Jason Bogovich

This is a first in a 3 part series of free Microsoft strategies to win back consumers and grow the company. It’s a good time to point out that you can’t grow the company without winning back the technical consumer mind space.  In this series, I’ll start at the root of the problem, Microsoft’s flagship OS.

When Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald of Gartner Research said that Windows is endanger of collapsing under its own weight, each and every technically savvy user of Vista silently agreed it was a truth.

It did not matter whether you were a Windows savvy engineer, Vista touting spouting advocate, Microsoft paycheck grabbing pundit, or the CEO of Microsoft himself.

We all knew the truth and the problems that came with the arguably innovative albeit too oft delayed & feature compromised operating system. Steve jobs recently was quoted as saying it’s impossible to please both the consumer and the enterprise. Ironic that he’s now attempting to do this but I don’t think it’s possible with a single product. This is very true, try chasing two rabbits, and you will end up catching none.

One problem with Microsoft also holds the company up: two big cash cows! They don’t have to be a problem with the solutions I will propose here. Windows Vista + Microsoft Office both earn Microsoft the ability to be one of the richest companies in the world and let it do things like chase the tail of Google, and do multi billion dollar total recalls in the gamer space.

What Mike Silver said is true, Windows needs work to get it less resource hungry, it needs work to create less operating system dependancies, and it needs work on optimization of code from top to bottom. The following is a diagram of these problems from Gartner.

IMHO, the above speaks volumes, but this isn’t what I feel Microsoft really needs to do to win the consumer.

And the Solution is?

Microsoft needs an completely new lightweight operating system built from the ground up which is not named Windows and is provided in addition to Windows. An OS which is focused solely on the consumer–not the enterprise.

Many Enterprises’ infrastructures still have a list longer than the Nile river of dependencies created by decades of building solutions with Microsoft products that trapped companies via genius and outdated classic Bill Gates strategy.

A few years back Microsoft hinted at a project called Minwin, and more recently they released some code aimed at academia. Minwin’s sole purpose is to define what makes an OS the most stable. This is 100 percent impossible to do with a Windows core because much of Windows still relies on operating system design decisions made about  40 years ago and must support more drivers than Boston.

I’ve not checked how original any of these suggestions are but here goes.

1. Create a new modular, modern, operating system. This can be based off of Unix, BSD or Linux ALA OS X. Like I’ve said before, in the tech world, originality scores you points, but it’s not like art. You must copy to a certain extent to stay relevant. Let’s code name this consumer operating system by Microsoft “Life Palette.”
2. “Life Palette” comes on a single DVD, or a set of them. The OS borrows much from Linux which I’ll get into in a bit. At the core is a MinWin macro/micro hybrid kernel which can be ported to any hardware from the largest supercomputer to Super Wan Computing to a digital watch or touch screen phone.
3. Minwin doesn’t have any drivers on it, it just has a smart efficient database containing only primary keys which reference digital signatures of drivers which are loaded on the DVD or series of DVDs.
4. When the consumer boots from the CD she can choose to use it as a Live CD. The Live CD can boot up in many different modes. Data recover, experience, “Cloud companion”, Office Pro, Gamer Pro, Photo Studio, Music Studio, Graphic Studio, Entertainment Display & Jukebox, and last but not least, Programmer Studio.
5. After trying out each of these experiences, the customer will then install the operating system of choice. This is where the magic starts.
6. Minwin detects the hardware and only loads the drivers which are needed for this particular operating system. The system installs. This operating system is built from the ground up to take advantage of 16 cores CPU’s ,next gen SLI type interfaces, and a new better than ever Nvidia + ATI instruction set for taking graphic cards instruction sets and emulating x86-64 code.
7. Both the Multi-CPU & the Graphic to X86 code is exposed via no nonsense, extendable, open APIs which make writing PHP look harder than writing Lisp compilers.
8. Each environment installs with no programs to begin the experience. At this point the OS can startup in less than five seconds. It can resume in microseconds. The only programs that come installed are a browser, OS basic tools like a clock, and one special program. A super lightweight Apt-get, Yast, Aptitude rip off which not only takes advantage of the millions of free windows programs out there, but is exposed by the consumer in a web 2.0 way which gives them a rating and review system. Programs can but “Dug up or down.” Microsoft requires each submission to be signed so as there is only one way to install programs, and it’s through this super useful vector. Even greats such as Firefox & subsequent plugins can only be installed here as this eliminates any sort of “x wants you to do this bs.” There is one vector and one vector only. Changes to setup all take place on “Life pallet’s” “apt-get” ripoff.
9. If a reviewed piece of software is found to have a security vulnerability, the user can choose to have “apt-get” auto magically disable it, or a user can choose policy management for each.
10. Only Microsoft, and perhaps a few partners can make hardware for this OS. This OS has a very limited market share, and Microsoft has the ability to control what junk gets put on it. In this form, only the users are allowed to put software on it to begin with, although any vendor Microsoft allows to make hardware can install one program which is only allowed to act as a wizard which tries to ask the consumer if he/she would like to install x,y,z along with an explanation of what each of the programs will do.
11. Savvy consumers will like to have a bit more control over their PCs, and will need a new vector to write and test code. Additional installation vectors will not ship by default under any circumstances, but may be turned on by consumers in a way that’s not obvious to your average baby boomer spyware sporting user.
12. “Life-Palette” will have a section called “Legacy Software” this software will contain current Windows programs which have been certified by Microsoft as being safe to run. User’s will be discouraged to load these programs as they were not written to take advantage of “Life-Pallete’s” multi-core, multi-GPU utilizing framework.
13. This system will first be designed to work on a watch. In this way, no shortcuts to anything but the most efficient code will be written at start. The hallmarks of Life Pallete will not just be stability, but security, usability, scalability, and most importantly efficiency.  I don’t know if SUSE stands for security, usability, scalability & efficiency but if not that’s a free bone for you Novell. These are the four most important design aspects which must be met by every line of code.
14. Life Palette’s Apt-get will also have a software store, any boxed software purchased will only install by interacting with this apt-get like store.
15. Each program, each subsystem, each API, each line of code, in the entire operating system will be built from the ground up with the consumer and only the consumer in mind. Partners must be put on the back burner, shareholders at the rear of the line and the one and only concern with this operating system is the consumer, not the enterprise, not anything but your and me.

If Microsoft would follow a strategy like this, they would not need to sacrifice their cash cows, as the OS would be strictly for consumers, and at first, enterprises would not even be allowed to use it. Keep in mind all of this post was written by a Windows Engineer of many years, a programmer of many types of systems, a database guy and a futurist who wants nothing more than for a better future for the life of computing. I don’t want my child to ever have to worry about loosing data, much less any of the unwarranted problems Vista faces today. OSX is headed in the right direction and I’ve had my fair share of problems with OSX as well, but not anything on the level of Vista service pack 1.

Microsoft is a great company filled with the brightest minds in the world. They need to learn hubris and that’s hard to do when your leader is so bone headed that he won’t even check out his competitions product.

I hope someone at Microsoft reads this post, and it would be fantastic if any of it finds a life there. If you do like any thoughts, please post in the comments, whether you find any holes in this quick posts top of my head sudo-strategy (which I’ll adjust if needed) or especially if you like my thoughts on one possible bright future for Microsoft. If you like anything post it, or just say hi! Thanks

I think if you go back and look at my posts on my GeekSpeaker blog, you’ll note that I pointed out a long time ago that I always thought that mobile advertising would take over. Using a client called Twinkle, a cloud service called Twitter, an iPhone, I am now able to talk to my local Twittersphere.

Now imagine what that will look like in a year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years. Perhaps ICANN should buy Twitter, because it has turned–or is quickly turning into–the communication highway, and they could pull us in and put a very steep tax on it at any time down the road. Then we would have to all start over. But let’s say they don’t.

Let’s say I am driving into another town, and I am hungry, all I have to do, today, is ask the local Twittersphere “Hey, where should I stop and get lunch, I’m not a local.” In which case they can respond and let me know, considering they live there and know the best hot spots.

Popular mechanics reports they think Google will be taken over by social networks–and they are a little bit right but they don’t explain much about how it will happen, they got it all wrong there. In the future I’ll be able to attach preference data, and real time “channels” in order to tune into exactly what I want. I could turn to the local food Twittersphere and find out what the local specials are; I could find out what the local scores are for KSU’s football.

I could also explain to the local Twittersphere that hey, I’m looking for this or that service. All of the locals will now have to compete for my business. Advertising could be morphed and harmed by the fact that people selling things could attach to the Twittersphere and I don’t have to leave the house to go sign up for whatever service I’m looking for.

This is nothing new to me, I had predicted it years ago when I was working on a patent for pay per physical visit (Something very close to the patent that got filed). What the authors of the patent, and myself never realized is the exact nature in which the beast would arrive. We are entering into a new age of computing; it’s very rewarding to be watching the thing evolve, and very cool being a part of it, even if it’s just from the sidelines.

I am on my customary week off. The first of the year is always a time for me to reflect and relax and to remember the year before, sometimes years before, and try and think up better ways of living life, working and a lot of other things. It’s always at the perfect time for me as it comes right after I’ve seen the vast majority of my family and am usually pretty burnt out by the end of December 31st.  I am a person who has come to understand the nature of change, in my professional life I certainly am constantly changing, sometime next week I’ll be moving out of database land and into a job where research is my primary responsibility for the company. 

I’ve learned a lot about databases in the last three months, and I’ve went from knowing just about nothing about Oracle, to knowing a heck of a lot more than my co-workers even know. Update (I re-read this and I certainly don’t mean to say I know more than my co-workers about Oracle, I meant to say that I know more about Oracle thank they think I do)

I am most creative when I am at home, in my own environment. It’s tough leaving this job, but research is my real passion, and I want to do it for the rest of my life perhaps. It’s been a long term goal of mine and it’s only a few weeks away. When people work very hard, especially when it requires critical thinking, they are not creative; it’s a fact of life. I am usually most creative in Janurary and in August when I look back on my work. I think there are many reasons for this.

1.       I usually have a friends and family get together in the summer which requires a lot of planning and work, and then after the party I try to relax in my pool, but work in the summer time has traditionally been taxing, and in August/September things usually involve a transition or have historically.

2.      My one week off at the beginning of the year really gets me thinking in retrospect, and about the future. I think I begin a pattern of shedding the obsoleteness of what was the year before this week, and it better focuses me on the things which will be important, not only at work, but with my family as well.

3.      Looking forward to seeing the sun. The has more of an affect on the brain than most people know or will give it credit. You’ll often hear people in Ohio say, I like Ohio because of the “Changing of the Seasons.” This is because there are many chemicals in your brain which change and your personality is very dependant on the light which surrounds your brain which isn’t much more than a giant super sophisticated filter. I have a high pressure sodium light running in my house, not just to fight off winter depression, but mostly because my dog has a rare problem where the lack of sunlight causes her fur to almost completely shed off, making her cold in late winter/early spring, and a ghastly sight to look at. I feel really guilty knowing I have a brain that is smart enough to change the condition using a trip to the store and pulling out the wallet. I’m glad to report her fur is nice and thick as ever. (Not very thick but she doesn’t have thick fur to begin with) I’d like to wish everyone the best 2008.

I ended 2007 thinking about all of the hardships, and how things were ruff in 2007, and the theme of the night was everyone agreed that 2007 would be bested by 2008. We all decided at 1145 to wander down to the closest restaurant to watch the ball drop in a celebratory fasion. That’s when is saw a man who was dying of stomach cancer, who’s wife had left him very recently. It looked like he tried to kill himself with pills or something. That did a lot to my attitude, I looked my wife in the eyes and knew she loved me, I looked at my friends, and knew I had good friends, I looked at what family was around and was glad that they were there. Life was good, and it could only get better in 2008, because I had it good already, and life isn’t supposed to be easy.