Forgive me for borrowing from an old Clintonian campaign slogan, but it seemed appropriate...
Over the past few weeks, more and more information has come out
about the direction of Windows 7. Desperate to be cool once again,
Windows is adding an OS X style dock, multitouch and a range of cool
new UI effects to boot.
With
all this attention to glamorous
interface features, one would be surprised to see the range of negative
articles published on Windows 7 thus far. Much of it, of course, does
have to do with the skepticism cast on Microsoft these days, however
some of it is also pointing out important flaws in what Microsoft is
doing. The features being added to Windows 7 are not the features
users need or are asking for most. They are flashy features Microsoft
thinks will sell Windows, but instead may erode its market share. What
Microsoft needs right now is to prove their critics wrong.
Performance, stability and productivity tools over that extra "wow"
factor.
I
have always been a proponent of Microsoft products. I defended Vista
through its hard times, and have always thought very highly of
Microsoft products. Times have changed. With the start of some Unix
development work, I converted to a more suitable Unix platform, OS X.
With this move, I began to find how far my general beliefs of
development and UI design had diverged from what I had praised as
quality software. There is no doubt: OS X is not only a surprisingly
stable platform, but it delivers the performance and features that
users want - and does so better than its competitor.
Windows
Vista was the perfect example of a monolithic, waterfall software
development project. Many of the features added were to push the
agendas of those running the show, not the customers of the Windows
product. Emphasis was placed on Tablet PC and Windows Media Center
over simplicity, cleanliness, speed and search. This is not to say
Tablet and WMC are bad products -- they both are powerful and
interesting, but they were not the core concerns of consumers. Because
resources were moved to less important aspects of Windows, the
development of core features that users really need suffered.
Vista
search is slow, resume from sleep is buggy at best and not instant, UAC
is annoying and shut off by most advanced users at the beginning, and
the OS overall feels sluggish. While Vista in many ways is a step
above XP, it is arguably also a step backwards. And although they may
have tried to patch up security and speed up search, they did not place
emphisis on it. There is no good reason that Google can search
billions of web pages faster than Windows can search a few million of
my documents. No arguments, no excuses, its pathetic.
Apple's
OS X has taken a different tack than Windows. Every year, a new
version of OS X is released. Every year, incremental new features
(along with a few "pieces of flare") come out of Apple, and every year
the user experience improves. Apple seems to build in the features
users want first, and then focus on the features that impress. Many
Apple advocates focus on the fancy effects, the security, the cool
factor, etc. to promote Apple products. But doing so misses the forest
for the trees. What Microsoft can learn from Apple is not the fancy
demos of Expose, cover-flow and other fun effects. Its real,
value-added features that just work. This is where Microsoft needs to focus its time.
Disclaimer: Don't
get me wrong here. I want Windows 7 to be good. I want it to
succeed. But on that note, I am afraid that it won't. Unless
Microsoft can show business customers real value, Windows 7 may be
destined for the same fate as Vista. And I am scared that a failure of
Windows 7 would hurt a product I do love, .NET.
Here are some of the things I've found since I first started using OS X:
- It turns on instantly from sleep. Always. Open the lid, move the mouse. Its seriously that consistent.
- Search is fast. Lightning fast.
- I
don't miss anything (Except Visual Studio). OS X has a lot of software
that is comparable or better than Windows equivalents. A lot of it is
free too.
- Less visual clutter. Finding features you want is easier.
- No
surprises. No chugging away at the hard drive unexpectedly, no "Please
wait. Configuring updates" junk starting and shutting down.
- Quick
view is priceless. When looking for a file, being able to instantly
see its contents greatly enhances productivity. Why can't Windows do
this?
None of these are flashy features... Just
simple things that work well consistently. Its important. When I open
my machine to show someone something, I expect it to turn on and not
waste my time. Countless times I've had Vista freeze on wake and then
on restart seen "Please wait, configuring updates." Maybe 20 minutes
later I get back to what I wanted to present.
Here are a few
demos of OS X you usually don't see in a typical sales pitch. Things
that just work on OS X. Things that save me time. Things that I want
in Windows.
When
writing software, you need to focus on what users need first. Let's
hope the Windows team pulls more than just the glamorous features from
OS X. Let's hope they find what makes OS X more productive and easier
to use. These are the features we need in Windows. Multitouch is just
a nice-to-have that few people will actually benefit from.
OS X is not going to take over all the Windows market share, but it could make a dent. If Windows 7 fails to appeal to CTO's and consumers alike, it will be 3 years before Microsoft gets yet another shot. In this time, it would not be surprising to see Apple's market share to grow from its current 9% to 20-30%. Even by the time Windows 7 comes out (where Apple will have 10-15% of the market), Microsoft will have to change its game plan. No longer can it ignore the consumers running on Apple platforms -- 15% of the market is just too much to ignore. Proprietary formats and tools will have to bow to interoperable platforms (Silverlight and the new Office XML format). This changes their business model quite a bit.