Comments on: The Fall of Rome: The Microsoft Way http://lostinloc.com/2008/08/11/the-fall-of-rome-the-microsoft-way/ So many lines, so little time Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:41:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: cranley http://lostinloc.com/2008/08/11/the-fall-of-rome-the-microsoft-way/#comment-54 cranley Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:39:46 +0000 http://lostinloc.wordpress.com/?p=48#comment-54 Oh, I agree wholeheartedly, bill. And to be honest, I was scared that I was going to come off as an Apple fanboy. The point that I really wanted to get across in the article was that MS needs to start actually leading instead of following and proclaiming that they're leading. But Apple's no sacred cow, either. Just last night, actually, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/) over beers and pizza about how as much as I like Apple, I don't like the leveraging of Open Sourced software without giving anything back. However, I concluded that at least they're taking open source and making their outcome better than the original. Which is an interesting contrast to <a href="http://elegantcode.com/2007/03/22/an-open-letter-to-scott-guthrie/" rel="nofollow">this</a>. Finally (wow, this is a long comment, sorry dude), I think I failed when stating what Microsoft needs to innovate in. MS has done some really awesome things within the realm of innovating for developers (LINQ, for example), but they're terrible at innovating for the consumer. They've fallen by the way side with consumer innovation that all they have left is developer innovation. But when companies such as Apple release products that a) look incredibly sexy, b) totally energize the consumer market with excitement, c) sell millions upon millions of those products, and d) publish an SDK for those products, then developers also get excited and start trying new things. Developers want in on the action just as much as the consumer, the only difference being that Developers see opportunity to leverage the actual device (and sometimes their pocket books) by writing software for it. Thanks a tonne for your comment bill - feel free to keep the discussion going. I'm excited that somebody's finally said something! Oh, I agree wholeheartedly, bill. And to be honest, I was scared that I was going to come off as an Apple fanboy. The point that I really wanted to get across in the article was that MS needs to start actually leading instead of following and proclaiming that they’re leading.

But Apple’s no sacred cow, either. Just last night, actually, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/) over beers and pizza about how as much as I like Apple, I don’t like the leveraging of Open Sourced software without giving anything back. However, I concluded that at least they’re taking open source and making their outcome better than the original. Which is an interesting contrast to this.

Finally (wow, this is a long comment, sorry dude), I think I failed when stating what Microsoft needs to innovate in. MS has done some really awesome things within the realm of innovating for developers (LINQ, for example), but they’re terrible at innovating for the consumer. They’ve fallen by the way side with consumer innovation that all they have left is developer innovation. But when companies such as Apple release products that a) look incredibly sexy, b) totally energize the consumer market with excitement, c) sell millions upon millions of those products, and d) publish an SDK for those products, then developers also get excited and start trying new things. Developers want in on the action just as much as the consumer, the only difference being that Developers see opportunity to leverage the actual device (and sometimes their pocket books) by writing software for it.

Thanks a tonne for your comment bill – feel free to keep the discussion going. I’m excited that somebody’s finally said something!

]]> By: bill http://lostinloc.com/2008/08/11/the-fall-of-rome-the-microsoft-way/#comment-53 bill Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:53:39 +0000 http://lostinloc.wordpress.com/?p=48#comment-53 I agree about most of the problems you have with Microsoft. I am MCSD but I haven't worked in any Microsoft technology for 2 years. I had similar experience to you that Microsoft technologies were limiting me. But I am not willing to give Apple too much credit when they are more closed source than Microsoft. I agree about most of the problems you have with Microsoft. I am MCSD but I haven’t worked in any Microsoft technology for 2 years. I had similar experience to you that Microsoft technologies were limiting me. But I am not willing to give Apple too much credit when they are more closed source than Microsoft.

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