“You obviously don’t know Bill.”
But I know Jack!
Gates #1 goal was to make money, as it should have been. I don’t have a problem with that. But, lots of wonks want Microsoft to be like Linux. Leading edge, quirky, but innovative, and fun.
You go by what they do, not what they say. Windows NT server? Really? Server support for crappy old 16bit apps until Windows 7 64 bit. Same base kernel since NT? I use Windows 7. I like it. But for fun I play with Ubuntu. Amazing what a bunch of motivated people can do on their own.
I’m not here to bash Gates, or Microsoft. They fill a need. But, they are not worried about cutting edge. They are followers. They see trends, and try to copy and make money, or just buy the company in question!
Bill is a technogeek.His whole schtick back in the 70’s was to get on the cover of Fortune Magazine and beat IBM at its own game. In many ways Bill gave us the tech industry as we know it.
Microsoft products have always been braod in that, un like Apple, they didn’t control the hardware so their products had to suffer on whatever hardware was out there. Apple could easily, and they did, sunset products on platforms. Microsoft had to make their products work on newer hardware with much of the hardware incompatible with other hardware. Not fun.
They are worried about cutting edge. The problem is that peope think something like an iPhone is cutting edge when it simply contains the hardware already avaialble and brain dead software that doesn’t do much.
Microsoft created many things, improved manyothers, and offers products most people don’t even know exists. Did you know they have over 500 products available in over 200 languages? Does Apple? Did you know Microsoft products work on millions of combinations of hardware? Apple definately doesn’t.