Former MS manager says MS may be doomed

[kiwi]

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0422/040602_news_microsoft.php


A former Microsoftie says addiction to Windows revenue, mediocre products, and missed opportunities could doom Seattle’s most successful company.


"I began using Microsoft products 23 years ago, at age 11, and I worked for Microsoft from 1991 to 1999 as a technology manager. For many years, I was a Microsoft loyalist. While aware of Microsoft’s shortcomings, I always believed that the Soft did its best to improve products over time, as it did with Windows XP. But recently, I’ve had a crisis of faith. Perhaps I’ve rebooted Windows one too many times.

Over the past year, my frustration with Windows grew, as did my envy of Apple’s cool new products. Finally, last month I went out and bought an Apple Macintosh G5 and began using the new Mac operating system, OS X. It had been years since I’d used a Macintosh. Until recently, I dismissed those who did as impractical, elitist hipsters, and I mocked the Mac “switch” ads on TV.

But in the first five minutes on my new Mac, I was surfing the Internet, sending e-mail, and ripping a CD. OS X has been a breath of badly needed fresh air after Windows.

This made me wonder about Microsoft’s willingness to innovate and compete. Why are Microsoft products still so difficult to use and so unreliable? Why is the company improving them so slowly? Is Microsoft losing its competitive edge? Has the company seen its best days?"

 

[dopefiend]

Either this is the same guy that was posted about already or Apple is paying people off...

What a joke

A former Microsoftie says addiction to Windows revenue, mediocre products, and missed opportunities could doom Seattle’s most successful company.

 

[radhak]

This is a amazingly well written article, totally readable for all its length. The guy has given personal anecdotes which work very well. I found very little to argue with there.

I like his ending passages :

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0422/040602_news_microsoft.php

...

Meanwhile, Microsoft doesn’t evoke passion in me anymore. Its products don’t excite me anymore. I remember eagerly looking forward to Outlook 2003, only to be disappointed by how complex, buggy, and unimproved it was. “There’s kind of an angst,” says Andrews, the Seattle Times columnist and author. “Microsoft ought to matter to us. There ought to be more of an intellectual and emotional connection. There just isn’t.”

In an age when retailers hire consultants to analyze what hip kids do, you’d think Microsoft would care more about what the hip kids are doing. They’re running around with iPods, using Linux and OS X. A Groundspring intern e-mailed me recently about his new Apple PowerBook: “I think I may be smitten by a computer.” That’s the kind of passion I’m talking about. In its search for market share, dominance, and profits, Microsoft lost the ultimate battle for our hearts and minds. For now, though, it’s still laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[King Cobra]

Heh, makes me wonder when we'll see this in the Longhorn source code:

I used to work for Windows, but after trying to follow all this wacko documentation, I decided to work for Apple.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if that's already been "implemented" somewhere in the margin of the Longhorn code somewhere.

 

[Abstract]

Whenever I read a "Microsoft Sucks" article, the problems that these people seem to have always seem exaggerated. I've owned a few Windows computers, and I can't remember having this many simultaneous, major problems at once. One problem was Shutting Down in Windows Me, but we know how crap that OS was to begin with. I think MS would admit to that. However, the other problems.....I just don't see them. The biggest problem are viruses. That's enough reason to make me a Mac user, but otherwise, Office is really not a bad product.

 

[SuperChuck]

The real problem with Microsoft is that they do not spend nearly enough time making their products easy to use. They cram things in, add features and plug holes all the time, but they have never really sat down and said "What is the most simple, straightforward, elegant way to accomplish this task." Okay, I'm sure they do ask that question from time to time, but it is obviously not a guiding principle. And if it is, they suck far more than I had ever imagined.

It seems that this question is asked regularly in Cupertino, even though the answer they come up with occasionally misses the mark (puck mouse, one-button mouse, mouse with no button that makes long click-and-drags a headache...they have trouble with mice). Nonetheless, that is why Apple has been, and always will be, better.

 

[solvs]

Either this is the same guy that was posted about already or Apple is paying people off...

What a joke

Yeah, because anyone who hates Microsoft is being paid off by Apple. Though I have to admit he could just be bitter, having to use Windows myself sometimes, I can see why he may feel the way he does.

 

[Sun Baked]

They cannot be doomed, everybody else is with Microsofts Latest Patent 6,727,830

They were granted a Double-Click Patent -- on a device's button.

 

[wdlove]

I don't see any reason, but that Microsoft will be around for quite a while. It will only be if Apple can make a dent into the business world with Mac OS X and Xserve and RAID.