What would you like to see Microsoft do differently this year? | The Coffeehouse

scobleizer
I'm the video guy

Macromedia is asking "What do you find to be the most obnoxious thing about Macromedia right now?" So, thought it'd be a good time to ask something similar: "what would you like Microsoft to do differently this year?"

geoff.appleby
Borf

As a geek, I've been pretty damn happy in the last year - the amount of early info that we get these days is just incredible.

If there's a new product, we know about it. If there's a beta or CTP, they're available.

But service packs get hardly any mention, and they're almost as important (if not more so) as new versions of products.

How about getting more info out early on service packs - just that's it's being worked on would be nice to know Smiley

(for example, I've heard a rumour that there'll be a VS2003 SP1 coming out soonish - but I can't confirm it at all! Smiley

Loadsgood
What is your answer?

Hmmmm, I like the way MSN is going with all the new technologies i.e. MSN Spaces, MSN Messenger etc. Although I would like something done to put Channel9 on the map. What would be really good is if we made a Channel9 Messenger program Smiley

But make it only Open Source to the dedicated C9 fans, this way we could make it perfect just the way we want it.

How cool would that be? Better than MSN Messenger C⁹ Messenger!
Loadsgood.

Rossj

scobleizer wrote:
what would you like Microsoft to do differently this year?

Wow, thats a much harder question than it first appears. I think I'd like to see Microsoft repair more bridges, be friendlier, be more open to competition (i.e. provide full unhindered* access to the documentation required by the SAMBA team).

*unhindered here means not wrapped in an .exe that carries a license.

rhm

How about Microsoft using its patents to coerce ISVs into signing patent licencing agreements (which reportedly cover some things MS doesn't even own the rights to like TCP/IP) that forbid them to work on Free/Open Source software. That's pretty obnoxious as corporate activities go.

Pace
In The Mix...

Keep up the good work! Wink

ZippyV
Fired Up

Lower the software prices.

eagle

I need Windows Mobile 2005 for my ViewSonic v37, please...

dnrfan
It's .NET

scobleizer wrote:
Macromedia is asking "What do you find to be the most obnoxious thing about Macromedia right now?" So, thought it'd be a good time to ask something similar: "what would you like Microsoft to do differently this year?"

I see your holding a large can opener there Robert, and worms are about to come out. You really want the answer to that?

This is just one:

MS keep saying that if they were to support more CSS, then it could break many websites.

Someone from MS plese explain how this could be? Cause I think many people might take MS's stance of webstandards for IE, as "We stuffed up by not doing it in the first place and it's too late to do anything about it now."

Here is a tip for you Scooby ( only suggestion and no offense intended )

Start holding the camera still
Stop laughing throughout the videos
Prepare some questions to ask and stick to them at minimum, then ad lib
Maybe use a RGB to Video Scan convertor and plug that into your camera for the shots of the computer screens. Easy enough to switch between cam and input.
Use an external mic thats between you and the interviewee

Channel 9 :

Offer better quality video clips. MS claimed years ago that they had DVD Quality at 500Kbps. Where the hell is that? QT Trailers are excellent quality for their size.

ThomasAesir

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Rossj

^
Another Firefox user - are you actually ever going to fix that bug? Smiley

Sabot
My name is Dave Oliver. I'm a Technical Architect.

Firstly, the level of transparence displayed by Microsoft over the last year is amazing already!

My highlights have been,

We Learning 247
The MSDN Achitecture section
Software Factories
Developer Security Training DVD
and best of all .... C9!

Afew of my suggestions are,

It would be nice to see more opportunities for the community to get more involved, for example, Community submitted articles, case studies and tech talks

It would really nice to have regular progress updates on how current projects are going, it doesn't have to be a Microsoft Project Plan! ... but something to manage expectation and to scotch rumour and hear'say.

I would love to see more work on Software Factories, such as more best practice, case studies and recommendations.

I would love to see an interview with Microsoft European Support someone like Mark Long.

**********************************************

Keep up the very good work and thanks for listening !

-Sabot

ThomasAesir

I'd like Microsoft to:

Support XHTML via standards mode in IE
Allow Managed Direct3D to run in IE (fix whatever security issue[s] doesn't allow that to happen at the moment)
Promote the .Net runtime to normal people
Keep doing projects like "VB.Net at the Movies" and add more content to them
Buy the BeOS IP from Palm and create an MS BeOS [with .Net support]

oh and fix the Firefox posting bug!

how hard can it be to collect data from a form post?

Blkbam
Bam, Bam! Bam, Bam Bam!

ZippyV wrote:
Lower the software prices.

Pace wrote:
Keep up the good work!

Seems I was beaten to it!

OldManCoyote

More open source standards. Standards like the MS version for email verifications, in which no organization embrassing it (i.e. Apache, etc), except AOL.

Why would any developer bother to develop software, that is beholden to Microsoft in such restrictive manor. Getting a 'license' just to use the MS 'open source' standard of email verification; what a joke...

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

dnrfan wrote:
Stop laughing throughout the videos

Disagree. You gotta be yourself.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

Beer28 wrote:

jamie wrote: Sure there is Apple - but thats like trying to sell BMW to someone who can afford a Chrysler

I don't want to get too off topic, but Apple is a Chrysler. I've used it at friends, tried new versions at demo's ect... The UI is sharper than the major linux UI's, but I don't think it's way better. I've seen my share of mac's running OSx freeze.

They're more like a Mercedes then: they look cool, and hold high esteem in certain circles, but the build quality is shoddy. Wink

(Well, maybe not for the hardware. You can drop an iBook of a 20 story building and it'd still work.)

What is it with computers and car analogies anyway?

MisterDonut
The Disco Godfather

I would like to see Microsoft invoke some excitement in people.. Not us Developers, per say, but the general public. Microsoft right now is pretty ho-hum.. Kinda like "I'm buying a computer" to a civilian means you're buying a PC (most likely). But "I'm buying an Apple" usually invokes an interesting response.

Excitement is generated at every Macworld expo. Sheesh, Apple can re-color an iPod and everyone goes gaga.. Microsoft releases a new product (say, Media Center 2005 and the extenders) and no one knows / cares.. I own a Media Center PC, and the only way I even knew about the extenders was by someone on Channel 9 (thanks, dude..).

Microsoft, in order to sell more products, needs to have the "wow, cool" excitement energy that Apple has. I wish I could tell you how to do that, but I don't (maybe more marketing? A very public contest / sweepstakes?) I know Microsoft had some sort of a re-do of some US Soldier's homes with Media Center stuff (don't know where I heard that), but it was pretty low key. I digress, though..

Anyone share the sentiment?

Maurits
AKA Matthew van Eerde

Beer28 wrote:
Sven Groot wrote:What is it with computers and car analogies anyway?

Linux is the volkswagon!

I'd say Linux is more like a kit... you put it together yourself, and if it breaks you fix it yourself.

Rossj

scobleizer wrote:
What would you like Microsoft to do differently this year?

- Presentations.
- Take a lesson on what communism is, and why centralised control is one of the defining characteristics in non-theoretical socialism.

Maurits
AKA Matthew van Eerde

Rossj wrote:
^
Another Firefox user - are you actually ever going to fix that bug?

It's probably a FreeTextBox bug, not a Channel9 bug.

Rossj

Well that's okay then. Feel free to leave it there. Tongue Out

scobleizer
I'm the video guy

dnrfan: if I prepared questions ahead of time the teams would want to see them and prepare for them. Wouldn't be good. That's what MSDN TV is for.

I'll try to be steadier. This is an artifact of doing it all with one person instead of having a camera crew (and the fact that I am doing this with lightweight equipment, same as what you could buy at BestBuy. On the other hand you get to see people and hear their opinions in a way that'd never happen if a crew came along.

Yeah, audio is something we gotta work on.

The thing is there are some guiding principles that I'm following:

1) Use as little equipment as possible. Why? Because that puts people at ease and helps them give more candid answers. I've watched what happens when a camera crew shows up with lights, mics, and a big camera. People start "acting."

2) Have as few people involved as possible. Why does that matter? Well, again, people act less candid when more people are there. They feel more "on stage." I saw this one time when an interviewee's boss was in her office. She couldn't get a word out. Boss left, she became nice and casual again.

3) Make it as close to what you can do on real-world equipment as possible. One of the things I'm trying to show is that anyone can do videos. The only real barrier is distribution.

As to video quality. This is a function of how much bandwidth these things take up. Unfortunately I don't have an unlimited budget here, so have to live within some constraints. I'm experimenting with higher resolution stuff, though. Yeah, even Microsoft has to worry about how much bandwidth we're chewing through.

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

Sven Groot wrote:
What is it with computers and car analogies anyway?

It's a convient comparison device. You know, it's like the Seven-Eleven of comparison devices.

Not sure if I have anything that MS did to annoy, but I'd like to see (on C9?) more of the marketing side. I want to see the real people behind the marketing team. I want to see how they make some of the decisions they made. It's a totally non-techie side, and I think that'd be interesting.

kovax12

ZippyV wrote:
Lower the software prices.

I second that. I would also like to see Longhorn and XBox 2. Wink