To Vista or Not to Vista?

After a service pack, you bet!

Yesterday OneSeventeen, Sam and I went to Albuquerque's Microsoft Across America event.

Now, to be honest, we were mostly in it for the free copy of Office 2007 ("Thanks, Uncle Bill!"). However, being in charge of our respective organization's computer systems, we were more than a tiny bit interested in seeing Vista firsthand (Shhh...don't tell anybody). The betas were colorful, but the RC2 installer crashed on me completely, so faith was running a little low, at least for me.

It was absolutely hysterical how many things went wrong during the demonstrations (multiple demonstrations, multiple presenters). At one point, the guy actually said the words, "No, no, no, you dirty dog, no!" Doesn't get much better than that, eh? I guess Murphy's Law was punishing them to its fullest extent. Now to be fair, a few of the issues were not due to Vista but rather to networking and virtual machine issues. But it was still a riot!

I did see some pretty neat things, like the BitLocker. It's built-in disk-level encryption with the capacity to monitor what goes on and off the computer, and in what form (USB, CD, etc.). We are currently running two third-party apps for this purpose on our laptops. These programs are slow and clunky, but if they were built into the OS, I imagine it would work a little better.

Also, the instant search feature is amazing. No more looking for anything on your computer - at all. Click Start, type what you want in the search box, and there it is. Instantly. It looks for everything, including applications, documents, emails and favorites. For instance, if I type 'calc', the results show in the start bar, with the Calculator as the top result. Hit Enter, and I'm using the calculator. No more Start > All Programs > Accessories > Calculator. Very helpful if you've customized the start menu and can't remember where you put something.

If you and I are in a coffee shop with wireless capacity, we can start a virtual network. We can create shared workspace and open each other's documents. You are protected from other people in the coffee shop by password-protecting your virtual network. You are protected from me stealing your files by only sharing in the workspace exactly what it is you want me to see.

Ever use Yahoo Widgets? Built-in to the OS now ('Gadgets').

Assign XML tags to your files for easier searching, like del.icio.us.

Folder icons in Explorer show the contents of the folder, such as Word docs, music, pics, etc. You can also see if there are nested folders. All this without opening the folder itself.

So it looks like there's some added features that are pretty cool. Nothing we haven't seen before, but it's now all in one place as it should be. But until all the bugs are worked out, I like XP just fine.

Now for Office 2007 (you thought I was done, huh?).

Wow. Finally, everything is intuitive. The menus at the top only show options relevant to what you're working on. No more File, Edit, View, blahblahblah. Really slick, and I can say that it's already stable because I was perfectly happy with the beta version I used last year. I personally believe it's been ready that long, they were just holding it back so they could release it in tandem with Vista.

So all in all, I think Vista is an excellent catch-up effort from Microsoft, and Office 2007 is a smart step forward.

The Dramatic Decline of Microsoft

Recently, as I was browsing Microsoft's SQL site for pricing information, I was asked to participate in an anonymous survey. Curious, I agreed.

Among general questions regarding the specific site's usability, etc., I was asked a few Microsoft-specific questions. Did I trust Microsoft? Did I view Microsoft as an innovative company? Would I recommend Microsoft to others? I was only given the option of using a 1 - 10 scale when answering these questions.

While I was interested in actually being able to give Uncle Bill my opinions, I really wanted to be able to tell him why.

Let's get something straight from the outset: I am not a Microsoft Hater. I'm writing this on Windows XP and manage 3 different Windows networks at work. All our computers use Office Professional. We house many of our databases in SQL Server. So any misgivings or bad blood between us is not because I want to see the mighty fall, but because I've watched in silent horror and amazement as Microsoft makes one bumbling move after another. It's like watching two cars skid across the ice towards a head-on collision no one can stop.

Some issues are bigger than others, but here's a few that come to mind:

WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) - While I understand and completely agree with your desire to enforce your right to be paid for the products you sell, let's be reasonable. The other day I installed Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11 and some PowerToys, one after the other. I had to run the WGA standalone program before each install! Shouldn't my OS be tagged with a registry entry after successfully proving I'm a legitimate user that tells WGA to lay off? The entry could expire after a period of time, say 30 days or so. I think it's a safe assumption that if I'm proven to be a legitimate user today, I probably still will be 5 minutes, 5 days or even a month from now, don't you?

Licensing Confusion - This one is entirely different from the WGA issue above. Am I legal at work? I honestly don't know. I know for sure that we are not running any pirated versions of any software whatsoever. But what about the number of licenses vs. the number of installations? We have OEM, ActionPack, retail and bundled software. I know that the number of total licenses does not exceed the number of installations for any specific piece of software, but I don't know if this is true for each type of installation for the specific piece of software. For instance, we may be running two copies of Publisher. We also have two licenses for Publisher. However, one of them is from an Office bundle, and the other is a standalone from a retail version. How do I know if the two installations were installed from the same disk for convenience? I don't, that's how. So I might be legal, and I might not. That's comforting! Microsoft offers a free utility program that supposedly scans your network and tells you what each computer on the network has installed and what type of license you need for it. However, the software has never run correctly. I get incomplete results, if any at all. I could call Microsoft for help, but then I'm just begging for them to come audit us and find a violation. So I continue monitoring the totals, and hoping Microsoft doesn't come knocking on the door with the BSA (Business Software Alliance, of which Microsoft is a member) and a federal marshall in tow.

Data Formats - ODF (Open Document Format) is a good idea. So why doesn't Microsoft support it? Because we might not need Microsoft later, that's why. Notice I didn't say 'want', I said 'need'. If I have all my company's information in Excel spreadsheets, I can theoretically open them in Open Office, but the formatting's a little funny, so we let them stay put in Excel. This ensures that I use Excel today and Excel tomorrow. Talk about vendor lock-in! What if at some point in the future I want to switch from Microsoft? Then I get to deal with the headaches. With ODF, if I want to switch vendors, I do. That's it. Talk about flexibility.

Versioning Confusion - How many versions of Windows Vista and Office 2007 are there? What do I need, and why do I feel like I'm getting tricked unless I buy the 'Ultimate' version? Yes, there's handy checklists of the features, but the explanations are intentionally brief. The thought process is that if I'm not sure, I'll play it safe and buy the most expensive one on the list.

Releasing betas as full versions to hit deadlines - Speaking of betas, Vista is here, and with it come a whole host of new bugs for us to play with. Microsoft was already years late for this deadline, so why the rush now? Our company is waiting for the first service pack before we'll even touch this one.

Web Standards Compliance - If not Microsoft, then who? Yes, IE7 makes great strides towards being standards compliant. However, it stops short here and there (i.e., box model rendering). Firefox was standards compliant at version 1. Internet Explorer is on version 7 and still can't cut the mustard?!? Come on, Microsoft - if you call yourself a leader, put it into practice.

Innovation vs. Litigation - When sued by the ECIS (European Committee for Interoperable Systems) on the grounds that the European release of Windows Vista would stifle competition, Microsoft issued a statement saying, in part, "When faced with innovation, they choose litigation." So, Microsoft, would you like to be the pot or the kettle? Do you honestly believe suing Linux users is going to make them want to come back to Windows? You're acting like a lover scorned.

So it's not that you can't compete and do a great job, Microsoft.

It's that you won't.