Microsoft spends billions (with a b) each year on software research. Every few months another feature article goes on and on about all the brains hard at work in the “secret” research labs scattered around Microsoft. Yet many experts who watch Microsoft much closer than I are starting the same questions I have: if you have all that research, why is so little in Microsoft Vista new? And why are the two most exciting new parts copied from Apple and Linux? Large chunks of “Vista Features” have hit the trashcan in Microsoft’s rush to be only amazingly late with Vista rather than incredibly late. What’s more damning to Microsoft’s Research Department is the two new features that get all the press: Aero (interface) and UAP (User Account Protection) are routinely tagged as copied, not developed. Who owns the title for cool interface looks and style? That’s right, Mr. Turtleneck, Steve Jobs. People have claimed for years Microsoft only copies Apple interfaces rather than develop their own. If that’s true, Gates and Ballmer should purge some researchers and cut some payroll. Nothing in the new Vista operating system look and feel convinces critics Microsoft did anything more than copy Apple yet again. Which operating system does UAP correctly, giving a standard user plenty of rights to run applications but not enough to mess up any system settings? Linux, for about a decade. In the new Xandros Home Edition Premium I’m testing, the installation demands you set up at least one user separate from the administrator. When I’m logged in as the user and try to change something on the system, even as trivial as the screensaver, I have to provide the administrator password. Simple, quick, reliable, and completely normal in Linux. Both of these “new” features in Vista will help (or at least look nice). I’m not complaining about those features. I’m just wondering about all that research and why we don’t see any. If you use something from Microsoft that came from their research department rather than their copy department, let me know. I’d love to see some examples.
Those of you interested in online word processors should start checking your circle of friends for anyone already registered with Writely, the company recently gobbled by Google. They’re offering invitations, but just like with GMail, you need to know someone and the secret handshake. But at least this product shows some clever thinking, and dare I say, research, behind the development process. New and cool is always better than old and stodgy (at least according to my teenage daughter). Speaking of Google, let’s take a quick look at what happens when big companies start defending their Internet turf: eBay Bans Google Payment System. This stinks, because eBay helps many small businesses in many ways, as does Google. If one service or the other started treating credit card payments to them like regular card payments, where you can get your money back when defrauded, I’d immediately put all my business in their shopping basket.
