August 15th, 2008
Curing what ails Microsoft
A number of years ago, I wrote a criticism of Richard Stallman that got me into an email argument with both the man himself, and Eric Raymond. At the time, I compared my discussions with them as akin to having a friendly discussion about politics around a table at a restaurant, save for one person, who vents his displeasure by trying to take your eye out with a fork. That person, of course, was Eric.
In spite of a rough beginning, that argument led me to sit down and read Eric Raymond’s “The Magic Cauldron,” the seminal work on open source development models. As a “rebuttal” of sorts, I wrote this series of four articles (one, two, three and four).
The reason I bring that all up is that, though I expected to disagree with most of what Raymond had to say, I found that I didn’t. Raymond has lots of good reasons for his stance on things, and though I would disagree on details (and degrees, such as the percentage of the market that should be open source), the core concepts aren’t far off the mark (in my opinion). That also applies to my disagreement with Peter Bright.
Yesterday, I Read the rest of this entry »
August 14th, 2008
Countering an Apple-favoring .NET critic
I’ve made a few noises about my recent interest in learning more about about Mac development, and not all of them have been positive. That was sure to rub the true believers the wrong way, for whom my generally positive comments regarding the user interface and hardware design aspects of an Apple computer were simply not enough (heretical beliefs of any kind are simply not welcome in the church of Apple).
In response to some of those comments, long-time reader and president of my fan club, Richard Flude, pointed me towards a three-part series of articles written by Peter Bright, a programmer in the UK who declares he is leaving the world of Windows programming behind, devoting himself to exclusive (or nearly so) Mac development.
Some of his criticisms Read the rest of this entry »
August 12th, 2008
Linux, user interfaces and copying Apple
Bob Sutor, IBM’s VP of open source and standards, recently declared at the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas that the open source world needs to create new and innovative user interfaces distinctive to Linux desktops if they want to pose a greater challenge in the desktop space. He also stated that they have to clone less the look and feel of desktop Windows, even going so far as to state they would do better to clone the look and feel of Mac applications if they are writing applications for the traditional desktop PC. That last part sounds a bit odd. I’m not so sure that it would be wise to make desktop PC apps that look like Mac applications any more than it would be wise to make Mac applications that look like PC applications. It’s like speaking Japanese in France, and is more likely to confuse non-technical users than “wow” them with your design innovation skills.
The notion that Linux should chart its own user interface path makes more sense to me, however. I recently purchased a MacBook Pro for my wife, which has given me more chance to play with the Mac user interface and features up close. As I’ve indicated in previous posts, I’m far from impressed with the development APIs in the Mac world. In fact, I would go so far to say that I feel like I have stepped 10 years back in time when I start to mess around with XCode and the Cocoa APIs (not that that will stop me, as I am an old C++ hand (and Objective-C is just another language), but I’m not going to pretend that the Mac development experience is on par with that of a company who specializes in APIs and platforms).
But, as many a Read the rest of this entry »
August 8th, 2008
DVB-H and government overreach
I wrote a few months ago of the problems likely to be experienced by the European Commission as it tries to head the market off at the pass by mandating use of DVB-H protocols for video broadcasting over mobile networks before any viable companies who use the technology have gotten off the ground. As noted then, the market process is critical to working out the meeting point between profitability, customer needs and technology requirements. Quoting myself:
The lesson, in other words, is that picking the wrong winner can be extremely costly in the long term. Governments aren’t usually that good at picking winners, not because they are stupid, but because it is all but impossible to gather sufficient information to represent all the interests of buyers and sellers in a market.
My fears seem born out in the possible collapse of a joint venture designed to find a viable business model for the provision of DVB-H technology in Germany. The very notion of a government-sponsored joint venture in search of a business model really puts the horse before the cart. More commonly, companies find working business models in the process of trying to offer a new service, and that model gets popularized naturally, as success is its own best advertisement.
This statement on Read the rest of this entry »
August 7th, 2008
The Microsoft middle ground
On Monday, I wrote a piece explaining what lessons Microsoft should draw from its competition with Apple. In essence, I was completely in favor of the development of strong hardware design and user interface competencies (in other words, Microsoft should build more hardware in-house), but strongly opposed any attempts to copy the Apple business model. Microsoft’s platform orientation has led to a development tools and infrastructure side of the house that is simply second to none, and benching them in any competitive endeavor would be like sidelining your best players in the final game of the World Cup.
Microsoft occupies an interesting and highly-profitable middle ground between two worlds. On the one side, you have Apple, a company that views software as a feature of the hardware from which they make the bulk of their profits. You can’t buy Mac OS X to run, legally, on any platform but an Apple-branded computer, and some of the newer products that use it, such as iPod and the iPhone, are tightly controlled. This business model is highly profitable, offering hardware margins that are the envy of the computer business. It does, however, mean Apple must stand alone when it comes to finding interesting ways to use Mac OS X. That fact also changes their approach to software design. I have a hard time believing that anyone with exposure to both worlds believe that Mac development tools and technologies as on par with what’s on offer in .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008.
On the other side Read the rest of this entry »
August 4th, 2008
Should Microsoft become more Apple-like?
About a week and a half ago, Mary Jo Foley wrote a piece where she argued that Microsoft was planning to get more “Apple-like” in the PC and phone space, based on various statements from Microsoft executives. I intended to write a response that following Monday, but work intervened, which is all for the better, as I needed time to think on the subject a bit more.
I think it is good, to an extent, that Microsoft is considering what lessons to draw from the recent success of Apple with its iPhone product and the resurgence of Apple computers. Taking lessons, however, is dog-to-dinosaur different than adopting the Apple model wholesale. That model would achieve nothing for Redmond, in my opinion, because it is a model that sacrifices the best aspects of what makes Microsoft Microsoft.
The lessons Microsoft should take from Apple relate mostly to hardware and user interface design. Microsoft is the richest software company in the world, and has the money with which to hire the best hardware and user interface experts. Using those strengths to create great hardware designs and user interface conventions would be wise, even if it means that the certification process becomes a lot more intense. Apple is famous for its strict user interface guidelines. Perhaps Microsoft could do a bit of that itself.
…but only a bit. Read the rest of this entry »
July 31st, 2008
Source code and managed runtimes
I am not an enemy of proprietary software. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, as I used to work for Microsoft, but besides that, I’ve written heaps of articles and blog posts explaining what I consider to be the advantages of incentives created by properietary software.
On the other hand, I also have a healthy appreciation of the goals of open source software advocates (less so free software advocates, as they move beyond the practicalities into advocacy of absolute principles with which I disagree). Source code access, quite simply, is of tremendous use during development. If nothing else, it provides you insight into how the libraries you use in an application will perform, but combined with modern debuggers, provides a development experience that allows you to trace the full execution path, and thus really get to the root of problems.
It is, quite simply, a more productive way to code, which may explain why Microsoft decided to make the full source code available for the .NET Framework as part of Visual Studio 2008. Old news, to be sure, and the utility is patently obvious to regular inhabitants of the open source biosphere, but useful to people who prefer developing using Microsoft tools and technologies (as I do).
Of course, .NET Read the rest of this entry »
July 30th, 2008
The LA earthquake
Everyone has probably heard about the quake that happened in Los Angeles yesterday. It wasn’t that big a deal, though as I explained to a reporter from CNN, it was the biggest quake I’d experienced in the three years I’ve lived in Los Angeles.
It couldn’t have been too serious, as I did a very geeky thing an hour after the quake occurred: I fired up my webcam, recorded my experiences, and posted it to CNN’s iReport site. There really is no hope for me.
No, not a terribly technology-oriented blog post, possibly because I’ve spent the past few days poring over ethereal traces to figure out problems with connections to a server in Africa. I shall re-emerge from my cave tomorrow morning.
July 24th, 2008
Government, markets and regulation
Problems in the housing markets aren’t usually something that relates to Information Technology. Housing in one market, retail sales another, filmed entertainment yet another, and Information Technology is about protocols and programming languages and computer operating systems and security.
So, perhaps this blog post is just an attempt by this Economics-trained programmer to interject thoughts relating to other areas of interest into his technology-oriented blog. I rationalize otherwise. Economic principles that apply in housing, retail sales, filmed entertainment and Information Technology have universal applicability, even if the micro details can vary considerably due to the nature of the products on offer.
The cover article Read the rest of this entry »
July 23rd, 2008
Free the XBOX 360!!!
Finalizing moves they began with the creation of the XNA managed game development system and the XNA Creator’s Club that goes along with it, Microsoft has announced that game developers can sell their creations in the XBOX Live marketplace. Microsoft will keep a cut of the sales - around 30%, according to the article on MSNBC, more if the game is “prominently featured”. Even so, most of the money does accrue to the developer, thus democratizing the range of games available on the XBOX. This is unique in the gaming space.
It seems a natural move for a platform company like Microsoft. I love my XBOX, but it always seemed to be a weird Microsoft product. Microsoft makes both the hardware and software, and the environment is tightly controlled - only Microsoft-approved software need apply. That’s not that unusual for game consoles, but it’s certainly a shift for Microsoft, a company that generally makes software designed to be customized and enhanced by third-party developers.
XNA helps to change things…a bit. It’s not exactly the wide-open world of desktop operating systems, but it is certainly an improvement on what preceded it.
Even so, I still Read the rest of this entry »
John Carroll has delivered his opinion on ZDNet since the last millennium. Since May 2008, he is no longer a Microsoft employee.
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