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10 Biggest Microsoft Surprises of 2005
IZ Reloaded writes "The Microsoft Watch has a top 10 list of the biggest Microsoft surprises of the year. Among the surprises are Internet Explorer rising from the dead, Microsoft gets RSS and Microsoft Office team blogging. From Microsoft Watch: MS 'gets' RSS: While some folks were less than overjoyed that Microsoft was tinkering with the "little orange RSS box," Microsoft ended up looking like a company with a clue when it came to outlining its company-wide RSS strategy in 2005. RSS support will be built into not just Internet Explorer 7.0, but also Outlook 12 and Windows Vista itself. Almost all Microsoft blogs and sites have RSS feeds these days. RSS is gospel in Redmond these days."
5. Microsoft refuses to take the EC seriously
7. Redmond still can't find a way to shake its shoddy security image
I'm not really sure why these two are considered surprises. These seem more like expectations than anything.
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
RSS is gospel in Redmond these days
It must be a bit bittersweet, given that RSS is basically a sloppier version of Microsoft's "push" technology CDF, which was introduced with Internet Explorer 4.0.
Posting this article on this site is like tossing Nemo into a shark tank.
Let us count the intellectually absent posts.. damn, where did I put that Long Integer?
Cogito Ergo Sum
Hu? IE was never dead, maybe development of IE but certainly not its userbase.
1. IE rises from the dead: After insisting that Internet Explorer was an inextricable part of Windows, Microsoft abruptly changed course and decided to develop and deliver a new standalone version of its browser, after all. Nothing like a little competition to open new doors (and windows).
Doesn't look like much of a surprise to me. If they're going to want to compete with Google with their Web-based Office products, they're going to want to have a semi-proprietary (and predictable since they own and develop it!) platform on which to work on their competitive edge: IE.
Do they really, or is this just the fad du jour up in Redmond? It's more like Uncle Bill saw demonstration of RSS and liked it as a basis to further his vision of pervasive fee-based web services, a vision where MSFT is squarely situated as the tollbooth in the middle of everything.
Sure, they have the feeds everywhere and have built the protocol into their core products, but that doesn't mean they "get it" in the same sense that you or I "get it." It's more like RSS it the kool-ade of the month, just like "security-security-security" was last January (or was it in 2004?), and "developers-developers-developers" was a few months back.
I'm so disillusioned with MSFT and its leapard's spots that never change: embrace, extend, vanquish, bugify and feature-encumber with more bugs. Then churn the non-compatible and bug-rich versions to pump up revenues.
They "get it," maybe, but only to the extent that it gets them theirs: they want to own all the tollbooths on the web-services highway.
This is MS, its being put into Internet Explorer, and hence its in the OS.
Looking properly however, I can actually see some niceness if a proper API can be developed. Things like checking for software updates, event notification, scanning the security audit logs (subscribe to the domain login failure event list for instance).
Just because the blog world has abused it for headlines doesn't mean thats its only use.
liqbase
I either run a .BAT file which opens several webpages, or "open each bookmark in this bookmark folder in a separate tab".
Sure. I can also calculate using a pen and paper, it doesn't mean it isn't useful to have a computer be able to peform them for me.
The thing to remember is that RSS is an interface. As such it needn't, in fact, oughtn't do very much. It just has to be standardized. Since it is standardized and does just enough for the job, it can be used to bolt together information services, albeit in a limited way. This is what allows you to subscribe to podcasts in software other than iTunes, or for that matter the same rss feed that iTunes uses to update your podcast create a slashbox in your slashdot or a content box yahoo home page.
If everything was done by creating batch files to cache unstructured HTML pages, this wouldn't be possible.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
It has many uses. Just not everybody needs it.
For example, I have a Subversion post-commit script that takes the changelog, formats it, and posts it on a blog on tikiwiki. This serves as a nice permanent record, and anybody who just wants to keep track of my progress can subscribe to the RSS feed.
Another nice use is security updates. Maybe I don't want to open the page for every distribution I use every day. It's a lot easier to see that something new appeared in the security folder.
But yeah, if your daily usage consists in going to slashdot every day, RSS makes little sense. It's most useful when you do not want to do that.
A lot of people are going to get owned by this in the next few days / week, especially with so many people out of the office until next week...
see SANS / ISC for more info.
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe