Microsoft's 12-Step Program

NevarMore writes to tell us eWeek is reporting that Microsoft, after almost 30 years of Windows, now has 12 philosophical tenets outlining Windows development. From the article: "Smith said the principles largely come from things Microsoft picked up in the consent decree the software giant signed in settling its landmark antitrust battle with the federal government, but that more recent developments led to the crafting of some of the other principles. The 12 principles are based on three main areas: choice for computer manufacturers and customers, opportunities for developers, and interoperability for users, Smith said."

Comments

Let me guess

[KDR_11k]

The 12 principles are based on three main areas: choice for computer manufacturers and customers, opportunities for developers, and interoperability for users

They are twelve ways to deny all of those?

Re:Let me guess

[Doug Merritt]

They are twelve ways to deny all of those?

Pathetic, isn't it? I had expected to see a list of issues like, perhaps

• Huge and bloated is beautiful
• Ship a prototype as soon as possible
• Embrace captive user interfaces
• Write programs that do thousands of unrelated things
• Write programs that don't particularly work together
• Write programs that handle lots of proprietary data formats, but not text streams
• (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy)

Instead their list of "philosophies" is more like

• Don't poison the customer
• Don't shoot the customer
• Don't bomb the distributor
• Don't ignore direct orders from the court

etc. Unbelievable.

Re:Let me guess

[Dolda2000]

They are twelve ways to deny all of those?

Not too far from it, from what I can see:

10. Communications protocols. Microsoft will make available, on commercially reasonable terms, all of the communications protocols that it has built into Windows and that are used to facilitate communication with server versions of Windows. To facilitate this, Microsoft will document protocols supported in Windows as part of the product design process. We will also work closely with firms with particular needs to address interoperability scenarios that may require licensing of other protocols.

11. Availability of Microsoft patents. Microsoft will generally license patents on its operating system inventions (other than those that differentiate the appearance of Microsoft's products) on fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft's intellectual property rights.

(From Microsoft's site)
So in other words, it's a no-go for free software.

I also found the 12th point interesting:

12. Standards. Microsoft is committed to supporting a wide range of industry standards in Windows that developers can use to build interoperable products. Microsoft is committed to contributing to industry standard bodies as well as working to establish standards via ad hoc relationships with others in the industry.

What a commitment! I think I can pretty much count all the open standards that Microsoft can be said to be committed to support on one hand: the IP stack, DNS and HTTP. Even their FTP implementation is half-assed, to say the least (considering how one cannot get out of the initial cwd), and I doubt anyone would argue that Microsoft actually "supports" any of the web standards (that is, if one isn't viewing support of the version of 10 years ago as a "commitment").

The second sentence is interesting in its own right. I, for one, cannot interpret it to mean anything but inventing their own, new standard instead of the ones that already exist and work. "[W]orking to establish standards via ad hoc relationships with others in the industry" doesn't even need a comment...

All the other tenets were pretty well summed up by another poster as "don't poison the customer", "don't shoot the customer", "don't bomb the distributor" and "don't ignore direct orders from a court of law". They are probably reserving the rights to boiling the customer, burying the distributor alive and following order from a court of law at their own pace, however.

Here they are

[rohan972]

1. We admitted we were powerless over our operating system --that our computers had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that an OS greater than windows could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our computers over to GNU/Linux as we understood it.

4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of files with proprietry formats.

5. Admitted to our local LUG and to ourselves the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have Free software remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked the mailing list to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had sent malicious code to, and sent GNU/Linux install CD's.

9. Help such people with the installation wherever possible, except when to do so would result in them being fired.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we had used proprietry programs, formats or protocols promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through slashdot and man pages to improve our conscious contact with GNU/Linux, as we understood it, asking only for knowledge of how to get our hardware working and perform our tasks.

12. Having had an awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other sufferers, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

It does not bode well

[denoir]

It does not bode well when a company calls "computer manufacturers may add shortcuts to the start menu" a philosophical principle. It is such a sad statement of no core beliefs or belief in the future. Compare it to Google's naive, but uplifting "Do no evil".

Microsoft badly needs a reboot with people in charge who can give this company a real vision.

I think they missed a few:

[level_headed_midwest]

13. We will fully disclose our file formats so that greater interoperability with other platforms can be achieved- we will not "lock in" customers any longer.
14. We will not treat the user as a criminal.
15. We will fully respect the user's privacy. As such, we will install a working hosts file and NO Microsoft program can send any information back to us without explicitly stating what will be sent back, why, and who gets to see it. The Windows firewall will also be able to block all incoming and outgoing traffic, including traffic that reports to Microsoft. We will not put "backdoors" into our products.
16. We will fully respect the user's sovereignty over his or her own data. We will never allow the OS or any Microsoft programs to prevent people from accessing, modifying, or distributing data on their computers in whatever manner they wish to.
17. We are not the police. We cannot and will not attempt to stop users from doing any act on their computers that may violate any license, ordinance, or act in their particular region. It is the user's responsibility to comply with all local laws and regulations.

Translation

[bhmit1]

For those that need help understanding what MS is really saying:

1. We will ensure that Microsoft will design Windows in ways that make it easy for people to add non-Microsoft features.

Like viruses, spyware, adware, and so forth. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a market for getting rid of those problems and people wouldn't have a reason to upgrade.

2. Computer manufacturers are free to add icons, shortcuts and the like to the Windows Start menu and other places used to access software programs so that customers can easily find them.
3. Microsoft will design Windows so as to let computer manufacturers and users set non-Microsoft programs to operate by default in certain categories, such as Web browsing and media playback

And we can get past all that antitrust litigation.

4. Exclusive promotion of non-Microsoft programs ... indicating that Microsoft's fierce competition with Google aside, the company is dedicated to this principle.

Oh, we forgot to mention the entire open source movement and anything they happen to create. Them and Google. Oh, and Apple. Um... how about if we just limit this to companies we can buy or crush?

5. Microsoft will not retaliate against any computer manufacturer that supports non-Microsoft software

Again with the antitrust thing. Of course there's nothing saying you won't buy or destroy the other company, retaliation is completely different.

6. Microsoft provides the developer community with a broad range of innovative operating system services, via documented APIs (application programming interfaces), for use in developing state-of-the-art applications.

#$%$^ EU.

7. Microsoft will design Windows Live as a product that is separate from Windows. Customers will be free to choose Windows with or without Windows Live

Wait, didn't we just say no retaliation? Oh, you meant retaliation against them? Ok, them too.

8. Microsoft will design and license Windows so that it does not block access to any lawful Web site or impose any fee for reaching any non-Microsoft Web site or using any non-Microsoft Web service

We had this cool system all ready to go, but the marketing dept said they couldn't find a good way to sell it without pissing off the anti-trust folks.

9. The U.S. antitrust ruling provides that Microsoft may not enter into contracts that require any third party to promote Windows or any "middleware" in Windows on an exclusive basis and Microsoft has pledged to continue this.

Ok, so just this one time, we are going to do what we were order to do by the courts. But don't push your luck.

10. Microsoft will make its communications protocols available for commercial release.

We think there's a lot of money to be made here.

11. The company will generally license patents on its operating system invention.

Except to those damn open source folks, we'll make sure the license is way to restrictive for them.

12. The company is committed to supporting industry standards.

We always have. Just ignore the fact that we then extend them to our own liking. And that process usually means we have to break a few parts of the standard.

So, yeah, nothing to see here folks. Move along.