Earlier this week I spent two days at a conference and like most conferences the really interesting and useful stuff took place in the bar rather than from the speakers. The “day job” isn’t technical but there are more than a few people involved in it that are techies and geeks and it is good to get together over a pint or three of liquid lobotomy and share views.
We touched on netbooks, Linux v Windows and what effect the forthcoming Google OS will have, Windows 7 ( a few thumbs up from those that had tried the public test version, iPhones and what, if anything, will oust them from the top slot … you get the picture. On the topic Windows 7 one of the group put forward the theory that this would be the last version of the Windows OS that Microsoft would release. You could have heard a champagne bubble burst!
Once the stunned silence was replaced by questions which revolved around “how the hell do you work that one out” my colleague came up with an even more outrageous view – because Google will end up buying Microsoft! As you can imagine the conversation got really animated as the views flowed as quickly as the beers!
To summarise the conversation the general view was that Microsoft had “lost it.” It has maintained its dominant OS position through bully boy tactics and the word “innovation” had disappeared from its vocabulary. No-one likes a bully and too many people have taken deep joy in the fact that Microsoft has been kicked in the sensitives by successful legal and software challenges.
Its main strong point, operating systems, had been reduced to ridicule by Vista and the fact that the company had released such a flawed piece of software. Also Microsoft has been playing catch up on web based services ever since Bill Gates more or less stated that the Internet would never catch on! So much for vision.
In an attempt to play catch up it has recently launched search service Bing in association with Yahoo but does anyone really believe that it has any chance of ousting Google from the top of the search players. MS is also playing catch up in the Cloud field in an attempt to challenge Google Docs and Zoho with online office suites but MS’s offering doesn’t have the collaborative features of the other two; it does have the direct link to its PC based solutions which could be a major factor in pursuading the corporates to mix and match cloud and desk based systems.
Microsoft has also seriously hacked off the politicos in Europe and it has cost them a lot of money in fines. This anti-American feeling goes back a long way. I remember in 1995 when I worked on an EC sponsored project that certain people refused to embrace CompuServe because it was a US based service. The fact that back then it was the best collaboration tool we had didn’t sway them. Re-arrange the following words into a well known phrase or saying – nose, spite, off, cut …
Google on the other hand has smiled, smarmed and glad-handed its way into collective consciousness by offering people what they need , not predominantly by imposing what Google wants. Apart from some small errors – like not continuing with its Notebook facility which I mourn heavily – Google has not made any serious major cock ups as Microsoft. They remain stunningly innovative with new features for its Docs and Gmail apps occuring regularly and with Google Talk and Wave being prepared for public consumption. And let us not forget that, as mentioned earlier, Google will be unleashing it’s Chrome OS in six months or so!
This is just a taster of what we talked about and I am sure you have your own views – feel free to post them here.
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