Google, Microsoft, Yahoo as Ford, GM and Chrysler

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Well - Microsoft IS General Motors

Decades ago - Microsoft arrived - using a novel yet
familiar business model.

They rushed into new, immature markets with poorly
designed products & aggressive marketing ? and
cornered us into accepting their design philosophies
before we (or even they) could sufficiently think
them through - or develop alternatives.

Like General Motors in the '50s, Microsoft played
hardball.

When GM bought the land out from under Los Angeles?
train system in the 1940?s ? they ripped up the
tracks just to prevent rail-based competition ?
resulting in traffic jams that haunt LA to this day.

Microsoft did the same with Netscape and scores of
others ? with similar results.

And like GM - Microsoft ran into difficulty when
other - more determined - firms started marketing
cleaner, simpler and more reliable alternatives to
their products.

As Honda did to GM ? Mac did to Microsoft ? shaming
them into costly redesigns.

But other history provides even more insight to
Microsoft's products and behavior.

Every generation has its fascinations. Back in the
'30s it was shortwave radio, with kids huddled
around glowing tube sets. In the '50s it was hot-rod
cars. In the 60?s it was TV. In the '70s it was
Japanese electronics with ludicrous quantities of
tiny buttons and bloated user-manuals that only a
shut-in would ever read.

The very same ?70s that spawned Bill Gates.

And so the '80s begat the computer age - with the
same attendant adolescent overkill.

Interestingly ? as programmers spend less time
inside their pc?s ? and more time on the web -
they?ll probably migrate to integrated PC/TV sets ?
eventually morphing into simple TV addicts once
again - completing the virtuous cycle.

Notice how PC magazines today cover more cameras,
Ipods and TVs than programming languages ? the more
things change, the more they stay the same. But I
digress.

Back at Microsoft - what was "feature-rich" to
hobbyists became tiresome "bloat-ware" to the rest
of us.

Even Bill Gates got caught on an Email cursing a
developer over how difficult it was to run their new
applications. It wasn?t the developer?s fault he had
to work under Microsoft?s bloated methodologies - it
was Bill?s fault.

Gates built his business on simple paranoia ? he had
to be everything to everybody ? so no one ?
absolutely no one ? would ever go elsewhere for
solutions.

This paranoia resulted in the endless introduction
of ?features? into an already shaky Windows
architecture and across their product range ?
driving them to the point of being unstable and un-
maintainable.

Microsoft?s penchant for writing bloated, slow
operating systems, then embedding every possible
feature into every possible product-offering, and
cross-referencing them so you can?t even type a web
address in a Word document without the damn thing
trying to logon to the Internet ? is ? well, a
formula for disaster.

Recent Internet Explorer security fiascos allowing
Word doc?s to transmit harmful Active-X code is just
another example.

I mean - a BROWSER brought down by a WORD document ?
OH STOP IT !

Today?s computer and Internet vulnerabilities,
system outages and poor performance are all
incestuously related to Microsoft?s marketing every
conceivable option to keep you from going elsewhere
? for the tiniest thing.

In Oliver Stone?s film Wall Street - Gordon Gekko?s
claim that ?Greed is good, greed clarifies? ? should
be restated as ?Greed is bad, greed complicates and
stupefies?.

There?s striking similarities here to when the
Japanese decided to offer only limited ?feature
packages? on their cars ? just as Detroit found they
just couldn?t build quality cars with endless
combinations of options.

No two cars went off the assembly line the same way
? and your mechanic just couldn?t keep them
running.

Now even Microsoft is suffering under this bloated
house-of-cards. The latest Windows service-pack
advertised download time is more than 5 hours!

Imagine if you will ? millions of Microsoft
customers at home across the world ? in every
continent ? every country ? every time zone ? each
spending 5 hours downloading bloat-ware patches.

It staggers the mind. The strain on the
communications lines alone must have been enormous.

It?s like teaching an elephant to tap-dance ? but
with Billy Boy & The Bloatware Factory finally
getting the message - hopefully - a cleaner Windows
7 will evolve. We?ll see.

Today?s generation is rediscovering simplicity.

That's why Google is attracting joyful adherents
with cleaner, faster and more sensible products ?
like Chrome - with millions more enjoying Macs.

Microsoft hasn't learned from history - because it
was too busy trying to write it.

Personally - as an IT manager - I'd love to dump
every Microsoft product from my datacenter and
start-over with something simpler and cleaner. But
that won?t happen in my lifetime.

Maybe someday Google, or someone else, will get us
there.

Hell ? if they?re smart - it might even be
Microsoft.

Rob

Posted by: RobWLA   Posted on: 12/22/08  (Edited: 12/22/2008 @ 04:17) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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