iTechNote

Jim Allchin’s email to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer showed that Windows Vista development was in a bad shape three years ago. “I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products.”

The fact is that, not much has changed until today, Jim. You should still consider buying a Mac today. Windows Vista today does not have a character.

The UI changes bring nothing revolutionary except potentially more training to all level of users. Microsoft have missed the whole point. You should start getting a usage survey of what are the frequently clicked areas rather than burying more and more useful functionalities deep inside.

Reorganizing the way of using Windows is NOT an innovation. The user wants a better experience - do things quicker, smarter, more elegant etc - and not experiencing unnecessary change to what they are already used to.

There are areas that Microsoft totally overlooked. We take the ancient old Command Prompt as an example. This piece of software is never updated since Windows 95. The same ugly fonts are still there.

Why can’t Microsoft bring UNIX-like shell to Windows? Bringing UNIX-like shell won’t make you a UNIX. All other bundled software gets a significant level of update except this one.

For most other new features, they are suspiciously similar to Mac OS X. Some argue that Apple copied Microsoft’s ideas and got them out first. This is possible but Apple did it marvelously well.

That brings out the exact point - why Microsoft, a cash-rich company with world class talents is running out of fresh ideas on the direction of future OS? Is it simply because Apple copied one or two ideas from Microsoft? I doubt.

The disappointing Windows Vista may open window for Apple to capture Windows users in the next few years with the Boot Camp tool. The process is very similar to what Mozilla Firefox did to Internet Explorer. All Apple needs to do is to continue making Mac OS X as sharp and elegant as it is today.