Not long ago, we lived in a world where it was the norm for people to rip Microsoft products to bits; where Microsoft’s flagship products—perhaps with the exception of Microsoft Office—such as Windows Vista, Windows Mobile 6.5, and Internet Explorer 8 were badly received by the press and public. While the climate now in 2010 is the opposite, let’s reflect back on Microsoft’s rough patch, compare it to where they are now, and list out what still has much room for improvement.
Windows Vista
Ah, Windows Vista. Prior to it even RTM’ing in January of 2007 it was already slapped with a bad rep from the public, with one major reason being a code reset. Microsoft essentially showcased some amazing features in Longhorn (Vista’s development codename) such as WinFS and the Sidebar (among other shiny eyecandy), builds leaked, people saw it for themselves, and they scrapped this “vision” and began working on what became Windows Vista. Not only were the Longhorn builds extremely unstable, but the team’s approach was completely disorganized where Longhorn was sinking as fast as the Titanic.
This code reset resulted in a delay, throwing off the interim between new versions of Windows. So not only was Vista delayed, but Microsoft didn’t give people what they initially promised; they essentially got the entire enthusiast community’s hopes up. Does this conclude Microsoft’s PR issues with the OS yet? No. Due to many under the hood changes to Vista, upon it hitting the shelves at last a wide array of drivers and software didn’t work, and this resulted in instability. Was it necessarily Microsoft’s fault? No, it’s the responsibility of the hardware manufacturers to provide people with the adequate drivers. However, as this was Microsoft’s OS, and most people don’t view things that way, Microsoft took the blame.
Windows Vista also did have a number of bugs and stability issues. Come Windows Vista Service Pack 1 though, most issues within the OS were rectified, and it was a stable, solid OS that was no longer plagued by compatibility issues. However, the fixes did absolutely nothing to mend the wound dealt to Vista by the press, and despite the internal, under-the-hood changes made in Vista along with new features Microsoft implemented making the OS much more secure and sturdy, most people eagerly stayed with XP and continued to state that “MICRO$OFT $UX”.
Where we are today – Windows is viewed in an entirely different light, well, with the exception of Randall C. Kennedy’s (former InfoWorld editor) opinions, though he likely works at McDonalds now putting on a false smile on as he serves rowdy children their happy meals. Anyways, Windows 7 from start to finish was praised and worshipped by all who ever used it. Microsoft insiders, outsiders, general enthusiasts, the average Joe, the press, and everyone’s mother were impressed by it. What was so impressive about 7 that it successfully made people forget about Vista? Well, I think that the fact people were able to use it as their main OS when it was simply at the alpha stage of development says it all (remember 6801?)
Windows 7 brought massive performance improvements, building on Windows Vista. For example, Vista was completely and utterly unusable on my older Celeron M machine, but Windows 7 ran on it better than XP did. Hell, I even see large performance improvements on my main quad core machine! Along with these various under the hood changes which make a huge difference, Microsoft also gave 7 a more polished look. Aero was “lightened up”, so to speak, and an array of improvements to the user experience were made, such as the implementation of the “Superbar”, and features such as Aero Shake and Aero Peek.
Windows 7 is just an all-around amazing OS that’s so amazing, it broke a recurring trend with Microsoft operating systems: Windows 7 SP1 was officially announced by Microsoft, and people are asking what’s the point instead of stating thank God, it’s about time. Windows 7 officially RTM’d on July 22nd, 2009 and hit the shelves on October 22nd.
Windows Mobile 6.5
Unlike Windows Vista, WinMo 6.5 was an actually bad product from the ground up. The UI, code, functionality, everything. Plain awful. With competitors in the mobile sector such as Android and the iPhone, Microsoft was to either pull out of the mobile sector (which is essentially like winning the lotto and turning down your grand winnings; the mobile sector is huge and quite possibly is the future of computing), or to develop an actually good, revolutionary product (which they did do, I’ll get into that in a bit).
Asides from some interface tweaks, Windows Mobile 6.5 didn’t bring anything new to the table under the hood over its predecessor; it still had the same buggy wreck of a core. Apps are a joke, it’s barely touch-friendly, there’s no restrictions over what OEM manufacturers can do with the hardware (meaning I can become a Microsoft Partner, and create a phone made out of fingernail clippings and as long as it works, Microsoft will grant me approval and I can outsource to Asian children to produce said phone), and it brought absolutely nothing new to the table over its competitors, nor did it provide people much reason to buy it over an iPhone or Android device.
In short, Windows Mobile 6.5 was as much of a flop as Japan’s attempt at world domination: While to some degree they achieved something with some business users and even consumers turning to Windows Mobile, at the end of the day they were losing out to the iPhone and Android which many were adopting due to the apps, stability of the OSes, and intuitiveness offered by the UI; all things that Windows Mobile lacks.
Where we are today – Microsoft obviously recognized where they went wrong with Windows Mobile 6.5, and instead of trying to salvage what was on their plate (which would have likely led to failure), they essentially started from the ground up code-wise, while utilizing the “Metro UI” which the Zune HD currently utilizes. Microsoft’s philosophy with Windows Phone 7 is truly unique: They wish to drift away from the app-centric platform that we currently see, and have it where the phone UI is “in motion” compared to the “in and out” philosophy with app-centric devices.
Yes, apps are still a priority, but the OS itself vests a lot of functionality into “hubs”, which, as Gizmodo puts it (click the link to see a much more in-depth look at Windows Phone 7) are uber-applications. There’s 6 hubs in the OS: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace and Office. These hubs are filled with functionality and are integrated well with both the OS and various Microsoft/social networking services. The “People” app both lists out your contacts and gives you access to your social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter. When viewing a picture, you are able to quickly and easily upload it to Facebook to share with your friends.
These “hubs” provide users with much tighter OS + “app” integration than the “conventional way” does. But again, Microsoft doesn’t shun apps, so to speak, and developers are greatly encouraged to produce masterpieces for Windows Phone 7. Oh, and while we’re discussing Windows Phone 7, there’s something I wanted to touch on that could perhaps use an article of its own, but whatever. One hub really catches my eye because I see amazing potential with it: The “Games” hub, which is integrated and utilizes Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE service.
If Microsoft builds on this, and expands these technologies, we may just have the future of mobile gaming in our hands (literally). Ever heard of AMD’s Fusion Render Cloud? Well, in short, it was technology that AMD was working on (we haven’t heard anything about it for a while) that allowed you to play resource-intensive games on mobile devices/older machines by utilizing high-end, scalable configurations elsewhere. This would allow you to play Crysis, MW2, Halo 3, GTA4, you name it, on your portable device.
If Microsoft partnered up with hardware manufacturers and did something like this, allowing you to say, play some Halo 3 on your XBOX 360 at home then finish the level while on the subway to work with your WP7 device, they’d change the way we look at gaming forever. The Xbox really is Microsoft’s trump card with the Windows Phone 7 Series as, if they take advantage of that opportunity, they would bring something completely revolutionary to the table that would blow the iPhone out of the water, because there’s really no way Apple could compete.
On the topic of OEMs, Microsoft is going to be enforcing more strict guidelines as to what OEMs can do with devices running WP7. For one, there’s certain hardware limitations in place. OEMs also aren’t allowed to make custom skins anymore, which is kind of good for brand consistency and quality control, but it means we won’t get to see more awesome UIs produced by HTC.
Anyways, between the hubs, Xbox integration, the Metro UI, the code reset (which this time will likely yield an opposite result of the Longhorn/Vista reset), and other features designed with the “life in motion” school of thought, Windows Phone 7 is definitely worth looking forward to (it’ll hit the shelves this holiday season). It also goes to show that, for the Windows brand, “7” is Microsoft’s lucky number.
Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8 introduced many shiny new features, such as Web Slices or InPrivate browsing to the IE lineup, however, it still had the issue that all versions of IE faced before it; the lack of a solid, standards-compliant engine. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past them if Trident was responsible for the suicides of web developers everywhere. Having developed some websites myself (though I’m nowhere near a professional), the most dreaded part of web development for me is trying to get the site to function and look right in Internet Explorer. This is arguably what developing for IE is like:
Chrome: Check.
Firefox: Check.
Safari: Check.
Internet Explorer: Header BG is 6px to the right for no reason /stabs self with nearby pen
While IE8 does have a nice, clean UI and some cool features, it lacks the most important part of a web browser.
Where we are today – IE9 was officially announced at PDC 2009, with a “developer platform preview build” handed out to the world at MIX 2010. That being said, it’s still too early to tell what’s in store for IE’s fate, but it’s evident that Microsoft is finally acknowledging that the engine in its current form sucks and needs much improvement. While IE9 still isn’t even half-baked in the Redmond oven at this point, it still scores 55/100 on the Acid3 test, which is better than IE8’s score but still far behind from Chrome and FF.
They’re also introducing the GPU-accelerated handling of certain graphics on web pages, which is actually a cutting-edge technology the competition is yet to implement. It’s nice to see that Microsoft is thinking out of the box with IE9, and here’s hoping that it passes (or nearly passes) the Acid3 test upon the team singing off the final build.
What still needs improvement
Well, that about wraps up the 3 product lines with MS (which really are their flagship products as well) that have made a drastic turnaround in both quality of the products and of course the press coverage of said products. Perhaps I could have touched on Live Search (now Bing), which is a huge improvement over Live Search that brings some nice new features to the search scene. Especially when it comes to mapping, they showed off some awesome technologies on that front at TED. However, I still wouldn’t consider it a worthy competition against the search God Google.
Anyways, what really needs some improvement? Well…
Connect beta programs – This isn’t exactly a specific program/service that the majority of users care about, but for technology/beta enthusiasts it is. Lately, the quality of these techbetas have gone down. Whether program managers completely and blatantly disregard people’s feedback *cough* the Windows Live Messenger program *cough*, or techbetas are seemingly pointless as they get no frequent build drops. Take the Windows 7 beta for example. Steven Sinofsky is now the captain of the Windows ship, and I respect him for prioritizing prudent engineering and thus eliminating the build drop process, but I mean, it kind of defeats the purpose of a techbeta if they only get the Beta and RC; which everyone that isn’t in the techbeta can also get and use to submit feedback.
I mean, Microsoft might as well not have a Windows program on Connect, and simply gather feedback by asking anyone who downloads the public beta/RC build this way. Without frequent build drops to track the progress of your bug report, or see a new feature and catch a bug in it, or even suggest a feature instead of doing so when the OS is pretty much feature-complete Connect programs just aren’t that beneficial to the product or enjoyable by people.
Windows Live Messenger – Okay, I know that I’m basing my opinions here on an early, leaked build that Brandon LeBlanc would prefer I not use, but I am not happy with where Messenger is headed in Wave 4. The rest of the suite is awesome, but Messenger is just bloated where it’s become this wannabe social networking client. I mean, with an IM client I just want to use it for IM. There’s social networking services out there for the PC that do a much better job, such as the Seesmic Look Twitter ap than Messenger will ever do with social networking, so I really don’t want the social stream/logon window to be about the size of a netbook monitor.
Not only that, but certain elements of Messenger are just kind of creepy, such as when you share a photo and it asks if you wish to “View together”. Now, these are just my criticisms on the leaked bits. I’ll withhold a final opinion on WLM Wave 4 until the final release.
