lpret's Journal: TechEd2003 (actually thoughts on Microsoft in general)

Well, now that everyone thinks I put down 1400 dollars to go to TechEd2003, I have you fooled. I went to their academic only session on Sunday. And all I have to say is wow.

Let's get into some theory here. We all know that historically Microsoft has not dealt with security in the OSes, nor with stability, etc. However, I would contend that they were off doing better things for their customers knowing that if you keep customers satisfied and excited about your products, they will stick with you. Especially for non-mission critical situations. Let me explain:

Microsoft is first and foremost a company and so what are their goals? To satisfy shareholders, employees, and customers. These are the only thing Microsoft needs to do -- once they have done this, they have succeeded. Now, lets focus on the customer for a while, since by satisfying the customer that will mean increased revenue, which will in turn mean satisfied shareholders and employees (however happy employees do much more to make customers happy, but I digress...). Back when Microsoft started they saw the potential for computers in the home. So, the goal was to make the user experience the most comfortable so that they would adopt Microsoft products. So we come down to what people want: they want features. That's all it is. Now, when I say people, I don't mean your standard slashdotter who goes anal because some linux kernel runs a certain process wierdly or whatever, I'm talking about people who buy computers and don't know too much about it all -- probably how the typical slashdotter is in regards to buying a car. You don't know much, but you know a Ford Mustang is faster than a Toyota Echo, so you want that to compensate for your feelings of male inadequacy, or whatever. Again, I digress...

When we buy anything, what is the first question we ask? "What are the specs?" As if we understand any of it really... "Ah yes, this Mustang has a 3.1 litre V6 engine producing over 210 horsepower with a new Anti-Lock Braking system that will really tear up the road with power that will scream, 'I am American.'" When in fact it will scream something more like, "This car sucks, but I feel cool driving it because I can rattle off stuff about it." The undeniable fact is that even though you have no idea what a real car is about (Austin Healey, Aston Martin...mmmmm, I'm a sucker for a good British car) nor what good specs are like (A nice McLaren anyone? V12 6.0L 627 hp...0-60 in 3.4 secs) yet you are comforted that you will "tear up the road" in your mustang. This is similar to computer hardware, we see it all the time -- and of course you see the modding as in cars to give your car "the edge" or more often than not, to compensate that your base car is a piece of crap.

Now, this is also taken further to software. Not just the operating system, but Office suites, browsers, etc. By packing in more features and giving people what they think they need, Microsoft was able to get customers excited about their products. Very good strategy. Microsoft has focused on the human interaction side of the OS, to make it more pretty, more intuitive, and people continue to enjoy it. We all think Win98 is a joke now, but do you remember when it came out? Wow, with USB support out of box, a great, simple browser integrated into the system -- and above all, it looked good. You ask a typical person what they liked about Win98 the most: the shading on the top bar -- you could make it fade from one colour to another. Wow. However, now, I am on my dualboot system, Windows XP/Mandrake 9.1. I love Mandrake, however, I have a USB wifi device, and under Windows I simply plugged it in, it detected it, installed the driver and then found a wireless network for me to connect to. Hmm. Under Mandrake I had to get on the internet and...oh wait -- this is the whole point, I couldn't get on the internet! I had to boot in XP, get on the internet, download some driver, reboot in Mandrake, go to the console, run a bunch of code to install the driver, screwed up soem typing, tried it again, it failed, uninstalled what I tried, did it again, realized that there was a difference because my wifi device was rev 1.1 instead of 1.0, had to reboot in XP, get a different driver, reboot back in Mandrake, go back to the console and type all the gibberish in, and it worked. Then I had fun trying to get it all set up. And now, our wifi network is moving to 802.1x for security, and XP has it all built in but I have to get a $25 client if I hope to get it for linux. Do you see what I'm saying? I would never allow my own mother to go through this process.

Now, contrast Microsoft's roots with the roots of Linux: Linux was designed from the ground up to be very secure and stable. Now, at what cost? User's ability to change things, to be able to make things pretty. Or even that prettiness out of the box. Also, ease of use. I mean, what does it take to unzip a file in windows xp? Double-click it, and it opens a window that is now in a temp location. Or, right-click it, select unzip here, and you're done. Now, what does it take in Linux? Open the console, type in some gibberish, and try to find where it was all untarred to. Very unintuitive -- but I'm sure more secure somehow. Do you get what I'm saying? Microsoft focused on what people want, of course they're number one! The same could be said for AOL. Or any other number one.

I'm already waiting for the: but lpret, Microsoft does all these evil things -- manipulating their competitors, stealing things from other people, etc.. You know what I have to say? Welcome to the business world. I know you're nerds, you don't understand it all, but it happens everywhere in business. OK? Any company will do what it has to do to meet their goals. And being number one (eg, taking in a ton of money) means shareholders are happy.

So of course you hate Microsoft -- their goal is not to produce the best software, as the OSS community's is, but instead to make money. This means sacrificing certain things to make sure that your goals are met.