What's RIGHT about Microsoft?

Revised & Reopened March 25, 2009

Hi all, this is my favorite post from my early days here at channel 9. I hope to be a more active niner. So, I want to invite you all to review this discussion. Add your thoughts and consider if you will the merits of this discussion. Also please stay tuned as I intend to bring up some new and interesting discussions that are on my mind.

Origonal Post Follows:

To Channel 9 and its Community: Well, with all the negativity out there I thought I would post in the positive direction.  What's "Right" about Microsoft, MSDN and more importantly the Products?
Here is my take, for what its worth.  

I believe that the vision and product benefits that Microsoft delivers are outstanding.  We need more Microsofts in this world, companies that believe in the product they produce, and are willing to "bet the company" as they say on what they believe.

What’s right about Microsoft?
From the Desktop to the Server, Developer to Elementary Student (yes the latter two have a common thread), all have something gained from Microsoft. The "Current" and Internet centric “Product” base is right.  Microsoft bet the company more than once on a technology, trend, or idea, and that’s exceptional.  Produce for the masses software products that work well in all environments, for all kinds of users worldwide, that's a tall order! I know it is difficult to satisfy the cravings of even a few customers. Ask any successful business person or software vendor. 

What’s right about MSDN?
Longhorn, Yukon, and Whidbey I predict are going to change our networked world again, leaving you with another impression of Microsoft. Hopefully that impression will be a positive one.  MSDN gives developers a real interface to the platforms and technologies that our world invests in.  What’s right is that people are interested in contributing to MSDN and in Building community therein, I know I am.  Channel-9 is just another example of the commitment Microsoft has made to interfacing with society at the developer level.  Besides who informs “VITO” on what technology to invest in anyway? We do.

What’s right about Microsoft’s products?
As if the current products didn't speak for themselves, I use them everyday, and I assure you they do.  Connectivity, Interoperability and Extensibility are the words that come to mind.  The software of the past has been powerful but always bridled. It’s as if the programmers of yesterday were consistently “protecting” the users from themselves, or creating boundaries that were obvious for users in attempts to preemptively avoid errors and crashes.  Today developers own each error in a personal way and understand this responsibility.  I attribute this change in thinking to Microsoft’s strategies. By creating opportunity in the three categories I mentioned; Connectivity, Interoperability and Extensibility, all of which are supported on a foundation that is user friendly, we are protected without being limited.

To Microsoft:  I have always been an objective fan, not always happy with every detail, but generally I go to sleep at night, and wake up the next morning hungry for more. Keep up the good work!

To the community: I have for over 20 years experienced the good and the not so good in IT, and I challenge everyone to understand that when representing your experience with Microsoft products and services you must also represent the good from time to time.

Respectfully,

James
 

 

 

The reason Microsoft has these forums is so they can find out what is wrong about what they are currently doing and make their products even better than they already are.

I think we need the negitivity in here until these issues are resolved, then we won't have anything but positive things here.

Shining...

I understand the need for change, and for the forums. Sometimes people tend to take things to an extreme.  I was just venting in the other direction.
Thanks for your reply.

Also, I forgot to mention in the original post, please respond with your thoughts as to what Microsoft is doing right.  It is my opinion that this feedback is just as important as the negative feedback.

Thanks again,

Jamie

Microsoft is going in the right direction with their inductive user interfaces, increasingly more efficent software and additional features that enable users to do things that previously required 3rd party software which kept some people from using them.

Edit: By the way, Trustworthy computing and putting security as before everything else is also good.

I don't think being negative is the right way to go. We can complain, but if all we do is complain and not discuss then firstly they might have well make a form 'Insert Complaint'. I think this is about understanding not about us telling them or them telling us so much. If you think they are here to read your problems then I think you need to re-consider your participation or at least your attitude.

Agreed, the renewed security focus is very important. What do you think about .Net and how it is changing the way software is developed and consumed today?

What do you think about .Net ? Well I'm glad you asked.
I come to you from the stone age.

We started selling Windows apps to consumers in 1995.
Our products ran on Windows 3.1, 95, 98, etc. Here's a flash: there's still a whole lot of Win'98 out there. We need to remain compatible with our customers in order to stay in business.

We have 500K+ lines of Win SDK and MFC code that still sells well.

We've been hearing nothing but .NET for the past few years. Problem is, how do you deploy a .NET application within the consumer community? I hear there's a 17MB upgrade to install .NET on Win'98. And afterwards, sometimes the system doesn't boot.

How is the customer going to download this over a modem? All this for our $29 product? I don't think so.

Can someone point me to a company that is selling a .NET application to consumers that runs on Win'98? Thank you.

No offense but I think you are hearing about .NET because .NET is the future, and so is broadband (so the modem argument doesn't go far imho). You can think inside a box if you want, and some have to, I understand there are constraints applied by your customers, but honestly did you get involved in technology because you thought it was something that wouldn't change? If you wonder whether .NET mangles a win98 box upon installing the framework.. why is it that you haven't done this for your self yet? Not trying to vent, but MS has caught so much flack over the years for trying to be backwards compatible to the nth degree. I for one was happy to see them cutting lose some of the dead weight.

To the original post about what is "right". I think that placing emphasis on open standards is right for everyone. I also understand that at times innovation requires deviating from said standards but that should be done with great care and an open mind to incorporate such innovations back into the pool of knowledge that has helped to drive technology so far. Vendor lock in is bad news for everyone, and I am glad that my current development language C#, as well as the MSIL/CLR specifications are ECMA and ISO standards.. it really means a lot to me to have a company to take those steps.

.Net is indeed in a new ERA; Call it the "NEW MEDIA" ERA if you like. However, I would still recommend that you consider an eventual migration path to .Net. The ~ 20 MB distributions can be an issue, the benefits are far reaching, and they include security, portability, and feature access to newer operating systems.

Have you considered that some of your users will eventually upgrade and that your products may fail to interact with these environments and other desktop applications at a competitive level?

I appreciate your investments; here is an example of my understanding.

One product offering of my company some time ago was a web application written in VB and ASP 3.0, this was pre .Net and I hosted this application on a server that was co-located at a data center distant to my location. 

One day the datacenter "upgraded" my server's operating system to the newest version of the front page extensions and they added support for the .Net framework 1.0, without consulting me or my staff.

Well needless to say this broke my applications and caused me about a weeks worth of headaches and late nights while I determined the reasons.  The data center refused to rollback the server and they said that the upgrade is a mandate to fix security vulnerabilities etc.

I went to this example to explain to you that while my code investments were discounted considerably by the new technology and yes we lost customers in the process of changing (with no notice or testing) we benefited by tapping into a considerably larger market that is more in tune with reality, less headaches etc.  

We patched the old code and started immediately looking at .net for its merits.

 

What kind of application are you delivering? Some of these functions may exist in the framework and may work better than our custom code.

 

I found that to be the case, over 50% of my snippet library was streamlined and delivered in the consumer DNF Runtime, making my apps smaller and easier to distribute.

 

One last comment, most users on 98 have already succumbed to the .Net distributable push in order to use features of mainstream services available to .Net. While some users are not well connected these users almost always require that the software they subscribe to be delivered via CDROM, or DVD, when this is the case you can ship the runtime on the CD with your software.

 

Regards,

 

Jamie
 

 

Just because were on a M$ forum, doesn't mean we have to kiss thier * every two minutes.

MrLyle,
Running KDE on Slackware 9.1

My Windows 2000 I'm running doesn't crash nearly as much as WinME did.       

Ich wrote:

My Windows 2000 I'm running doesn't crash nearly as much as WinME did.       

That qualifies. Thanks for your post!

Jamie

Wow, that's very cool. Thank you for sharing that with us. I think that you may be right, people are a core focus of Microsoft.

I re-iterate, "The world needs more Microsofts."

Thanks for your post,

Jamie

What’s right about Microsoft is not how they focus on products but how they focus on people.

Microsoft doesn’t think about “how much” they’re going to make on "X" or "Y" product but how many solutions they can deliver to its customers and its employees; in the end this makes life easier for everybody involved in the process. By having people sharing a common vision they can set apart from any other company in the industry, this is where Microsoft strength resides; they trust their people and they trust their partners and with a source so diverse and rich in ideas they are meant to be the leaders for many years to come.

How all this translate into benefits for people inside and outside Microsoft can only be describe by one word: opportunity.

 

Opportunity:

To create,

To improve,

To innovate,

To share knowledge and ideas, in the end is the opportunity to make our lives and the lives of the generations to come even better.

 

Once I was given the opportunity to start all over and make things different, that opportunity came in form a foundation that helped my family to pay for a medical treatment when I was 11y.o. I clearly remember a doctor coming to my bed sitting by my side and said:

“- You know… in this world there are two types of people, the ones who cares and the ones who doesn’t.

- You’re lucky, because there are people who care about you and I want you to remember this: if somebody does something good for you the lees you can do to payback is to do the same for somebody else.

- I was told few minutes ago a foundation backed up by Microsoft is taking care of your medical expenses. Few people in this world will do something that nice for somebody they don’t know. This is a once in you life chance (opportunity) now is up to you to get better and do the same (help) for somebody else…”

 

Since that day everything was different for me; I never thought such a big company could have such humanitarian sense for their community, now days Microsoft presence is almost everywhere but few people stop for a second to think about Microsoft not as mammoth but as company formed by many individuals. People who think, feel and love… people just like you and me, that’s the real Microsoft, people taking care of people.

 

Thanks Bill and Paul for making your dream come true, thank you Microsoft people for keeping the dream alive.

Prodev wrote:

Wow, that's very cool. Thank you for sharing that with us. I think that you may be right, people are a core focus of Microsoft.

I re-iterate, "The world needs more Microsofts."

Thanks for your post,

Jamie

yeap... we need more "microsofties" around.

Microsoft's current corporate advertising campaign is one of the best I'd never seen and it really reflects the company’s commitment with the industry and the community.

Our mission is not just to unlock the potential of today's new technologies. It is to help unleash the potential in every person, family, and business. We want to help you do the things you do every day—express your ideas, manage your finances, build your business—faster, easier, and better. At Microsoft, we see the world not as it is, but as it might someday become.

Your Potential. Our Passion.™

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ads/tv.asp

Re: Your Potential. Our Passion.™

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Outstanding, that is so great.  I appreciate that link.  Its very nice. I enjoy people-media, and thats what that is.

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When will the rest of this world actually "get it"?

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Reinier_XNA... Thank You.  I would like the opportunity to get to know more about you and what you do.

Regards,

Jamie

...The millions of dollars being spent on risk research programs. Another is a table filesystem. Another is the DLL system (I love the idea), and now another thing is fixing it. My only wish is a new UI. WIMP and the command line shouldn't be the only things out there.