Microsoft and arrogance

Every once in a while, I find an article that just screams at me, saying how Microsoft’s arrogance is really showing through. A recent article from the BBC is another example. In the article, it states:

The Commission said it would impose fines of up to 2m euros (£1.4m) a day if the firm continued to drag its feet.

The comments followed reviews of how the US giant was meeting EC demands that it open up its Windows operating systems to rivals.
Microsoft rejected the claims saying it had “surpassed” the EC’s requirements.
The US giant’s troubles go back to March 2004, when it was fined 497m euros for abusing its dominant market position in a landmark EC ruling.

Apparently the BBC was holding back it’s punches. EWeek lists the EC response as:

“The material continues to be incomplete, inaccurate and unusable. The improvements required to the documentation are not merely refinements or improvements to the text: the documentation as it stands is unusable,” the letter said.

Every few weeks I see a news article like this, and it’s really starting to bug me. The EC has already fined Microsoft 497million Euros, and this current fine (2m Euros) will be backdated to Dec 15, 2005 if the ruling is against them. I suppose that since they were essentially allowed to tell the US government to pound sand, they figure some other silly government doesn’t matter to them – they will do business as usual.

I spent some time (ok, a lot of time) reading through the Mini-Microsft blog regarding the internals at the company. Like a lot of people there, he loves the company, but hates their politics. From what I read there, in both comments and posts, it’s apparent that Microsoft treats it’s employees as bad as it treats it’s customers and the governments with whom they do business. At least the employees get free soda and discounts on their own software… Whoopie.

On kind of a tangent, MS uses bully tactics with the customers that don’t fully agree with their purchasing “suggestions” or who want to use software from another vendor.

All around, from the end user at home, to employees, to businesses, to governments, and to the competition, they always seem to me to be a bit more aggressive and elitist. Forcing upgrades, “speical” pricing to sway the vote, trash-talking in the media when they are disagreed with, and forcibly removing competition. Yes, some of it is standard business (lack of) ethics, but they always seem to take it a bit too far.

If they want to be seen in a better light, maybe they should follow the same rules other companies have to play by. They should do what they are told by those in authority over them. They are fighting the EC government entity about as much as the fought the US government. Obviously, they think they are better than everyone else. They can afford better lawyers than the governemnts, and they have more money to play with. They would not have been brought up on charges in either country is there was absolutely nothing done wrong – there is fault there, but they keep trying to delay the issues and win by attrition. They’ve done wrong, they need to follow the instructions to make things right, pay their fine, and move on with life. Unfortunately, they must have paid off the right people in the US, because they obviously didn’t get anything more than a slap on the wrist – now they must think they can do the same thing in the UK. And that will go straight to their heads; well it will once this case is over in 2009.

Microsoft webpage coding

I occasionally run across the odd page that resides on one of Microsoft’s many websites. For example, I was looking up information relating to a previous post, so I decided to try MS’ new Live.com search engine and I found that one of my favorite tricks had stopped working – the ‘middle-click’ to open the page in a new background tab in Firefox. Huh? I looked around, and it turns out that you can still open pages in new tabs, but there’s just something in their coding that kills the middle-click. I kind of ignored it, until I found it again. While looking at Dave’s Imaginary Sound Space I saw that I ran into the same issue. Doubleyou-tee-eff?

Yes, it’s just a bit of an inconvenience not being able to middle-click; back-grounding tabs is a little detail, but it’s one of those little details that makes browsing around a nicer experience. Using a web browser that uses tabbed browsing instead of multiple windows can be much nicer to look at, as well as categorizing what you want to see. Not everyone likes it, but it’s awesome for me – if I see something that I want to explore further, middle-click it and continue with the page I’m on – I can then get to that page later. I agree, it’s a minor point, but for me it’s a big deal.

Now for the stretch – how does this fit in to the scheme of the “Microsoft will rule the world” mindset? Well, as a software company, one of their goals is to increase and maintain their user base. If they can pull in more computers running their software, and keep the ones they already have, they will meet one of their goals. MS has a longtime habit of making their software, sites, and services not work well with anything other than their products. While this may be just a coincidence (I doubt it), I think that they are on their way to changing their websites so they work nicely with Internet Explorer, and are just “passable” with anything else. So? Well, using IE will give you the best viewing experience, and everything else looks crappy. Point? If you use Firefox/Mozilla/Opera/Safari/lynx/etc to browse their site, you are disappointed with how it looks, so you want to use IE for the best experience. There, you have now been hooked. The majority of the time, you have to use Windows to use IE, and if you want to continue to use these sites, you have to keep running windows.

It’s not just Microsoft, there are countless other sites that don’t play nice with any browser other than IE. Just try using Outlook Web Access with IE then something else. Huge difference! Sometimes, the webpage designers take the easy route and code their site for a browser-specific audience instead of following standards that would give everyone the same experience. Many times this is because of using an ActiveX plugin or BHOs (browser helper object) that standards-based browsers won’t run.

Bottom line, it appears that this is just the latest assault on the end users. Microsoft has never been known to listen to what people want, they just tell them what they want. If you are silly enough to dare make your own choice as to what browser you want to use, you will pay for it by being punished with a horrible viewing experience.
I started this post with then intention of a couple quick paragraphs, but it looks like I went and got carried away again. Darn those tangents…

The Microsoft Copycat

I think most of us know that Microsoft does a lot more catching up than they do innovating. Seeing a product and/or technology work and be popular makes the MS peoples get jealous because there’s a popular product that doesn’t have their (ugly) butterfly on it.

Is it just me, or are they starting to copy Google more and more? For example – Google’s search engine has long been an example of simplicity on the surface, with the muscle hiding behind the scenes. Their home page is a simple search bar with a few links for different types of searches. Well Microsoft is in the process of changing their search. Check out MSN’s new search page. Doesn’t that look a tiny bit like their major competitor? Before you start yelling, yes I know that this isn’t MS’ only search engine. Now they have Windows Live, and it’s their newest bestest searching thingy that is going to kill Google.

Microsoft has always been bad about shipping dates for their software, and to make it worse, the product specs are always changing, like they are hoping that removing items will make the release come up sooner. Well, in a fit of copying others, they’ve followed Google’s lead once again. It used to be that “Beta” software was only presented to select peoples for their testing and feedback – it wasn’t something to let the whole world use. Guess what – MS is now touting their ‘Beta’ software on several fronts. If you’ll look back on the Windows Live site, you’ll see it’s in ‘Beta’ status, as is their “local search” via MSN. “Hey, it worked for Google, why don’t we try it too?” Pathetic. It’s not bad enough that their released products need non-stop attention, now we have to put up with buggy software and can’t complain about it – it’s BETA, right?
I guess you’d have to say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Go Google.