New Microsoft, Old Microsoft
Wow. Business Week, not your run-of-the-mill pro-Mac publication, has a column on Vista which is pretty devastating. Just the title, Vista: Slow and Dangerous, is likely to put you off of upgrading. The article warns that Microsoft’s stated minimum RAM of 512 MB is not nearly enough, and even a gigabyte will leave Vista sluggish; 2 gigs of RAM is what the author recommends. He then goes on a riff about how the security dialogs become a major annoyance, prompting people to disable them–which then also turns off vital security measures in the OS.
Seriously, Microsoft has royally screwed the pooch with this new OS. Unless they come out with an “SP1” version fast (and it pretty damned well better be free and not make you jump through “verification” hoops), they’re going to see people going to Linux and Mac systems like no one has predicted so far. Already two different U.S. government agencies (the Department of Transportation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology) have banned their people from using Vista and Office 2007–and even IE 7 (which is actually less offensive, and could be called a major improvement over version 6).
Those two agencies are bad enough, but their reluctance is going to convince other businesses that they should not upgrade, either. New versions of Windows have always been slow to get started, but Vista is going to be the grandpa of all the slow starts. Funny how Microsoft is supposed to be well-known for making things backwards-compatible. Apple gets guff for having changed the whole shebang three times now (from CISC to RISC, from OS 9 to OS X, and from PPC to Intel), so people have to update to compatible software, adjust to new layouts, get new drivers, and so on (though the Intel switch is barely noticeable). However, new versions of Windows seem to have problems at least as troublesome at their release–while new Mac OS versions aside from the major paradigm shifts are smooth transitions and Mac users promptly snap them up.
Who knows, maybe the Zune wasn’t just an isolated incident; maybe it’s the New Microsoft.
I think it really is a new microsoft. They’re so huge it’ll take decades for them to decline, but they aren’t the same company they used to be.
I remember 10 years ago virtually every piece of software on most PCs was microsoft, and windows had a virtual monopoly. Now they’re below 90%, and with Mac and Ubuntu gaining momentum it could drop lower. No mistake about it…it’s a sea change.
check out this post I wrote back in January…largely inspired by your own blog.
http://jeff-fukuoka.blogspot.com/2007/02/slow-almost-imperceptibly-gradual.html
I said in the last post on Vista, that this could be where Microsoft ‘jumped the shark’ and turned it upside down. Half the PCs at the University where I went to law school are MACSs. Macs market share is going to show a slide similer to the one GM expereinced.
You might want to check out this article about another university going all-Mac. One of the big reasons? The ability to run Windows.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9013218&intsrc=hm_list
I agree with Jeff’s thinking. The problem with Microsoft is they’re way too freakin’ big. The best thing that could have happened to them, as a company, would have been to be broken up in the antitrust action.
I know several people that work for Microsoft… and of course living here in Seattle, I come across people who’ve worked for them for long periods. Many bemoan how bloated and process-oriented the company has become.
It’s inevitable, really; a company gets to a certain size and it’s got to make some big decisions about things and how it’s going to operate. Microsoft has chosen the safe, standard-corporate model. It’s not pretty, and it leads to some real turkeys of decisions, but it’s generally safer for its stockholders.
Their hiring process is horrible. The old days of people sleeping in offices to crank out the most awesome code they can, as quickly as they can, are long gone. People aren’t as dedicated, there’s a much bigger and stricter hierarchy, and it’s just not a quick, nimble company anymore.
Gates was previously able to make it nimble by his astounding amount of control and his own talents, but he’s been pulling away. In short, Microsoft is too dang big for their own good.
Other than the security problems, I don’t actually understand what Vista is supposed to “fix” or significantly improve about XP. The interface is kind of cool, but personally I run with one that’s awfully close to old Win95 anyway. And you can put interface enhancements onto old OS’s anyway, if you’re smart.
XP had enough new tech in it to be compelling, but Vista… I don’t see much reason for it. Personally, I’ll just stick with XP until I absolutely have to upgrade- probably not until at least SP1, and more likely SP2 or 3 is out.
Paul
Seattle, WA
PS for Luis… your spam filters won’t allow me to put in the URL to my web site. Specifically, here’s the error message:
Your comment is not being processed immediately because it has tripped a spam filter. Specifically, the word “c*x.net” is not allowed. Please retype the comment avoiding that text string, or possibly by adding asterisks in place of one or more vowel
Believe me, growing up with the last name “cox” I’m more than familiar with how it can be used… but I suspect your filter is a tad strong here. 😉