Microsoft's New Mantra - It Just Works 985
bonch writes "Fortune has a story about Microsoft's new philosophy--'It just works.' Jim Allchin details various planned Longhorn features to meet this goal, such as auto-defragmenting in the background, the ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously, and the new ad campaign Microsoft is running to get people excited about Windows. Mentions are also made of the competition from Linux, OS X Tiger, and Google."
Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
There are absolutely some capable folks there, so what is the problem? Why must you (almost) always use Apple as a source for inspiration? There is a reason that I moved my investments in Microsoft stock to Apple stock three years ago, and you are doing nothing to make me want to reinvest in Microsoft. Is marketing that out of control up there? Jim, come on now, I've met you and you are one smart guy. Finding the above link to Apple took me all of two seconds in Google and this statement from the article: "Jim Allchin, Microsoft's group vice president for platforms, looked at my Apple PowerBook and smugly pointed out that the number of copies of Windows sold this year will be more than all the Macintosh computers used worldwide." really worries me. It shows an arrogance that is not going to serve you or Microsoft well.
Nothing new really (Score:3, Interesting)
Windows XP auto-defragment as well (if enabled).
It Just Works (Score:5, Interesting)
Or, It Already Works For Someone Else So We'll Pinch It:
auto-defragmenting in the background HFS+
ability to have files in more than one folder simultaneously symlinks, Smart Folders
the new ad campaign Microsoft is running to get people excited about Windows Maybe that does indeed Just Work. No-one ever got fired for choosing a Microsoft (although there are places where that's beginning to change).
an astute comment from reader of TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
For those who don't read beyond the end of TFA... a great quote (with attribution): First, from TFA a quote from Allchin re the current state of affairs in XP vs. what Longhorn "will" deliver: Allchin: Microsoft's research shows that the average corporate employee spends about 20% of her time on the PC simply looking for items. Then, the comment from a reader: Rod Shuffler 04/22 10:55 An interesting article. Does that 20% non-productivity figure that Allchin quotes get factored into TCO arguments?
What about... (Score:2, Interesting)
defragging in the background??? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Rephrasing (Score:4, Interesting)
Is it just me or does anyone else see a whole new can of worms (heh) open up here? So by default all files are processed by some code even if you just want to see what files are there? Great.
Great Job Advertising (Score:5, Interesting)
They have done more to market for Apple in the last few weeks than they realize (or maybe they do realized).
Every comparison of features is with something already released under the current OS X, or is a feature that will be in the next release of OS X (slated soon?).
I guess I don't get what Microsoft's strategy is for this campaign. Is this the Microsoft "Me Too" campaign?
I would love to see the sales numbers for the next OS X release. We could see some increase in sales due to Microsoft owners realizing that there is another OS in the market that works at least as well, if not better, than XP.
Maybe Gates owns a bunch of Apple stock and is hedging his bets.
This is a 'Good Thing' (Score:5, Interesting)
In reality, as cute as it may be to point out the 'imitation' going on here, it might be better to look at the renewed (finally!) competition taking place. For years, Microsoft has been relatively reluctant to do any serious innovation in OS development, instead focusing on the issues that were generating the most complaints. Think about it, from Windows 95 through Windows XP, what major innovations have been introduced?
Now, however, that Mac OS has been making big strides and an ever increasing number of people have started to look at it as a viable alternative (even in my small-business workplace!), Microsoft has seemingly started to take the competition seriously. This is a Good Thing!
Competition always benefits the consumer, and prior to the last couple years, there *was no competition* in the desktop OS category.
Re:Well I gotta say (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Just works.... they way they tell you it should (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Apple makes it easy for the user to do complicated things.
2. Microsoft tries to automatically do complicated things for the user.
Approach #1 might be somewhat restrictive but gives the user some credit.
Approach #2 is rife with problems, notably ActiveX, email attachments that run themselves, autoscanning HDDs, and myriad other annoyances/outright hazards.
I'll take approach #1. It just works.
Re:It just won't work (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It just won't work (Score:3, Interesting)
I feel insulted by "microsoft has symlinks already, they are just called shortcuts".
Re:Unbelievable (Score:3, Interesting)
People's fluid definitions of 'innovation' (which change depending on which company they're talking about) annoy me at the best of times, but are you really saying that a me-too mp3 player is really a 'truly great innovation'?
Re:What does "It just works" mean to Microsoft? (Score:2, Interesting)
When does Windows ever require this? I've personally ignored the instructions of some devices, even when they say install the driver first before plugging it in, and have had no problems installing the driver after I plugged the device in.
Note to MS: No more slogans ending in -ks. (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Catchy slogans ending in -ks strangely tend to already be in use by other people. And no, I'm not talking about Apple here. How about Autodesk [theregister.co.uk]?
2. Words ending in -ks can easily be altered on billboards [meepzorp.com]. "It just sucks" is going to be just as easy as this one was...
Apparently Microsoft is suppressing its memory of these past events.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
I've seen some of the questions they ask new hires in the interview. They love to throw MENSA-type logic puzzles at candidates to really separate the wheat from the chaff and get top-notch problem solvers on board.
This is somewhat of a myth. I went through the MSFT interview process a number of years ago. (I ended turning the position down because when it came right down to it, I didn't want to move to Redmond
In any case, the only person who through a logic puzzle at me was this really junior guy who was obviously just learning to interview. The morning interviews were all cake, but after lunch they switched me to the serious interview track.
No mensa logic puzzles there. Just: Here's a pen, there's the whiteboard, Here's a problem, start pseudocoding. OK, now, I feed your pseudocode this kind of bad input, what does it do?
It was the most gloves-off, code-or-die interview I've ever had.
Re:an astute comment from reader of TFA (Score:1, Interesting)
Windows and Windows applications have not encouraged people to put their documents in one place, and the "innovation" of a "My Documents" folder, which most people can't find either in the directory tree, is infrequently used.
In UNIX, by contrast, you start and are largely confined to your "home directory" unless you are a priviledged user. Losing things is therefore harder, and applications have no choice but to put user-created files there. Back up that directory, and you have preserved virtually anything that a user cares about.
In typical Windows/MS fashion, the solution is not to solve the underlying problem (that the default priviledges and directory structure in Windows is stupid), but, of course, to pile on another layer of applications to index the mess. This is treating the symptom instead of curing the disease.
Three words come to mind as a painful, prior example of such efforts: "Microsoft Find Fast" -- installed by default in earlier Office versions. I still remember explaining to people that their machine crawled to a halt or crashed every 2 hours because it was a "feature" of Office to "help" them find their files.
One hopes that the implementation of similar tools on Longhorn or OS X do better, and not just because there is more hardware to throw at the problem.
Re:It just won't work (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:3, Interesting)
Its sad too, because no other PC manufacturer designs better looking, more ergonomic hardware or has a better operating system. All of which is destined to remain in "niche-ness".
My powerbook is my favorite system. But I have to FIND things to do with it because no matter what I have to test my code on windows, linux, and solaris. I have to game on windows or linux. Its really nothing more than a very cool computer with a great OS running email, playing songs, and surfing the web....something a $50 appliance can do. My x86 systems are my work horses.
FWIW, Enlightenment 17 + X11 looks like more of what I want out of a modern GUI than either Longhorn or OSX.
Re:You mean like Windows ME? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/14/winhec.
Back in 1999, Microsoft and Intel were using the "It Just Works" slogan to promote something they called the "Easy PC" initiative. And of course, it was more appropriate then, as it is now, to simply say "It just broke. Again."
Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:2, Interesting)
I have to game on windows or linux.
???
You game on linux. Instead of OS X? Because? OS X has 10 times the number of gaming offerings that linux does. You really sound like a troll, but maybe you are just misguided. Here at work I use a powerbook, as does about half the company. We write software to run on the really expensive special purpose servers we sell. What exactly is it that you do on x86 hardware that you can't do from your mac?
Re:Unbelievable (Score:1, Interesting)
They're announcing things that will be available in well over a year, but I wouldn't count that as movement.
Not to mention that the features they've listed so far are in large part matched by any 1980's UNIX system. Wow, files in more than one directory? They've invented hardlinks!
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
But the attitude in Slashdot is that if it's Open Source, we accept it in the name of attracting more users. On the contrary, when Microsoft does it, we always have 600-comment discussions of people whining!
Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely no Microsoft zealot. But I am getting fed up with the same story repeated here. Additionally, the Gates-Borg image reminds me that Simpsons episode with the Fox News spoof and the devil horns on the democrat candidate.
Actual purpose (Score:1, Interesting)
This PR stunt has exactly one goal: to neutralize the phrase "It Just Works".
Right now, everybody who's used a Mac in the past 5 years is telling all their Windows friends and family "You should get a Mac; it just works". (Having a product that turns consumers into willing advertisers is every PR employee's wet dream. Most companies would kill for this.)
Once Microsoft starts advertising Windows as "It Just Works", all their Windows users will start to think that "IJW" is a completely meaningless phrase.
This isn't a new strategy for them.
- You don't hear Linux advocates saying Linux is "stable" these days, not because it isn't, but because Microsoft said that Windows NT 4 was also "stable". Once they had PR people saying this, the word "stable" was no longer a competitive advantage for Linux. As long as you've got Microsoft PR chanting "NT 4 is stable", calling Linux "stable" no longer works.
- Bill Gates once observed that the way to make software user-friendly was to make a rubber stamp and stamp each box with the words "USER FRIENDLY". Remember when Apple software was "user-friendly"? They can't say that any more, because even the worst piece-of-shit shareware Windows app that crashes every 2 seconds is advertised as "user-friendly" these days.
- Remember when they made up a fake "switcher"? They weren't trying to convince Apple users to switch to PCs (a nearly impossible task) -- they were trying to convince PC users that PCs weren't really worse than Macs. If any Mac user says "Look at all the people switching to Mac", the PC user can say "Hmm, true, but there are also people switching from Mac to PC...".
Just as Microsoft R&D often consists of looking at what Apple has done and trying to copy it, Microsoft PR consists of looking at how Apple PR is doing their jobs and looking for a way to neutralize it.
I don't know what Apple's next big marketing ploy is going to be, but I'm positive that Microsoft is going to copy it exactly, just to plug the leak. The only question left is: when will this dam break?
Re:Unbelievable (Score:2, Interesting)
Linux may have bigger marketshare on servers, but I very much doubt it has even close to the marketshare that Apple does for desktop use, which is where Apple focuses most of their marketing. Pretty impressive considering:
As for gaming on Linux. All I can say is "haha whatever." But hey, I'm really glad that you use and apparently like Linux. Just put your marketshare numbers into perspective.
Ummm, actually it doesn't work. (Score:1, Interesting)
> It Just Works
No Microsoft operating system has ever been able to allow the user to reliably rename or delete a file.
Microsoft allows processes to hold an open file "hostage", preventing renaming or deleting. This is why many installers require a re-boot -- this is the only way they can delete certain files.
If Microsoft was serious about saying that "it just works", then they would make sure that I can always click on a file in the explorer and delete it or rename it.
Deleting and renaming files are among the very most basic, fundamental features that an operating system provides. Microsoft just can't seem to make it work, can they?
Re:In MS's defense. (Score:4, Interesting)
You obviously don't have a mac.
I have one, and OSX/Aqua is no end of illogical ui frustrations. Apple completely abandoned most of their original macos UI design guidelines in favor of eye candy.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft Hall of Innovation [vcnet.com]
And here's a catalog of what they've bought, influenced, cannibalized and what products they later became. The (Nearly) Whole Microsoft Catalog. [vcnet.com] So much of what they sell was done by others and engulfed. Freedom to innovate, my ass -- it's obscene when they say the word.
Re:wow. progress. (Score:3, Interesting)
The MS demographic does NOT use linux and solaris. This is new for them, and it is an improvement. Nobody said it was innovative, but it most certainly is progress. I'm really sick of people harping on MS for actually improving their OS. Yeah, they're stealing a lot of ideas from all over the place, but not only does that make a LOT of business sense for their company (a lot less risk, and proven results), it improves the product for their customers and raises the standards for the OS with the biggest marketshare out there.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:1, Interesting)
Suppose you have a singly linked list of unknown length, what's the fastest way to determine whether it has a loop?
The expected answer was:
Start two pointers at the head, and keep on advancing one by two and the other by one. If they ever point to the same value, there's a loop.