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of dependencies created by decades of building solutions with Microsoft products that trapped companies via genius and outdated classic Bill Gates strategy.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.
- 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.”
- “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.
- 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.
- 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.
- After trying out each of these experiences, the customer will then install the operating system of choice. This is where the magic starts.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- “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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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