may make sense. The “gotcha” is that by doing so, and shutting down API’s for security vendors, you succeed in blocking good code that should be protecting the castle, and allowing a window of opportunity for less than stellar software [read malware] to go unchecked. Hum….not liking that.
I know!!! Better for Microsoft! THATS IT!! It has the typical development mile markers…. Long development cycle, marketing [over]hype, reporters in your pocket to publish propaganda, and, oh yea, lets not forget the hardware manufacturers too! They need a cut. I know! Make the software MORE bloated and make everyone upgrade/replace AGAIN!!!
Only this time its different….. very different. It seems like Vista will alienate already frustrated users, and businesses. It is already equated to Microsoft ME! My prediction? If Windows 7 replaces [and quickly] Vista in the early adoption, and truely has innovative components again, then MAYBE Microsoft will be ok. I have an itch behind my ear to go an buy Apple and RedHat stock and give them a few more years. I think if they can really hang in there, they will depose the M$FT monarchy. Time to shop for a distribution of Linux.
My $0.02 worth.
Cheers!
We’re about due…. June 25, 2008
Posted by Andrew Berkuta in Computer Industry Trends and Comments.add a comment
Every once in a while, you have to step back and evaluate where things stand with respect to technology innovation. On a flight out to Seattle, I had one of those “contemplative moments”. I was sitting in my hotel room in Bellevue looking at a Microsoft building, and thinking about how they got to be a leader in the operating system business and applications, and wondered what have they done lately?
So At some point, Microsoft hit the brick wall of innovation and has stopped making technical strides with block buster innovation, and just started acquiring companies just to stay on par or slightly ahead of the industry. this is when I realized that maybe the EU is on the money with it’s feud with Microsoft in declaring it a monopoly. Certainly there is supporting evidence of this.
So who DOES innovate, and why can’t Msft seem to hit it out of the park these days? Could it be it is some of our fault? We had seen some amazing collaborative efforts in the past on a PC (notice I did not mention an Apple, as this is where Msft got inspiration from most times?!) and welcomed them as a major advancement in innovation. We expect Msft will be making more “big” advancements, and to some degree, our expectations are not met by Msft in their next releases. Maybe we setup Msft up for failure to some degree.
Certainly, Msft has let us down in many respects, however. Breaking workflow (and the way we do things) just to make it “look and feel” new….Vista anyone? How about the collaborative features not really collaborating as expected (ever see a spreadsheet macro not “function as designed”?). Or what about API’s which only Msft knows about and their “Gold Standard Application vendors” not receiving the memo about that hyper channel API?? Lastly, how about tethering applications so closely to the OS that you REALLY cant uninstall them to perform correctly (try windows update with Firefox…NOT gonna happen!).
So once you get SO big, something interesting happens. Instead of moving forward leaving everyone behind, you look back..and one of two things happen. 1) You refocus to your forward direction and leave everyone in your dust, or 2) you look back, and worry about who is in your rear view mirror to such a degree that you get paranoid and start closing collaborative efforts in fear of being passed by.
I think Microsoft is looking in it’s rear view mirror. Remember, Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.
Cheers.