Microsoft and the Lack of WOWs
2005.05.06Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Microsost and its competition, and let me tell you the future is not going to be rosy in Redmond.
While, in the meantime, the competition is doing some great steps ahead.
Tell me, what does Microsoft have, at the moment, that is WOWing us? nothing!
And now tell me, what’s in Microsoft’s plans that will make us goes WOW? again, nothing!
To be honest, I’d say the last WOWing thing from Microsoft was DOS.
While Microsoft has nothing new to propose, others like Apple and various Linux distros are doing great.
Apple is innovating really hard, adding great features to Mac OS X. And the plethora of Linux developers are following Apple’s footsteps.
And what about apps?
OpenOffice is now a great substitute to Microsoft Office. Internet Explorer is almost useless when you can have Firefox.
Actually, almost every application from Microsoft is now easily replaceable.
And application from third parties that once were Windows-only, are now either starting to support other OS’s or equal apps are available for other systems.
Maybe they should start everything from scratch: build a new Windows and a new Office. Because XP, is a new version of Windows 2000, which, itself, is a new version of NT: how are you supposed to create something new when the foundations are old?
Microsoft is stagnating. Its rivals are hot like never before.
I think, if it doesn’t change its way of doing business, Microsoft’s end is near - “near” as in years. Because, as off now, the only thing that’s keeping MS alive is it’s market share.
But market share isn’t everything. Above all, if your users are really fed up, and your are giving your rivals more than one year of advantage in the OS’s battle.
Longhorn, IMHO, is not what’s going to save Microsoft. The only thing that could save it is, perhaps, Unix - as it was for Apple - because today, nobody can afford to build a new OS from scratch.
Maybe I’m right. Or more probably, I’m wrong. Who knows…
This is what I think, now I’d love to hear what you think.
P.S.
Maybe the guys attending tomorrow’s Time Traveling Convention might give us some hints.
This post was written 3 years, 7 months ago on May 6th, 2005 early evening.
Aaron
3 years, 7 months ago
Windows. Has broken glass, cant really say anything good about it. It is really inefficient. So damned pissed off; my vocabulary is shrinking.
onedot
3 years, 7 months ago
Ha ha! This is a funny article. Anyway, there are a lot of ignorant PC users who thinks that every PC in the world comes with Microsoft(They don’t even know Apple uses Macintosh!?!?!) So I think other Operating Systems still need a lot of publicity to tell PC users that there are excellent substitutes to MS…
Vincent
3 years, 7 months ago
I know Microsoft is not doing any WOWing things but it will still dominate the market for a long time. I am for instance a very satisfied Windows user, using a lot of Open Source for development (PHP/MySQL/NSIS, etc). Windows XP is very stable and I have not seen my system crash badly for about two years now. We have a Windows 2000 server at my job we use to deploy our application to internal users and we were able to run it non stop without any reboot for 124 days. I crashed the server after 124 days by using some obscure Word COM objects.
In other hand, at school, we have some Linux labs and the main server powering these computers crashes everyday, sometimes many times a day. Everything hangs on every computer, we need to cold reboot. When you get back in your session, everything is broken, all Unix applications leave locks behind them so you cannot start Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird anymore. You have to navigate to some hidden folders to delete the lock. How can you expect something like that to get a large marketshare? How can you expect an average user to understand that? That is something that never happens on Windows. In offices, people want things that just work.
But still, I am very angry at Microsoft that is not doing any inovation anymore. I am very angry about the fact it takes 2 minutes to find an email in Outlook on a 2.6Ghz machine.
Maybe Mac OS X is the solution, but my friend at school is an Apple Consultant supporting Mac only organizations…and things go wrong everyday…and he charges a lot! So it’s not black and white.
Michele
3 years, 7 months ago
I know WIndows has a lot of users and many of them don’t even know about alternatives, but that’s where the one year of advantage Microsoft is giving to its rivals will help its rivals become more popular.
And not only that, because both Linux and Apple are now becoming more popular even with non-technical people because of their innovation: for example, in Italy newspapers are finally starting to talk about alternatives, too.
@ Vincent: I think a finely tuned Linux system is unbeatable. Actually it can be beaten, but only by a BSD system.
For example, when I was in high school, I setted up a Linux server which we then used for developing in PHP with a MySQL backend from Windows machines - so with Samba and everything - and for the whole year we used it, we never had a problem.
Sure, at the moment, for the server work you need a good dose of technical know-how, but you should have it even to run a good Windows server.
Shawn Grimes
3 years, 7 months ago
Great article Michele.
I have as of late been toying with the idea of switching to Linux on my laptop. I currently run WinXP Pro and it is all kinds of sluggish. My laptop isn’t that shabby of a machine in it’s own right but for some reason WinXP doesn’t play nice with it. I’ve heard good things about Linux as of late and all the comparable software it has to offer (for free). Then there is the idea of getting a Mac. This is what I would prefer, but in my current financial status it is just not probable.
With Longhorn on the seemingly far horizon, I can only see more problems in the future unless I upgrade my laptop. I don’t think I should have to do that. Microsoft seems to assume that everyone that uses a computer should just go out and update / upgade their systems just to be able to use their product. Bah I say. I haven’t really seen much in Microsoft line’s future that is going to “wow” me or hold me with them for the long haul.
RAce BAnnon
3 years, 6 months ago
Others before me said it better but heres the fact whenever MS comes out with thier new MS the Slavish media will go ga-ga remember windows 98 with that remarkable breakthough the graphic interface …LOL
Can you say MAC ‘89 !!!
The fact is they’re the 800 lb gorilla in the corner…
even if its an modest improvement over the current system people are so hungry for anything better they’ll lap it up. Oh yeah there’s also that “people hate change” thing
Michele
3 years, 6 months ago
@ Shawn: first of all, you’re absolutely right: Microsoft assume everybody has a top-of-the-line machine.
And yes, Linux would be a great choice for you, but I think it’d be a bit limited for you “graphic needs”: you should try to play with Gimp on Windows and see if you could live with it.
A Mac would be even better, because you could have all of your usual apps, while working in a friendly and stable environment, but there’s the money problem…
I think you should give Linux a try, while you save for a Mac… :)
And if you need some help with Linux, feel free to contact me anytime!
@ RAce BAnnon: the “people hate change” thing + a 800 lb gorilla are a very powerful duo, that will be very difficult to beat.
But as I said, I think in that year - at least one year, but maybe more - they will lose some market share and then it’s just a matter of word of mouth.
Akshay Dodeja
3 years, 6 months ago
I tend to disagree with your article. I am not sure if you have something perosnal against microsft or something else. As few others mentioned, ont he x86 platform there is no really substitution for winXP yet. I dont see any substitutions in the near future either. MS has put in the money and the marketing and has gained a big market share. Apple on the other hand has an arrogant CEO who just wants to do what he feels is right. Apple can do so much better. Just because their OS looks fancy will not make it gain 90% market share. Linux on the other hand has a long way to go. As far as MS Office is concerned I still love it and over the years MS has done a good job improving its features and adding a few more. They should definately reduce the prices on their software. Regardless of my opinion I think people at the moment are quite satisfied with Microsft has done in the past 10 years.
(subscribed to comments)
Michele
3 years, 6 months ago
First of all, Mac OS X doesn’t only “look fancy”: it works! It’s rock-solid, fast and hassle-free.
Ok, I agree with you that limiting are conversation to x86 systems, Linux is not yet a real competition for Microsoft, but it’s been growing very fast lately and, even though not everybody knows it, I think it could be the best choice in many situations: maybe not for home-use, but certainly for office-use.
And Microsoft, since releasing Windows 95 hasn’t really innovated, it has just kept re-inventing the same thing.
Microsoft is a giant, thus they’re slow. Do you want an example? Why when designing a website do we have to think “will this work on IE?”? Because IE6 is old! it’s, I guess, at least 3 years old, which is too much on the current Web.
But I’m not here to say MS can’t write good software, because if you’ve ever tried Office for Mac, you’d know that it’s a great piece of software: it’s better than the Windows one both on a quality level and on a feature level.
Finally, as you said, Microsoft should definitely lower their prices! In Italy, you pay 500 Euro (more than 600$) to get Windows, and then you have to spend almost the same if you want Office - the basic one, I guess.