Can one man reprogram Microsoft?

Ray Ozzie, whom Gates calls one of world's great programmers, aims to help company move beyond packaged software.
The New York Times

The story "Can one man reprogram Microsoft?" published December 12, 2005 at 6:00 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

[System Tyrant]

I suppose...

that someday the field will level out for a time and then shift again in favor of a small group of companies.

What I mean is that Microsoft will probably loose more ground to Google which will level out the playing field for awhile, but at some point it will shift again to either Google or Microsoft or whoever. However, I don't think Microsoft is going to come out on the short end. They may not be the most innovative company, but they know how to sneek up on the back end and pounce.

[Captain_Spock]

"That's why it's going to be so difficult...

... for Microsoft this time." I don't think so, as it is believed by many, things are only difficult when someone or a company does not know what to do. If history holds any lesson for Microsoft as was in the Netscape's case... Microsoft, I believe is likely to do things differently just as Bill Gates has said; one thing is for certain, Microsoft really needs to take a second look at at "OpenDoc in Warp 4.0" which "was invented to solve this and quite a few other problems. OpenDoc is a way of building compound documents with collections of small, portable components called Parts. These parts reside in Containers, and you can put any type of part into any kind of container. Learn only one text-editing part and you can put it into any document container you please. The same goes for spreadsheet parts, or graphics parts, spellchecking parts and so on";

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.os2ezine.com/v1n13/opendoc.htm" target="_newWindow">http://www.os2ezine.com/v1n13/opendoc.htm</a>

and, with the reported over 90% of market share of the desktop space the company knows exactly what it has to do regarding the the adoption of the OpenDocument Format Standards for the Office productivity suite -- a "block party" which has already started and Microsoft is quite aware that it is late for that party which is already being attended by companies such as IBM (IBM WorkPlace), Sun Microsystems (OpenOffice) and Google (Desktop)! ;-)

[Blito]

Can we play games on it?

Ah the Thin Client. A seemless wizbang future of Internt access to the all knowing computer from and y where and anytime.
It shouldnt be hard to have a High end graphic app with Thin Client.

[Don_Dodge]

Ray has already made a difference

Ray Ozzie has already made a big impact. In October he wrote a manifesto The Internet Services Disruption which laid out the vision for "Software as a Service" and the basis for Windows Live and Office Live. Last month Ray announced SSE, Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS, which will be offered under the Creative Commons license.

Ray is a big thinker, a true visionary, and a good business strategist. He has made a big impact already, and his leadership is just starting to emerge. Microsoft is a big company (60,000 employees, $40B in revenue) but can move quickly when necessary. Windows Live and Office Live will allow Microsoft to quickly offer new services, add-INS, and extensions to Windows and Office without needing to wait for the next major release cycle. Because of the size, complexity, and user base of these products the development and test cycles are several years. That is just too long in a fast changing web services world. Live lets Microsoft respond quickly.

The magic here is as much business strategy as it is technical vision. The trick will be to find the balance between web based services and client based application software, and take advantage of the strengths of each model, from both a technical and business perspective.

I wrote a blog on this subject this morning. For more detail see <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2005/12/can_ozzie_rekin.html" target="_newWindow">http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2005/12/can_ozzie_rekin.html</a>

[SystemsJunky]

I agree

MS's stance on alot of key issues has changed to more open minded thinking within the company. In the past they have had the mantality of "Our way or the highway". We've seen it on Channel 9 and I 've seen it through meeting with some msofties in the past fews months. Its like they are making this huge shift in not only their business practices, but they are starting to allow more free thinking. I dont know about alot of you, but I'm a beta tester for them and over the past few months they have really been on the ball creating great software and taking feedback a hell of alot more seriously. The problem is it will take time for them to complete that transition because of the complexity of their work and the huge market share they OwN. Unfortunately, they do not have the luxuries that Google, Apple, Redhat and IBM have in changing business and products almost on the fly because the products they make are too tightly integrated. But I would not put it past them to keep up. MS is known for being the turtle in a rabbit race. Get cocky and they WILL Stomp you.

[RifleChebs]

Kids are our Future

I think Ray Ozzie could improve it and should have a chance same with other people, but what should be given a try is having groups of kids doing it instead. Everyday kids come up with new things to do and what "sucks" in the games they play. Also now a days many people you ask will say there kids now more and spend more time on the computer and a lot of adults that I know have ask the kids how to remove and install programs. By the way, they play more game and do things that use the computer. For example if you wanted to know what needed improveed in Xbox or PS2 or their games, who would you ask? A 30 or 50 year old or a teenage that spends most of there time on them. The example goes with items that aren't games too. You wouldn't ask your parents or grandparents what the next iPod(c) should have, you would ask a kid. Myself would probally saw that satelight radio should be next. Now I'm not saying that you should have a kid be the top electracial programer, I'm saying that they should be designer. To make this in a school paper term process... "the brainstormer" would be the a kid or group of them and the "editor" would be the programers and so forth. Remember Kids are our Future and We know about what we do and what "sucks", because what sucks gets improve and makes it on top, just like Google.

[Mendz]

There is a strong possibility...

... of a serviced software future.

Our technologies today push towards enabling Internet connected services and applications. The Internet backbone and infrastructure is getting stronger, faster and more powerful. The business aspects of the Internet are also maturing and stabilizing for most industries.

But a lot of things are not yet ready. We're getting there. Slowly but surely...

Meanwhile, Microsoft is playing safe by aligning the online software business with their installed software business. So, whichever direction kicks off, they have the advantage...

Sigh... the benefits of being rich...