Live from Austin!

Microsoft has announced its new tenets to “promote competition”, so I thought I’d take a look at them. I wasn’t impressed.

1. Installation of any software. Computer manufacturers and customers are free to add any software to PCs that run Windows.

Translation: “Your computer belongs to you, not us.”

Yes, you’re actually allowed to install any software you like on the computer you build or purchase. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft even have to write this down. That they feel it’s some kind of new principle to apply “going forward” is a shocking admission.

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Earlier this month, PalmSource (owner of the PalmOS operating system) was purchased by a Japanese company named Access.

Access has now announced that the death of PalmOS is imminent.

As for Palm, they have the right to use PalmOS for another 4 years, and that’s it. So, they’ve started making Windows Mobile devices.

So, farewell PalmOS. You were great at first, but like Classic MacOS you weren’t built to withstand the shoddiness of modern software, and your crashes became tiresome.

Now, will someone hurry up and release a decent Linux PDA? I have hopes for the Nokia 770.

Regarding the Apple “copying Konfabulator ” controversy:

The idea of desktop widgets that pop up on the screen when you press a key is far from new. In 1984, Borland launched Sidekick 1.0 for MS-DOS. When you pressed a magic keystroke, a calculator, notepad and calendar would appear overlaid on your screen. Push the key again, and they vanished.

Also in 1984, Apple’s original Macintosh operating system had Desk Accessories, small tools which weren’t full applications, but which could be launched on top of your application windows.

It’s pretty clear to me that if you take Sidekick plus Desk Accessories, and use JavaScript to write the code, you have both Konfabulator and Tiger’s Dashboard. Sure, Konfabulator was a worthy innovation over the state of the art circa 1984, in that it made it easier for people to write desk accessories by using a scripting language instead of a compiler. However, Dashboard is a worthy innovation over Konfabulator.

I liked the idea of Konfabulator, but I didn’t want the widgets to get buried under my windows, or to take up screen real estate all the time. I had started designing my own desktop widgets system, in fact, which would appear and disappear somewhat like Dashboard. I’m sure that if I had started serious coding or had released my desktop widget system, I’d be pretty annoyed to see Apple release the same thing. As it is, I’m glad they’ve saved me the effort, though personally I wouldn’t have chosen JavaScript for the scripting engine…

This is the way the software industry has always been—you have to keep innovating, or someone else will do what you’ve done, and do it better. If the Konfabulator guys want to innovate and compete and try to jump ahead of Apple again, I have some ideas I’d be happy to share with them for free if they contact me. (I’d much rather pay them $25 than write and support the code myself.)

Microsoft press release, 2002:

Microsoft has announced that the BMW 7 Series features its real-time embedded operating system, Windows CE. This comes shortly after Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit launched Windows CE for Automotive v3.5. This latest telematics software version based on Windows CE is an open platform that allows developers to create powerful in-car computing systems. It offers flexibility and choice of hardware platforms, peripherals and software components, as well as being able to take advantage of the growing community of experienced CE developers.

Siemens VDO Automotive AG, BMW’s preferred navigation supplier used CE in the Control Display, part of the BMW’s iDrive concept which gives easy operation and access to in-car features including the navigation, telephone, climate control and entertainment systems.

And the inevitable Reuters news story, 2003:

BANGKOK (Reuters)—Security guards smashed their way into an official limousine with sledgehammers on Monday to rescue Thailand’s finance minister after his car’s computer failed.

Suchart Jaovisidha and his driver were trapped inside the BMW for more than 10 minutes before guards broke a window. All doors and windows had locked automatically when the computer crashed, and the air-conditioning stopped, officials said.

“We could hardly breathe for over 10 minutes,” Suchart told reporters. “It took my guard a long time to realize that we really wanted the window smashed so that we could crawl out. It was a harrowing experience.”

Someone on a mailing list was whining about how his totally legit copy of Windows XP had taken offense at some changes he made to his system, and he’d had to phone up Microsoft and grovel for a new activation code to enter before he could boot his PC and get his data back.

Well, I’m kinda unsympathetic towards people who choose to support Microsoft by buying their software but then whine about how awful it is. I replied with a flame, pointing out that it’s perfectly possible to live a rewarding life without ever buying anything from Microsoft. I said that since he’d chosen to be Bill’s bitch in spite of abundant magazine articles about the evils of XP, he should just shut up, bend over, and enjoy what he’d paid for.

This turned into a surprisingly insightful discussion about operating system choice, during which he admitted that the main reason he was still using Windows was that he was familiar with it after twenty years, and didn’t want to have to spend money and learn something new.

At this point, I realized something: I am unlike a lot of other people, in that I mostly embrace change rather than fearing it. When CD came out, I took a trip up to London to the one store that had CD players, and listened to one. When I got home, I started saving my money. I didn’t buy a single vinyl LP after 1985.

Similarly, I embraced MiniDisc, in spite of my investment in cassette tapes. I switched to DVD as soon as all the movie studios were releasing discs, even though I had a VCR. I’m still working on switching from serial ports and SCSI to USB and Firewire. And I just switched to OS X, even though it has meant spending about $150 on software upgrades and crossgrades, learning a new UI, and spending a couple of days rearranging my hard drive and getting comfortable with how everything is best stored under the new OS. (And yes, I use the new Finder, and the dock.)

Change is good. Change is life. The opposites of change are stasis, death, conservatism, nostalgia, Republicans, and various other evils.

Sure, you have to be wary of change-for-the-sake-of-change. But when you can see that there’s a better way of doing things, surely it’s foolish to give in to inertia?