OK, I've tried to be nice about Microsoft, but they've recently gone from being omnipotent to being pathetic.
Let me give you a few examples:
Soapbox, the video service on MSN uses Flash! Yes, they're not using their own technology but that of an arch rival.
Expressions, their new Flash 'rival' is complicated and will never be adopted by most of the web development world, who are wedded to their Macs and Adobe Flash.
Vista looks lovely, but as Microsoft is getting fatter and fatter and their OS is bloating beyond maintainability, the rest of the world is moving towards lightweight components and gadgets.
Live! is still a pale rival of services offered by Yahoo, Google and startups like Netvibes.
Windows Media Server does not support 64 bit!!! There is no SDK or support available if you're writing plug-ins into one of the most processing intensive environments in the computing world.
Worst of all, IE7 which is out of beta and into full release won't work at all on my common-or-garden laptop (it crashes every time it goes to a non-Microsoft page). I rolled back to IE6 and swore to use the new version of Firefox coming out this week instead.
I remember loosing the plot with Apple when they brought out the wonderfully speced but crappily executed 320c laptop (one of the first laptops to support more than 256 colours!). I left Macworld never to return.
I just wonder how many people Microsoft have alienated today through sheer bad execution of their business plans.
Let me give you a few examples:
Soapbox, the video service on MSN uses Flash! Yes, they're not using their own technology but that of an arch rival.
Expressions, their new Flash 'rival' is complicated and will never be adopted by most of the web development world, who are wedded to their Macs and Adobe Flash.
Vista looks lovely, but as Microsoft is getting fatter and fatter and their OS is bloating beyond maintainability, the rest of the world is moving towards lightweight components and gadgets.
Live! is still a pale rival of services offered by Yahoo, Google and startups like Netvibes.
Windows Media Server does not support 64 bit!!! There is no SDK or support available if you're writing plug-ins into one of the most processing intensive environments in the computing world.
Worst of all, IE7 which is out of beta and into full release won't work at all on my common-or-garden laptop (it crashes every time it goes to a non-Microsoft page). I rolled back to IE6 and swore to use the new version of Firefox coming out this week instead.
I remember loosing the plot with Apple when they brought out the wonderfully speced but crappily executed 320c laptop (one of the first laptops to support more than 256 colours!). I left Macworld never to return.
I just wonder how many people Microsoft have alienated today through sheer bad execution of their business plans.
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