Its amazing to how much we've evolved in the 2000's with the following buzzwords Open Source, Web APIs, Cloud Computing, Mobile Computing, Commerce, Social, Geo-location becoming part of lingua-franca.
But one word and the company is all but forgotten and left for dead: Microsoft and Productivity.
The very first OS i worked on was ms-basic 5.1 and doshell. I hacked up my first visual basic program based using the GORILLAS.BAS demo (Angry Birds anyone?) latter used in a Turbo Pascal Hockey emulator (yes all we Canadians luv hockey).
Now before I begin my list, I will have to say, by the time I was in university, we all used to hate Microsoft. It was simple, they were the biggest baddest, software company out there, with there seemingly infallible leader, Bill Gates (which after his philanthropist career, seems all that much harder to hate). The software interns came back very cocky and half repossessed, they offered the crappiest pizza during the recruiting sessions, and notoriously had the titles for every lame job (
<Want to generate next generation function enterPlayerNumberOne(name) function for Solitare 2.0? Don't become a microserf, join us for a real challenge>
My first commercial product was in Visual Studio C++, using their Document - View, thanks to old one big UI hook event pump I prototyped it quick (3 days) complete with serial driver and a multitasking processing layer. It fell as quick (5 months latter) due to inability to decouple UI from the model and constant redesign of UI. I cursed at the absolutely having the idealist Java around the door, but could never leverage it due to MS continuous tampering and forcing everyone on to their Visual Studio MFC (multifunctional crap) APIs. Even then it was way faster, and how could to I explain to my clients "Oh thats the java that makes it slow and ugly, but underneath its all OO!).
I also recall another death struggle with corporate powers, that old Microsoft freebie syndrome. Sourcesafe, the "free and functional" Microsoft version control. Well we did an old pc-world shutout, and it finished last in every category. People gasped when making code vanish in to thin air using it. Nevertheless I was singled out for forcing a $500/seat version control system into the company and not giving positive reviews for the Microsoft's ugly daughter. This was quite often the case from upper management, its from Microsoft and its FREE, what else do u wanT!
Anyways, I digress, So here's the things we owe to them, in my time
1) Office UI : Quite simply the first graphical word office suite, most productive, and integrated, OLE support
2) Windows User Experience Guidelines. Quite simply one of the most follow UI standards at the time.
3) Direct 3d : Pretty much a center of all 3d games for the last decade and half (okay it didn't power Wolfenstein)
4) Bill Gates : Before Steve Jobs, the single most compelling man in Tech. His Humbleness, giving, quiet and in-corruptable nature, made it easy to want to him to represent us.
5) Windows 95: Simply the first UI that was adopted by the masses. Yes it was slow but until that command line was out of the reach for most people.
6) Windows NT : Well before google, someone came up with the idea to house big ole mainframes on with commodity hardware and portable user space code. IMHO pushed unix into what linux is today
7) Importance of Internet: Though microsoft has suprinsgly done very poorly in ever faction of mobile computing, Bill Gates predicted in 1995
8) Productivity of the United States : From 1980 to year 2000, US held a great advantage due to accessible computing
Okay so there is probably a list double this size of why people don't like them, but why kick someone while there down.
Hadn't it been for the Anti-Trust suit in the early 2000's where would they be today?
But one word and the company is all but forgotten and left for dead: Microsoft and Productivity.
The very first OS i worked on was ms-basic 5.1 and doshell. I hacked up my first visual basic program based using the GORILLAS.BAS demo (Angry Birds anyone?) latter used in a Turbo Pascal Hockey emulator (yes all we Canadians luv hockey).
Now before I begin my list, I will have to say, by the time I was in university, we all used to hate Microsoft. It was simple, they were the biggest baddest, software company out there, with there seemingly infallible leader, Bill Gates (which after his philanthropist career, seems all that much harder to hate). The software interns came back very cocky and half repossessed, they offered the crappiest pizza during the recruiting sessions, and notoriously had the titles for every lame job (
<Want to generate next generation function enterPlayerNumberOne(name) function for Solitare 2.0? Don't become a microserf, join us for a real challenge>
My first commercial product was in Visual Studio C++, using their Document - View, thanks to old one big UI hook event pump I prototyped it quick (3 days) complete with serial driver and a multitasking processing layer. It fell as quick (5 months latter) due to inability to decouple UI from the model and constant redesign of UI. I cursed at the absolutely having the idealist Java around the door, but could never leverage it due to MS continuous tampering and forcing everyone on to their Visual Studio MFC (multifunctional crap) APIs. Even then it was way faster, and how could to I explain to my clients "Oh thats the java that makes it slow and ugly, but underneath its all OO!).
I also recall another death struggle with corporate powers, that old Microsoft freebie syndrome. Sourcesafe, the "free and functional" Microsoft version control. Well we did an old pc-world shutout, and it finished last in every category. People gasped when making code vanish in to thin air using it. Nevertheless I was singled out for forcing a $500/seat version control system into the company and not giving positive reviews for the Microsoft's ugly daughter. This was quite often the case from upper management, its from Microsoft and its FREE, what else do u wanT!
Anyways, I digress, So here's the things we owe to them, in my time
1) Office UI : Quite simply the first graphical word office suite, most productive, and integrated, OLE support
2) Windows User Experience Guidelines. Quite simply one of the most follow UI standards at the time.
3) Direct 3d : Pretty much a center of all 3d games for the last decade and half (okay it didn't power Wolfenstein)
4) Bill Gates : Before Steve Jobs, the single most compelling man in Tech. His Humbleness, giving, quiet and in-corruptable nature, made it easy to want to him to represent us.
5) Windows 95: Simply the first UI that was adopted by the masses. Yes it was slow but until that command line was out of the reach for most people.
6) Windows NT : Well before google, someone came up with the idea to house big ole mainframes on with commodity hardware and portable user space code. IMHO pushed unix into what linux is today
7) Importance of Internet: Though microsoft has suprinsgly done very poorly in ever faction of mobile computing, Bill Gates predicted in 1995
8) Productivity of the United States : From 1980 to year 2000, US held a great advantage due to accessible computing
Okay so there is probably a list double this size of why people don't like them, but why kick someone while there down.
Hadn't it been for the Anti-Trust suit in the early 2000's where would they be today?
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