Thane Sherrington wrote:
Actually, a friend of mine worked for Nortel, and they finally scrapped
Windows development because MS couldn't give them accurate answers as to
how the software worked or would work in the future.
Sounds like a very specialized case. I can't see Nortel dropping their
Contivity VPN client for Windows. That's product suicide.
Your other points are no doubt true, but I'm not sure that MS (or any
other large company) is any more cohesive than any large group of people.
From what I have heard from people who are MS developers, a lot of
applications and what not are developed in small teams, and then testing
goes on campus wide.
I think the problem with Linux right now is perceived ease of use. As
Ben points out, once ease of use is resolved, that may well end service
sales, so that hardly works out.
It's not a perception issue. :) Until Linux apps can be configured as
easily as Microsoft apps (without having to go to the command line and
edit files), Linux will be the realm of senior level, expensive staff.
Configuring Linux apps from a GUI is getting better, but unfortunately
there are no standards between vendors, let alone between the same
vendor's different versions! Give it a few years, though, and it
hopefully will improve.
The same friend from Norton feels that software development is doomed.
You have two options, he feels: 1)release buggy, incomplete software to
force people onto the upgrade treadmill to keep revenue coming in (but
this costs you a fortune in support) or 2)release functional software,
which means no support costs, but no residual income from upgrades.
That's what's killing Microsofy with Office. Office 97 does everything
that most casual office workers need to do. There really is no
compelling reason to go to a newer version of Office unless you need
some really obscure feature. And who is going to roll out Office
upgrades at $250 a pop just to get access to some new Excel feature?
- Re: [H] Open Source Heretic Ben Ruset
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