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Need Your Input - Future Microsoft Development for Mac

voicegy

voicegy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2002
1,429
17
Sandy Eggo - MacRumors Member since 1-1-2002
I received this e-mail from our district K-12 Strategic and Major Accounts Manager today:

"We have a great opportunity for San Diego City Schools to be part of our Macintosh Customer Council."

"The objective of the council is to allow our most strategic Mac customers to have a direct voice into what products are being developed for the Mac. The basic requirements of participation involve a conference call once a month (second Thursday of each month for one hour) and 2 visits to Redmond per year. The district would be responsible for travel costs. Microsoft will take care of your meals for the visits to Redmond and typically reserve very competitive rates for your lodging. Other benefits of membership include access to a private website thatÕs exclusive to members to allow you to post feedback and share information with other members."

I'm somewhat taken aback that Microsoft has created this Council, and it bodes well (I hope) for our Mac community in general.

Goodness knows I've got some ideas of what I'd like to see happen, but I couldn't possibly charge forth with this opportunity without asking two things from the magnificent members of this respected forum, MacRumors.

1. Has anyone else here received a similar e-mail regarding the Macintosh Customer Council?

2. What would you, dear reader, like to see brought to the table if given the opportunity?

I need to be in an initial conference call on Friday, August 2nd, to offer my commitment, which I intend to do so. I couldn't imagine being involved in this without the highly regarded comments, opinions, and input of this message board to bring to the table.

Fire away.
 
I hope posting about this on these forums doesn't jeopardize your ability to participate in this program. Just be careful about what you say.

If there's one thing I would tell Microsoft- it's either make IE for windows work with HTML and standards completely, or continue to develop IE for Mac at the same level it is on the PC.

While I love and use Safari, too many people are making web pages designed to work only with the latest version of IE for windows only. Apple can try to catch up with Safari, but Microsoft will keep on changing things to keep the competition behind, since some 95% of computers online use IE.

There are other compatibility issues, such as media player (which is supposed to be out for the Mac soon), which I'm sure will suck compared to the PC version.

Although I hate to use microsoft programs, I'm often forced to when I can't load a certain page in Safari, or somebody sends me a windows media file.

I'd also suggest open standards, but talking about that to microsoft is like talking to a brick wall. Except the brick wall might actually listen.

BTW: This thing might be a scam by microsoft, just to prove that they did something to help with Mac development when a lawsuit comes around... I'd say keep close notes on what microsoft promises, in case this does happen... It sounds like a typical microsoft move. You buddy up with the competition, and then squash them like a bug. Although ms has tried this with Apple before, it's never worked, but keep your eyes and ears peeled. You're a spy in the middle of enemy territory ;) :cool:
 
Originally posted by G4scott
I hope posting about this on these forums doesn't jeopardize your ability to participate in this program. Just be careful about what you say. [...] You're a spy in the middle of enemy territory ;) :cool:
Click to expand...

It shouldn't be a problem, as I consider this forum a place to gather thoughts, as I will from others within my own workplace. The more informative input the better. I have respect for the Mac developer group over at Microsoft, and if this is meant for them, which I believe it is, then it can only be a win-win. I appreciate your input, and your comments are heard and taken to heart as well. Thank you.:)
 
What about Access?

While I'm not a big fan of it, I think it would help acceptance of OS X in the business world if it was available in the Mac version of Office.
 
I hate to say it, but my first thought was that this is some marketing ploy for MS. They put you up, treat you nice, show you Redmond, listen to you - pretty soon everyone loves MS and the decision becomes to switch to MS because they have been so good. Again, just my first thought - shame I have become so distrusting.
 
What you need to do is walk in there, convince them that you are good for them, then walk out with a prototype of their latest computer technology and use it to pirate your own company to eventually crush them...oops, that was already done before by them, so I guess they'd see that coming... ;-)
 
I think MS has done pretty good job with Office suite, but they could spend some time to make their product compatible with some of their competitors. Making MS Word compatible with AppleWorks so that people can open AppleWorks file in Word or things like that (that's just one example). Also, as someone has mentioned, make their browser more compliant with common standard so that web pages do not require statements like "This web site is designed for Explorer" and such.

My bottomline is, MS software for Apple is already pretty good, they just need to work on compatibility.

But looking at their track record, that is not going to happen any time soon.
 
Access is worthless junk even on the Windows platform. Any company which is using Access for anything is technically clueless.

I would like to see a version of Outlook for the Mac. I would also like to see them bring some of their games, e.g. Rise of Nations, to the Mac.
 
Implement Java -- not just JavaScript.
Implement Obj-C -- not just "C-sharp".
Implement MIT's original Kerberos -- not just MS's proprietary Kerberos.
Implement a "Save as HTML" that doesn't include MS-specific characters that wreck rendering on non-MS products.


In a word:


Perestroika
 
One thing that would be nice is to see less bloated MS programs. Right now I am still on OS 9 with Office 2001, but let me say, Office is *so* bloated that it makes Rosanne look anorexic in comparison. I routinely like to go through my extentions folder and get rid of extra extentions that are basically needless and delete them to keep my system working slim and quick, but it's hard when Microsoft has about 80 extentions for IE and Office and if you delete just one of them, the program will just go and reinstall that extention again after you open and run it. It's frustrating to say the least, especially when a few of them are basically useless as far as providing functionality. If their programs are the same way on OS X as far as extra bloat, I'd like to see these products get the slimming that they should have. (Just compare the amount of data written to your disk between having Appleworks installed and having MS Office installed--it's a huge difference)
 
i'd like to see windows for mac, not that i in anyway enjoy using windows, but for compatability purposes. hardly any games are made for a mac, if there was a windows for mac, a dual boot could be set up so games and other windows only apps can be run at a decent speed instead of using vpc. and if they could get it to run in the background of osx so you could run mac and windows apps at the same time, that would be great......... not likely though, i doubt they would want another os more compatable then their own
 
1. sync pocket PC w/ macs, and the syncing should be on par to Active sync
2. full exchange support in entourage: so you can share calendars with windows users
3. fully compatible web browser and messenger
 
Originally posted by applebum
I hate to say it, but my first thought was that this is some marketing ploy for MS. They put you up, treat you nice, show you Redmond, listen to you - pretty soon everyone loves MS and the decision becomes to switch to MS because they have been so good. Again, just my first thought - shame I have become so distrusting.
Click to expand...

they are very astute marketers...i wish apple would use some of microsoft's business ideas

when i got ms certified, i agreed to everything ms wanted to send me or spam me and it's amazing the things they will do for you for loyalty

the local county govt here has a ms only training program paid for by gates and they will even buy you glasses if needed to read their texts and computer screen...and they paid her 360 a month to take ms classes
 
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