Some minor issues

Post below is in English. If you don’t understand Dutch, you finally can read something on this blog

Onderstaande post heb ik in het engels geschreven omdat ik hem gepubliceerd heb op onze These Days blog.
Het gaat over de Europese commissie vs Microsoft (ivm Vista), over Software convergentie en bedrijfsgroei (of tenminste, de beperkingen van groei).

I was thinking of this scene after I read an article in De Standaard earlier today. It was about the launch of Microsoft’s Windows Vista, the new Windows version and successor to Windows XP.

Microsoft announced earlier this week (or last week) it would postpone the launch of Vista. But apart from this, the article read the European commission was being critical again on this new operation system. According to the commission Microsoft Vista will kill competition and slow down innovation.

Well, I have a very ambiguous feeling about this premature verdict.

I understand Microsoft is becoming more and more a common good and therefore it might be restrained in order to serve “the public’s best interest”.

But there is also the anti-trust part, were the commissions try to prevent Microsoft from growing to big, and thus give other companies a chance.

A noble thought, but a screwed one if you ask me.

• Patronizing is in my mind a very bad starting point for innovation. If you are spreading the message: “you can compete, but only because we slow down the giant” you are not stimulating people/companies. Contrary, bad technology is artificial kept alive. On the other hand, if the standard solutions are pretty good, the companies have to do better, and thus are challenged to make better products.
• Also in software, consolidation is a trend, and it will have positive outcomes. If you look at the strength of Apple, you can’t ignore the fact that being a one-product-in-a-box manufacturer is a huge advantage. They know what hardware the software will run on, and can take this maximum into account. They focus on user experience because they can. With windows this is not the case. You can buy a crappy pc in your local supermarket and still run Windows XP on it. This means, Microsoft has to work with ranges in stead of specifications.
  Now, integrating software is one way to aim for a as good as possible user experience. If you don’t let software to evolve on this principle, you are slowing down progress. It is obvious that integrated software will perform better, look better, feel better, smell better .. than 3rd party software that is installed on top of it.
• ..

Of course, if the commission is saying Microsoft has to do better in sharing their specification, I understand and agree.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me. I know bashing Microsoft is still cool and absolutely done. I know a lot of people will think: fuck Microsoft and hurray to everything that is opposed to it. But I’m not on a Microsoft crusade! I’m just against all artificial measures (no matter the purpose) that result in preventing a company (or individual) to grow.