Microsoft's court testimony: people want PCs, not operating systems

Cnet writes:

"I'm reading through the unsealed court documents, including internal Microsoft emails [PDF, 158 pages], from the federal lawsuit over the "Windows Vista Capable" program. It makes for fascinating reading at times.

As Todd Bishop of Seattle PI discovers, Microsoft clearly knew that it had serious compatibility issues on its hands. Microsoft's new Windows chief suggested that "People who rely on using all the features of their hardware...will not see availability for some time, if ever, depending on the [manufacturer]." What a cheery vote of confidence. Can I get some software from that guy?

But I found another email (Page 153) from Brad Goldberg, General Manager of Microsoft's Windows Client Product Management Group, much more telling. Why? Well, Goldberg seems to understand that the value of his Windows is dwarfed by the real value of the computer:

I wonder if Mr. Goldberg appreciates both the truth and the difficulty inherent in his comment that consumers are looking for a PC, not an OS. To me, he could not more clearly state, "Windows is a commodity. The end of (our) world is near."

[Bleucrunch]

They should have never released that crap called Vista......it's a slap in the face to everyone and forcing people to upgrade is so wrong on so many levels now its coming back to bite them in the ass.

[nitramn4g]

Did you know when buy a computer you can say no to the free copy of Windows. You can get linux instead or buy a Mac. Everybody complains about Microsoft but in the end everybody choose Windows.

[colony]

allot of people dont know this you monkey.

[iceice123]

They can be a smart consumer and look it up. Their fault not Microsofts.

[nitramn4g]

We should give the people linux. I'm sure they would have no problem installing everything themselve?????? Colony, older people you know have a computer? would they change from Windows to something else?

[Yi-Long]

... programs are only usable with Windows.
So in most cases, you kinda NEED Windows to use all those other programs that you DO want.

[Kyur4ThePain]

So if someone walks into say, Best Buy / Circuit City they can ask them to remove Windows and install Linux? And they'll do that for free?
I honestly didn't know that.

[LJWooly]

As long as the retailer has Linux/mac compatability in mind, then yes. However, a lot of retailers won't offer that service. You could always do it yourself, though. Linux is free, after all.

[LJWooly]

The more people that buy Microsoft's crap, the more money Microsoft will make, thus encouraging them to continue making crap. If you have such a problem with Windows, don't buy it, or replace it with a better OS.

Think EA. If millions of people suddenly stopped buying their tired re-hashes of sports games, or crappy ports, they wouldn't keep making those games, and we'd have good US football games.

Nintendo haven't come up with an original concept in about 10 years, but because people still buy the various incarnations of the 'Mario' games, they figure they don't need to.

The power lies in the consumer. Problem is, the consumer often spends more time b*tching about the problem, than contributing to solving it.

[George Washington]

wtf are you talking about. windows products are pretty good. back when windows xp came out they would never stfu about it and how slow it was. but 2 years in everyone likes it and its the industry standard. the same things going on with vista... and ps3 to an extent.

[Deadlyhifi]

Not sure where the PS3 comes in to this.. but you are right. The only problem is that Microsoft never seem to make a good job of something first time. In the case of XP it wasn't until SP2 that it became stable. And once that was released XP was great. And still is. SP3 will only improve it further. The same will probably happen with Vista. And you can see the same in the xbox. They have the right ideas but take a few attempts to implement correctly.

[ban fans]

They keep kicking crap out the door and people buy without really knowing about their options. I have XP at work and it is great. I have Vista at home and it sucks. I didn't know my options or the problems with Vista when I got my home computer, so maybe it is my fault for not doing some research, but I didn't think MS would go to market with such a bad product.

@ Deadlyhifi - You make a good point, but my question is why? Why do they bring a product to production if it is going to take so long to get the bugs out if they ever can. Same goes for the 360 and the RROD problems. You can't tell me they were unaware of these problems before going into production. There are few companies that can survive (or thrive in MS's case) by putting out product that needs to be repaired over the course of 2 to 3 years.

I am a small business owner, and if the products I sold were being returned for repair with the frequency that MS products are, I would be out of business.

[LJWooly]

@ George: I wasn't saying that Windows is a bad operating system, it's just that a lot of people moan about Microsoft's 'crappy products', but to very little in their power to solve the problem. about eighty-something percent of home PCs run Windows operating systems, and a large portion of that percentage no doubt consists of people moaning about the quality of Microsoft's products.

People who don't like them shouldn't buy them, and hopefully when Microsoft start losing money, they'll learn that putting a little effort into giving the consumer the best experience possible actually pays off.

That way, everyone wins :)

[nitramn4g]

What other company gives supports and patchs like M$. Name another company that made a better OS. One that I can buy and everything works. Don't say Linux, because I tried it and you have to do your own support and driver installation.

[Deadlyhifi]

@ BanFans - I understand totally what you are saying. Not many companies would dare release the versions of software that microsoft do...However.. I sometimes wonder actually how bad it REALLY is.

For example.. If a product has a small install base.. generally bugs will be found and fixed with a minority of users even noticing. However in Microsofts case they don't have that luxury.. Most of the planet runs Windows.. and bugs get found quickly.. and people love to moan about them and how bad Microsoft are. They must have usability testing.. and we all know they have beta testing.. so somehow these things get through.. And as a programmer I know that bugs can be there for months and years before they bite you on your ass...

Saying all this though... As far as the 360 RROD is concerned.. that is a hardware problem.. and that SHOULD have been found... It annoys me as an xbox owner but does not put me off because saying all I have.. Microsofts customer service and support is excellent... Or at least I have found it to be. I can't account for everyone...

[Deadlyhifi]

I like windows. I can't lie. It does what i want. I don't have to fiddle, and these days it's almost idiot proof. Almost.

For the majority of users this is perfect. I know for a fact that an average user doesn't want to have to tweak everything and this is why Windows appeals.

I accept that there is not really the exposure to the general public of other options such as Linux. But I think that it would be a hard sell anyway. Linux is great in many ways but falls over in many others. I don't believe it is for a general 'I want to check my Facebook and write a letter' user.

And for the people that want the customisation of Linux, I'm sure already use it. Generally it's people who like to fiddle that use Liinux. In my opinion anyway.

MAC OSX is another option. But like someone said ealier things currently are ore compatable on Windows. However I don't know much about this system.. but if everyone used this instead would it not just be another Windows senario?

People have the illusion that Apple are a 'nice' company... They are just the same as any other major corporation, they want to make big money.. but have a good PR team ;)

Anyway... just some thoughts and opinions...

[BloodySinner]

Why is everyone always hammering on Microsoft? Just look at how XP started off. Vista is no different. Just give it some time and all it's issues will be fixed.

Then again, I'm not really surprised. It's only human nature to see someone go down when they have been reigning for so long.

I'm sure if the whole Microsoft Windows install base just happened to use the Mac OS X or any other opperating system for that matter, its "various" problems would be exploited easily.

[DJ]

Namely because it solved a lot of issues with Microsoft's previous Operating Systems, though Service Pack 2 was both a blessing and a nuisance. It finally had the "Save Password" feature, but the security wasn't all that improved. Either way, I just relied on Norton for that.

[ChrisGTR1]

the only thing i hate about vista is the COLLOSAL load times it takes to unzip a file or to transfer something to a flash drive.

[DJ]

With Windows XP close behind. But Vista is by far the worst OS I've ever laid hands on. When an operating system refuses to let you install internet security and asks for permission every 3 seconds, something definitely went wrong during the design phase.

But Microsoft is right. People buy Hardware, not the operating system on that hardware. This is why they're trying to create Microsoft-brand PCs, and why the Xbox 360 even exists. They're adopting Apple's hardware/OS strategy, which is smart. Unfortunately, it actually requires them to put out high-quality software AND hardware, two things that they really haven't been able to do. Just look at the 360 and Vista.

[ChrisGTR1]

lets just hope that day when MS pcs come out never happens cause then the whole world will be exposed to the RROD pc stle.

[PimpHandHappy]

yes

[rmedtx888]

Hey... This is Microsoft we are talking about. They don't care about the user needs. They own most of the market on operating systems so why would they care about us?

When I bought my new computer (with Windows Vista) I couldn't install/run half of my programs. I had to go to XP to be able to use my software.

[Pain]

So Stay the Hell Away from Anything M$.

When will the US learn to stop supporting Crap.

And for the Kids, NO window's is not the Best cuz its Everywherr its Cuz ITS Pirated like hell outside the US thats why M$ is So Big in the OS market.

IF M$ Really sold all those Window's OS's that everyone has they would buy the moon to crap on it.

Piracy helped M$ ruin the world with its crappy virus riddled break on you OS.

[GETPWNED]

Sorry, n00bs. But Vista actually rules. You braindead droids need more ram. your lastgen 1 gig sick wont cut it anymore. ive got 3 gigs and vista rapes so hard. stupid n00bs.