Sunday, June 18, 2006

Outside too

Philip Su's article talks about the political and emotional abuse that runs rampant inside the company. What's glossed over is the same behavior occuring within the user community (not that it is limited to the Microsoft realm).

Many seem to have forgotten the condescending, often pompous, position of the illuminati that Windows was the most secure and best tool for the job. True or not, it was the position marketed and accepted by the general populace. (Apple seems to be repeating the process.)

Microsoft has a new chance with the coming release of Vista. Hopefully they realize that with a new product, they've reset the KLOC counter to a high value and will need to work their way back down (again). That the product has several new technologies built into its foundation will cause numerous problems once the outside world (black, white and grey-hat) begins to understand its workings.

Hopefully the MS marketing department will be constrained from promoting the new OS as being the most secure on the planet as was done with previous versions. If they don't we'll have to suffer through yet another generation of programmers and admins whose declarations of better security are based solely on party line and the fact that it's the only OS they know. (i.e., those admins who manage systems in multiple worlds have favorites but they're not rabid purists). If they do avoid the used car salesman approach, I believe that, in the long run, Vista will be a much more successful product.

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