Being Negative about Windows

Ed Kaim responded to yesterday's "Scrap the Windows Codebase" post with some good comments and it's worth a follow-up.  Ed says "I was surprised by the negativity of the tone overall and felt it was very much in the style of Michael Moore".  Well, maybe I deserve that.  It is hard to talk about scrapping one of the industry's most valuable codebases in positive terms.

Ed has a good point when he says:

All I care about is that the OS does what my customers and I expect it to do and that the apps we build don't break. If it takes Microsoft 10 years to ship each new OS, that is better for us because it means less budget gets spent on migration and more on core projects. However, if the rug gets pulled out from under billions of users by drastic changes for questionable improvements, we're all screwed.

I agree with him 100%.  Microsoft has a overwhelming responsibility to their customers and shareholders not to cause needless market and consumer upheaval.

But here's the point:  It's far worse to live in denial.  If you have a problem, you need to face it full-on, even if it's more severe than you want it to be.  When a business has 10000 employees it can no longer use, it's not easy to make the decision to have massive lay-offs.  But it's a mistake if the business ignores the problem.

Re-read my post  on Windows Vista: Past Its Due Date Already, where I talk about this kind of denial in a similar situation with the product of a former software industry market leader:

Then a line is crossed.  You know that something is wrong.  Your engineers can feel it.  There's a malaise in the air.  But, nobody says anything.  At the lunch table, you read PC Week's scathing criticism. People stare around the room, some even laugh or scoff. Most say nothing.   You go back to your work, you immerse yourself in further enhancements to your product.  You convince yourself everything is OK. You look at competitive products only for purposes of punching holes in their strategy.  You find the holes.  You reassure yourself.  Everyone smiles.

Repeat until fail.

I recognize the pattern.  That's where Windows is right now.

A few MS employees have told me I'm not far off.  And Robert Scoble, in his short comment to the post, says "I totally agree".  Robert may not be on the team, but he's at least a close observer.

Ed also makes another good point:

There are smatterings of anti-Windows sentiment in broadly sweeping statements and quotations taken somewhat out of context that would indicate that people are fleeing Windows due to the problems Gary outlines. I don't see it at all.

He's right.  I don't think people are fleeing.  Windows customers want windows to be healthy.  Sure they do.   I was listening to an InfoWeek Podcast yesterday and Mitch Wagner said that the newest Vista Beta and Office 2007 have him ready to "eat his words" about former negative comments.  It's looking better, and we're all happy. 

Yes, even I am happy.  Nobody who relies upon Windows wants it to fail.  I'm not a Windows basher, trust me.  I did try Linux as my primary OS for 2 years.  I gave it a good try and ran my Windows apps under Wine or VMWare.  I should blog about it someday, it was an interesting experience in compromise.  When I switched back to XP 18 months ago, I felt like an old friend had returned.

When I was working on the dBASE project I talked about in my earlier post, it was the same way.  Everybody in the market wanted dBASE to be great.  Everybody inside Ashton-Tate felt that.  They wanted to produce the best product for the market.  Nobody was "leaving for other products".  There were no other alternatives!  Very much like Windows.  How can anyone leave?  There are truly no alternatives.

My upcoming posts will be less negative.  The last post was the "gosh we have a problem, Houston" post.  Of course it feels bad to admit the codebase is doomed.  Microsoft must eventually admit it.  But, my next post won't be "pro-Linux".  It will be pro-Microsoft.

Thanks for the comments Ed.  They'll keep me on track.