Windows DOA

Odds are unlikely that anyone at Microsoft will listen to Gartner. But it is great when the news gets slashdotted and techmemed.

The part about this is that people seem to be forgetting the normal business cycle, high growth at sometimes any cost, acquisitions, making tons of money. Then comes a stasis point where mistakes get made, like MS Bob, Windows ME, purchasing double click and letting tons of people go, warm body hiring, forgetting about quality in both skill and personality, ability to work well with others.

Everything becomes formalized, project managers take over, creativity in the organization collapses because the number of hours writing code is suddenly changed to hours of writing project proposals, the ability to have a project killed by one person saying no, not being able to make a good financial reason to take on the project (even if it was cool as all get out), it becomes a numbers game rather than a labor of love.

Then comes the collapse, people leave, the company draws down and fires a lot of its staff, the good staff flees the company and you end up with a shell that is carrying on by inertia only. The occasional good thing will come out of it, but when was the last time you saw anything good come from the US Auto Industry, or the US Steel Industry, or any other company that has gone through boom, bust, stasis.

Google is getting there, Yahoo is already there, Microsoft is already there, are we really surprised then that Gartner issued a report saying that MS is going to implode inwards on its own weight. Anyone who visits the campus already knows this, the good ones are going at an amazing rate (just like at Google now, just like at Yahoo 5 years ago).

Not surprising then that people would be calling for a make over, and yes that can happen, but entrenched interests in the company will make sure they survive at all costs, including throwing people under the bus.

We are seeing a normal business cycle, at least there is Linux to help fill the gap as this presents an opportunity for anyone to finally get a word in edgewise and develop the “perfect” operating system. Those are the folks we are betting on, there is some little group of folks out there that are developing what will be the next Microsoft, we wish them the best of luck.

Keywords: microsoft,yahoo, google, gartner