I like Paul Thurrott and his SuperSite for Windows. He does excellent and really indepth reviews and commentary on Microsoft products. I read Part 5 of an article he wrote where he talks about the failings of Vista. I was surprised at how upset he is and how blunt he is. I'm impressed by his objective look at Vista. He really calls it like is.
Since the euphoria of PDC 2003, Microsoft's handling of Windows Vista has been abysmal. Promises have been made and dismissed, again and again. Features have come and gone. Heck, the entire project was literally restarted from scratch after it became obvious that the initial code base was a teetering, technological house of cards. Windows Vista, in other words, has been an utter disaster. And it's not even out yet. What the heck went wrong?
This got me thinking about Vista, again. You can recall that I'd said in a previous post that perhaps Microsoft should abandon Vista entirely and purchase an OS. Perhaps build something from the Linux platform. When I read Paul's article I felt even more strongly that something as radical as building Windows Linux is exactly what Microsoft needs to do. I think actually they should purchase Apple (since Apple will never licence their OS and Microsoft would never want to licence it from them) and use OSX, but more realistically, I think that building upon Linux would be the way to go for Microsoft. It would revitalize them, inject new thinking and approaches into the way they do things. More importantly, it would allow them to shed some of legacy aspects of their OS and their approach to software development. Paul's article does a great job pointing out how bad this legacy-stuff has hurt Windows.
So what went wrong? What didn't go wrong? When Bill Gates revealed in mid-2003 that he was returning to his roots, so to speak, and spending half of his time on what was then still called Longhorn, we should have seen the warning signs. Sadly, Gates, too, is part of the Bad Microsoft, a vestige of the past who should have had the class to either formally step down from the company or at least play just an honorary role, not step up his involvement and get his hands dirty with the next Windows version. If blame is to be assessed, we must start with Gates. He has guided--or, through lack of leadership--failed to guide the development of Microsoft's most prized asset. He has driven it into the ground.
I had never thought of that perspective before. It's a brutally honest observation that I think coming from someone like Paul, carries a lot of weight.
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