[olug] Microsoft Vista: Not 'People Ready'

[Robert Alan Jacobs]

Adam Lassek wrote:
> I think it's increasingly obvious that Microsoft has simply outlived
> their usefulness. These stuffed shirts at MS blather endlessly about
> user friendliness--how long did you take to coin "People Ready"? Why
> not shut up and spend that time actually DOING it? Meanwhile, Apple
> continues to run circles around Microsoft in both simplicity, utility,
> aesthetics, and, most importantly, turnaround time. Pretty much every
> measerable way other than cost, which combined with incompatibility

Cost: money talks.  All of those other points are of secondary
importance to most users.  Why? Because once you've been trained to do a
task a certain way, *every other way is more difficult*....until you
learn it.  Once you learn it, you may never want to go back to the "old"
way...but convincing someone to even attempt to learn a new way to doing
business can be very difficult.

I don't know if it is true, but I seem to remember an anecdote about
Steve Jobs:  Steve has never been interested in users; he wants
believers.  Believers are willing to pay the premium.

I've wanted an Apple for a long time; I just cannot afford to pay the
premium and, while I think Apple is a cut above the rest, I'm not
willing to pay the premium when I can buy a Dell that can do everything
I need to do for anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 cheaper than an Apple.  Add in
the fact that I'll probably wipe that Dell and put Linux on it and there
is even less reason to buy an Apple.

I know, I know.  With Apple, it just works (TM).  Believe me, I'd love
to own one - but a Dell with Ubuntu Linux is not that much behind an
Apple with Mac OS X; the worst part about it, however, is that because
the cost to enter the Apple World has been set where it has been set,
I'll probably never get to try it out first hand.

I'm not enough of a believer, I guess.

How many people buy copies of Microsoft software that do not come
pre-loaded with a new computer?  I'm willing to bet very few (which
makes the whole Vista schedule-slipping SNAFU even more of a problem for
Microsoft).  Money talks.

I don't like it but Bill Gates is basically right:  relatively easy to
use, cheap and "good enough" will almost always win out over more
expensive options...except with a small crowd of people who "get it".
Jobs wants those people who not only "get it" but are willing to pay for it.

> with most Windows software are the only two things left holding them
> back.
> 
> Steve Jobs sure is making Gates, Ballmer and co. look pretty foolish.

Not sure if I agree with this statement.  He's making Microsoft look
foolish to whom?  A few tech pundits?  A bunch of Linux geeks who are
already predisposed to root for anyone who is not Microsoft? When the
masses and corporations start defecting to Apple or Linux in large
numbers, we can say that Jobs is making Microsoft look foolish but until
that happens we are just rabid geeks howling in the wind. Corporate
America will bluster, threaten and howl...until Microsoft gives them a
discount...and then the business drones will go back to their desks,
write up a statement on how much they saved the company in licensing
costs, get their promotion and life will go on.

Ah, well.

-raj