[LINK] How can Microsoft stop us hating them?

[Kim Holburn]

Microsoft have a lot of money and they can and do use it to create  
lots of "grass-roots" support.

They should try innovating instead of locking people into their  
software.

They should stop pressure on OEMs to bundle Windows with every  
machine, locking out every other OS.

They could simplify their licensing arrangements.

They should accept responsibility for the security problems on  
windows.  If they had to pay for fixing the security issues maybe  
something would get done about them.  If they had to pay for the  
wasted time and resources, cpu cycles for anti-virus, anti-malware  
and include it in their costings we might see some action.  When I  
can run an out of the box windows system without AV like I can with  
other operating systems then I'll believe MS has fixed this issue and  
not before.

They should stop bundling a non-standards compliant web browser with  
their operating system.
Ditto for media player.

They should open their protocols and APIs and allow real  
interoperability ie allow third party servers.  When we see real  
third party domain controllers we will know that this has happened  
and not before, despite all the rhetoric.

They should stop funding law suits against linux and threatening  
linux with legal issues.

They should stop illegal interference in world standards bodies.



On 2007/Dec/13, at 3:18 AM, Stilgherrian wrote:

> Folks, I just posted the following on my personal website, seeking  
> comments
> before I have dinner with a relevant, senior Microsoft chap  
> tomorrow night.
>
> Any comments that aren't just slagging-off platform-wars  
> childishness or
> boring technical rants much appreciated! ;)
>
> Stil
>
>
> How can Microsoft stop us hating them?
> http://stilgherrian.com/internet/hating_microsoft/
>
> So what do you think of Microsoft, eh? No, really. I want to know.
>
> I have to admit I’m not exactly a fan. I’ll explain why  
> momentarily. But
> Microsoft is changing, or at least wants to change, and I’m finding  
> it hard
> to shed old impressions.
>
> The Blue Monster cartoon
> http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003388.html is  
> part of this
> changing Microsoft. Its creator, Hugh MacLeod http:// 
> www.gapingvoid.com/,
> intended it as a conversation-starter — what he calls a "social  
> object"
> http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004265.html. Steve  
> Clayton
> from Microsoft UK says they use it to help Microsoft start talking  
> about its
> own process of re-birth. http://youtube.com/watch?v=-kZZX8Pl5Lk
>
> I’m cynical when software companies claim grand goals like  
> “changing the
> world”.. That over-the-top rhetoric was central to the first dot- 
> com bubble.
> Usually, the bigger the rhetoric the crappier the product. Still, I’m
> willing to listen.
>
> Another sign of a changing Microsoft is my friend Nick Hodge
> http://www.nickhodge.com/ who sold me my first Mac back in 1985.  
> Nick now
> works for the Blue Monster as an “enthusiast evangelist”, and  
> represents how
> Microsoft is embracing blogging and a new culture of openness — and  
> actually
> having conversations with people instead of talking at them.
>
> But can Microsoft really change and, more importantly, convince us to
> believe them?
>
> Openness and transparency are important to me. As an old-school  
> geek, I
> absorbed the principles of openness that built the early Internet.  
> Bill
> Gates’ infamous 1976 letter to computer hobbyists
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists  expressed a
> commercial attitude that was at odds with that openness.
>
> It irked me that Gates went on to become the richest man in the  
> world by
> selling what I considered to be second-rate software using  
> questionable
> business tactics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft#Criticism
>
> I reckon the best, truly innovative software is created by
> awesomely-intelligent individuals or small, focussed teams like  
> 37signals.
> Microsoft’s industrial-scale development process, with armies of  
> cubicle
> droids, seems incapable of producing anything other than bloated,
> overly-complicated and buggy software.
>
> Certainly my business clients running Windows generate far more  
> support
> calls than those using Macs. Now that Apple has added what for me  
> was the
> one missing feature, I intend returning to Apple’s productivity  
> software
> rather than using Microsoft Office for Mac.
>
> But, as I say, these are existing or old impressions. A young  
> Microsoft
> employee told Hugh MacLeod that a lot of the culture shift inside  
> Microsoft
> is generational.
>
>     http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004337.html
>
>     The old guard is highly competitive, the new guard is more
>     collaborative. The old guard sees Open Source as a threat,
>     the new guard sees Open Source as an opportunity. He was
>     confident the new guard will prevail because, of course,
>     being young, they’ll be around for much longer. He reckoned
>     it’ll be at least another decade before the outside world
>     starts recognizing the change that’s currently happening
>     internally.
>
> Now I’m writing about this today for a reason.
>
> Nick Hodge has invited me and a few other geeks to dinner tomorrow  
> with Joe
> Wilson, Worldwide Director of Microsoft’s Academic and Enthusiast
> Evangelists (of which he is one). So, I know what I feel about  
> Microsoft,
> and I’m interested to hear what he’s got to say — over a nice wine  
> or two at
> Macchiavelli.
>
> What do you think about Microsoft, and how would you like to see them
> change? Can you think they can do it?
>
>
> -- 
> Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/
> Internet, IT and Media Consulting, Sydney, Australia
> mobile +61 407 623 600
> fax +61 2 9516 5630
> ABN 25 231 641 421
>
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961