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The War Of The Word
atari_kid writes "For who didn't know Microsoft has a internal blogging service, which is becoming popular with their employees. And even some of their high level managers have their own blog like Chris Pratley, a group program manager (GPM) for Word2002 (OfficeXP) project. Mr. Pratley just blogged on his 'personal philosophical' conversion from a Mac geek to a Microsoft devotee & his interesting perspective on the 'Word Processor' wars of the mid-90's and why Microsoft won."
The best Microsoft employee blog is the Old New Thing. I don't think you'd get far arguing your anti-Microsoft points with Raymond.
I still keep Word Perfect 5.1 on my 386-SX based Toshiba notebook. Notebook and word processor run just fine, and to this day would meet 99% of my needs if I didn't have to exchange documents with others (meaning they send me MSWord files).
I remember when WP succeeded because they supported a wide variety of hardware, and most every printer in existence -- unlike anyone else at the time.
And when they failed by not forseeing the quick move to MSWindows 3.0 and above.
Those were the days. What days? The days when there was still compeition in our industry.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The Word planning team discovered that the WordPerfect sales force was going around to customers and showing Word opening a complex WordPerfect file (printer.tst) to show how bad the conversion was, and therefore how pointless it would be to try to switch to Word. So the Word team organized a special dev team that focused entirely on WordPerfect document import, "reverse-engineering" the WordPerfect file format (documentation for which was jealously guarded, as was the norm back then).
And of course Microsoft now uses open file formats, which mean that OpenOffice can seamlessly open Word files. Microsoft would certainly never try to keep people using its products by suggesting that other products would be unable to open its files. It's features and price that sell product today, boys and girls!
Or, to put it another way: version 1 sucks, version 2 sucks, they keep pushing on, version 3 isn't bad, 4 is better, 5 is pretty good, 6 is excellent. Of course, at that point they've improved as much as they can, things start getting clunkier and the Linux knockoff has reached the quality of version 4.
But it's a better plan than a) making something good, systematically ruining it and then suing Microsoft or b) making something that sucks, freaking out and making something else that sucks and then suing Microsoft, the two primary approaches of their competition.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
After a year of distrusting the company somewhat, I began to gain an appreciation of how Microsoft worked, and to see it for what it was - a machine that was focused on building products that people wanted, as quickly and as well as they could. Note the "quickly" - this was what distinguished MS from Apple in the end - a focus on moving quickly, and beating the competition. Details like great design were not critical to most customers, so that didn't really make it into the products, except where it mattered to the customer.
I haven't read the whole thing, but I wanted to comment on this. His argument makes sense for a certain amount of time, but that time may come to a halt quickly. Microsoft's core business units (Windows and Office) are quickly becoming commodity prices. The efforts of Linux and OpenOffice are, in most respects, equaling the features found in Microsoft products. At the same time, the number any new features added often just bloat the product. When this happens, you have to start competing on quality.
Linux does this as an OS in the server room. However, as a mainstream desktop, Linux lacks in the quality department (ease of use, interface consistency). However, Windows isn't the greatest at these things either and open source should see a huge hole for stealing market share if people get behind efforts to improve the quality (UI, etc.) of the desktop product.
Apple has demonstrated the validity of the quality thinking, unfortunately they seem content to remain a niche market player. I really respect Apple for this, but would love to see Linux take a page from their quality book and read it to the mainstream.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
If I were still in that business I would be mining those in company blogs for the best talent. If I were Microsoft I would make those strictly available for internal use only.
True, it would be difficult to romance someone away from the biggest "bestest"; however, many of us have been trapped under an evil middle management boss at one time or another and would be willing to defect.
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
I remember the Windows "switcher" fiasco with fondness. IIRC, what got them busted was using public-domain clip-art photos as the people who supposedly switched. People were like, "hey, wasn't she just telling me to refinance my mortgage in a pop-up add last week?"
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
So the Word team organized a special dev team that focused entirely on WordPerfect document import, "reverse-engineering" the WordPerfect file format .... but in particular their goal was to have no errors at all on printer.tst. Later the Word sales force used that same file when talking to customers as proof that Word 6.0 could open WordPerfect files flawlessly.
So what changed? Word of today does not open WordPerfect files -- hell, it doesn't even open Microsoft Works files! He seems to understand that this is a huge deal to users, but the modern Word program ignores this basic need.
For instance, I teach a class online. Part of the requirement is that students submit papers throughout the semester. Being an open minded and computer literate kinda guy, my syllabus allowed students to submit papers in any common file format.... Only to find that Word XP garbles anything that's not Word -- even other Microsoft products! Unbelievable. Fortunately, I have access to WP and OfficeStar -- but even then, opening Works files was nigh impossible until I found that one of my old laptops came pre-installed with it.
So I guess I just don't get it -- he understands the issue but ignores the solution. A perfect example of why Word is the choice we live with rather then the choice we desire.
That was probably one of the things that lead to WP's financial woes. As the users became less savvy, there were more and more support calls.
UNIX/Linux Consulting
" "reverse-engineering" the WordPerfect file format (documentation for which was jealously guarded, as was the norm back then) "
Hmmm. If the DMCA was in effect in that time, was this legal to do???
Privacy is terrorism.
So are you saying that the mainstream media is somehow more truthful? I think it's you who is wrong. Historically, it can be easily shown that the mainstream media lies more than individuals. The vast majority of what you read in your newspaper is a lie. Generally, it is propaganda initiated by powerful entities, like goverment or large corporations or the wealthy.
If you want some good examples... consider how the mainstream media, including "reputable" sources like New York Times, were printing story after story about how Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This wasn't just an opinion; it was supposedly fact. They had strong proof. Did this turn out to be true?
This sort of manipulation is further extended to books as well. A huge chunk of what is claimed as fact in books is biased information. For example, how many people actually know that WWII had nothing to do with stopping genocide or defending the Jews? There was so much anti-Semiticism (by this I'm talking about what the word originally meant; I'm not talking about the modern usage where criticism of Isreal equals to anti-Semiticism). The fact of the matter is Jews were considered inferiors and no one cared at that time.
While on the topic of these "factual" books, how about all the racist and sexist books which were widely accepted and had PROOF that whites were superior to everyone, or how men were superior to women. What happened to these mainstream FACTUAL books from the late 1800's and early 1900's?
It's too bad that you don't realize that mainstream media is mostly recycled government/corporate press releases. Very little of it is the truth... I can see why you would be sceptical of individual commentary (eg. blogs). After all, anyone can say ANYTHING. However, there is an intrinsic mechanism within humans which filters out the lies. Generally, blogs that are more truthful or more insightful will attract more people and have greater reputation. For example, I can claim that 'aliens are about to invade earth' on my blog and no one will believe me. However, if I show pictures or some other data, then people will have a greater chance of believing it. When more and more people link to my site and verify my story, my reputation will increase, and more people will investigate my opinions. In contrast, the mainstream media will never disclose such matters until it is imminent (due to goverment policies).
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Key points are:
- Look for major shifts in disruptive technology and be prepared to ride the wave ahead of the opponent
- GUI in this case, WP missed it and couldn't play catchup quick enough
- Don't forsake backward compatibility
- Apple did it with IIe to Mac, WordStar did it in this article. It gives people the opportunity to re-evaluate a leveled playing field when they are already pissed at you.
- If you have to play catchup, don't alienate your users with a crappy, halfbaked compromise
- Backward compatibility doesn't mean backward thinking
- Research and play on the design grievances against the current front runner
- Word was designed against WP defects
- Develop features and function against the mud slinging of the front runner
- takes the sting out of the foundation of the front runner argument
- Cross compatibility
- =backward compatibility - if the road that the fake detour sign points to looks better than the real road, it will be believed.
These are some excellent insights that GPL software designers should keep in mind. Both from the stance of priority in design and what to expect from the competition.Two words: Closed APIs
If you can't properly implement your application under Windows (Word Perfect), you can't hope to complete.
There's nothing to see here - move on, move on.
It seems that there is a substantial disconnect between the MS developers and upper management, where most of the responsibility for being an abusive monopoly lies. This guy may be a stand-up guy, but I wonder how he would comment on things such as:
- writing software to make it look like DR-DOS was flawed ("it ain't done until 1-2-3 don't run").
- threatening computer OEM's with witheld OS licenses if they shipped with Netscape on them
- I could not cite a source on this, but I thought that someone from ACER computers made similar threats with regard to WordPerfect.
- threatening Intel that MS would favor AMD if they went ahead with their Java multi-media project
- faking a video in the DOJ trial during Jim Allchin's testimony that showed a computer slowing down substantially when IE was removed. The DOJ team showed that the before and after footage was of different computers, and the demo was therefor fake. MS was given a chance to redo the demo with only one computer, but they could not duplicate the effect.
- playing hardnose with short-on-cash public schools on licenses.
- Jim Allchin testifying that revealing the source code of the Windows OS's would reveal such fundamental security flaws that our national security, and perhaps even the war in Afghanistan, would be in jeopardy. Nine months later, after the trial was over, the source codes were revealed to Communist China to assuage their fears about back doors.
There are many more issues that shape people's antipathy toward MS. One wonders how this blogger feels about this past MS behavior, and the affect this behavior has in pushing MS Word's market share?
Arrant nonsense. I was 17 years old. A small four person company half a mile from my home was a market leader in producing exam study guides, and I needed a job in the school holiday. Amstrad PC-compatible computers with a massive 512 kB of memory and not one but TWO (yes, two, and they were double-density I might add) 5 1/2 inch floppy drives had just become available on the high street when a 'real computer' would have cost UKP5000 at the bare minimum. WP 4.1 on PC-DOS was outrageously cheap compared to the alternative. Most of the money went on the single IBM daisywheel printer and the custom font wheels.
There was no Linux, there was no Internet to download freeware or research the alternatives (there was mail-order, yes), there weren't consumer grade laser printers; without getting too 'four yorkshiremen', Hercules made the job a whole lot easier, and the right tools for the job, then as now, were those tools which were available and affordable and usable by people whose speciality was mathematics education, not computers.
Word and WP would be the wrong tools for a big publisher in 2004 obviously, but for a small educational specialist in 1987, WP was a good choice, as proven by the success of the products we were typesetting.
Putting users of 2 products side-by-side and watching to see what they find difficult ... that one idea is probably responsible for a lot of Microsoft's success.
One specific feature he mentioned as a must-have for the Japanese market, the ability to have a line of text running vertically in a table cell, is still not available in OpenOffice AFAIK.
These blogs are a new form of advertising, kids. This has the same strategy as the "I work at Enron" ad campaign.
The same thing is done to fight back against the currently very efficient way for consumers to communicate, and share opinions and information about products, companies, etc.. As more and more companies catch on, the signal will increasingly be drowned out by the "marketing" noise, use of the same communication methods for advertising purposes. It happens with every new space; you just have to stay ahead of the curve.
Marketing - n. Hijacking trusted forms of communication.
Well the linked article refers to instability of pre-OS X Mac, so it's only fair if out-of-date Microsoft criticisms are dredged up.
Yeah, I kinda wonder about that myself. Although I personally can type something up a lot faster than it would take to dictate it or write longhand. Email makes a lot of the formatting issues a moot point anyway.
I suspect the "cultural shift" was more along the lines of:
+ Gender equity made harder to hire for subordinate secretarial jobs
+ Computerization made it more expensive to hire trained people
+ A trend towards "knowledge workers" -- so you get a bunch of Marketing Assistants rather than typists.
Also, the few Executive Secretary jobs left pay a lot more than $20K. I worked with one who was making $50K and that was 10 years ago.
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Hating myself for feeding the troll, but...
I happen to work with one of the "switchers" and can attest to the veracity of at least one story. Surely that counts as at least minor refutation of the parent post's absurd take on things.
Interesting to note that there is a kernel of truth to this, however small, in that the person stepped forward only after being named by the Associated Press. However, it's just as likely that the "switcher" here was unduly prejudiced to write a good yarn, being in the employ of Microsoft at the time in public relations.
are doomed to repeat it.
Then they made a huge mistake. They created an app called WordStar 2000 (WS2000). This was completely different in its interface, and in its file format (backwards and forwards)... I would love to hear from someone who worked on that version of WordStar about what the thinking was behind that release. Maybe they thought they had the market so sewn up that... But what happened instead was that they leveled the playing field.
This is precisely where I and my company are at with Office right now. I am tired of playing "where did they hide that feature this release?". My company and I are both tired of reformatting every manual and all the spreadsheets with product defns we did in Office 97 when we upgraded to Office 2000, only to find that Office 2000 is no longer being sold so we have to upgrade to Office XP. Oh boy, here we go again.
Now, contrary to the emphasis in this blog about Microsoft doing things because they make sense for the customer, these changing file formats benefit only Microsoft; they are a royal PITA for the customers.
For me and my company these things have had exactly the same effect that Wordstar 2000 did: they leveled the playing field. Rather than jumping into the next Office upgrade, we are looking carefully at our options. And OO.org doesn't look so bad. The reformatting issues look about the same as the last time we upgraded and, presumably, about the same we would face upgrading to the next Office. BUT we will not be forced to upgrade yet again and repeat the entire process. If we do upgrade, we will probably not have the same incompatibility problems because OO.org has no vested interest in breaking compatibility to force us to upgrade!
So if, as others here have suggested, Chris Pratley is checking to see how his blog was received on Slashdot, Chris and Microsoft should keep this in mind for the next Office release: every minute that we, the customers, spend getting comfortable with the next release or reformatting documents and spreadsheets because Microsoft decided to make the file formats incompatible is time wasted. It is time we don't spend designing and making new products. It is also a very good reason to check out the competition.
In 1987 I was using LaTeX to do my Mech Eng lab reports in college.
I had a Zenith Z100 (NOT a PC clone but ran MS-DOS) w/ 2 floppies (360k) and 768k RAM (not a PC clone). I edited, ran LaTeX to get my DVI, then previewed on the screen. I could print it to a 9 pin dot matrix, but that was a *bit* slow so I'd upload the DVI to the VAX & print to the postscript printer.
There were free versions of LaTeX out there for DOS and a large document (200 pages) with lots of math equations could run on a tiny DOS system. And you could run the same source on a Mac, or VAX or Unix. Try that with any other system!