Obviously, it’s not for its security model. Redmond has only recently begun to pay more than lip-service to its efforts at securing its operating system by including firewall software with recent service packs for XP (although it’s still turned off by default). See if some of the following names mean anything to you: Melissa, Blaster, Nimda, Slammer, NetSky and Bagle? Sound familiar? These virii have mostly been propagated throughout the net by Windows installations that should have been patched by Microsoft before the operating system shipped. Instead, Redmond ships insecure systems and admonishes users to frequently update their machines via Windows Update, a mechanisim whereby they can shove their unwanted DRM project down the throats of inattentive users.
Continued Windows use isn’t due to Microsoft’s innovative software either. Most of the software that Microsoft has “produced” itself was either bought or stolen from other companies. MS-DOS, which built the MS empire, wasn’t even written by Gates. He bought the rights to QDOS from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for $50,000 without disclosing the fact that he was intending to license the product to IBM for several times that amount.
There are several other examples of Microsoft’s “innovation”.
- Close Combat-Popular game purchased from Atomic Games
- Flight Simulator-Purchased from the Bruce Artwick Organisation
- Age of Empires-Collabaration with Ensemble studios(Gopal R S)
- FrontPage-Microsoft’s HTML editor was purchased from Vermeer Technologies in 1996
- FoxPro-This database application came along with Microsoft’s purchase of Fox Software in 1986
- Internet Explorer-Desperate to play catch-up in the fast-moving Internet world Microsoft licensed code from Spyglass Inc one of the two licensees of the original Mosaic code base in 1995 and called it MSIE Microsoft then proceeded to distribute MSIE for free denying Spyglass substantial royalties for their key contribution to the product
- MS-DOS-The original Microsoft cash cow, this CP/M clone, then called Q-DOS, was purchased from the Seattle Computer company in 1981. Microsoft then proceeded to thwart Seattle Computer’s license rights to the product. The tiny company sued Microsoft and prevailed in court.
- Object Linking Environment (OLE)-Microsoft settled a suit with Wang Labs over patent infringement code portions of OLE which is also the heart of Microsoft’s ActiveX
- PowerPoint-This presentation software package was renamed and re-branded after Microsoft’s purchase of Forethought Inc in 1987
- SQL Server-This important database product is based on code purchased from Sybase in 1988
- Visual Basic-Ruby, the foundation for Microsoft’s highly important Visual Basic product, was purchased from Cooper Software in 1991
- Visual C-Microsoft purchased the Lattice C code compiler which became Visual C, Microsoft’s software development environment
- Visual SourceSafe-Purchased from OneTree Software. Shortly after OneTree’s SourceSafe was released, Microsoft preannounced a similar application called Microsoft Delta which failed to sell. Microsoft then purchased OneTree and renamed SourceSafe as Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.
- Windows-Technologies used in Windows multitasking came to Microsoft with their purchase of Dynamical Systems in 1986. Portions of the interface were licensed from Apple Computer, also in 1986
- XENIX-Microsoft’s version of Unix was actually written under contract by the Santa Cruz Operation(SCO)
So, if people aren’t using Windows for its secure, innovative, in-house produced software, why are they sticking around? A monopoly can’t stay a monopoly if it doesn’t continue to generate revenue, why do users continue to pay money to a company that produces, at best, mediocre software? The answer is obvious, once you’ve read it…
Microsoft products don’t make their customers feel stupid.
Much like “outcome-based education”, Microsoft has engineered it’s software for the bottom denominator, the most dense user imaginable. A first-time Windows user can reasonably feel their way around their computer and accomplish basic computing tasks–browsing the ‘net, sending email, listening to music, etc. When they’re stumped, “Windows Help” does a fairly good job of helping. Every setting and resource has a GUI users can click through until they stumble across the correct setting. Tech support for Windows comes in, primarily, with two options–reboot or reinstall. When problems arise that the tech support can’t handle, Redmond has done a superb job of placating the users with the phrase, “it’ll be fixed in the next release”.
Posted by Philip McClure in Computing Woes Rants on April 09, 2004