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A Microsoft-Speak Timeline - From Altair to Zune
netbuzz writes "No company has had more to say about software over the past 30 years than Microsoft (for better or worse). How they've said it — the actual language used — reveals a lot about the company's evolution and is the focus of a new timeline. There's a look back at a 'tag cloud' provided by the Seattle P-I. In addition to analyzing the linguistics of about 90 documents, there are also links to such gems as Bill Gates' Playboy interview and his famous 'Open Letters to Hobbyists.' From the article: 'We're talking all the way from Altair to Zune, with stops along the way for every technology the company developed, bought or borrowed, right on through to current entanglements with Vista, Linux and Google. The tool allows for an at-a-glance view of company priorities as they evolve and shift.'"
Was the missing three years- just what in the hell was Microsoft doing from 1977 to 1980 anyway?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Just like with politicians or rich movie stars, there's a giant marketing machine that can erase past wrongs/lies/etc. by blasting the message of the week. Even when you catch them in a blatant lie, with evidence--like those Jon Stewart clips comparing what Bush said a few years ago to what he says now--they can shrug it off, because they know people will A) forget or B) only get exposed to the message of the week or C) be too cynical/disillusioned to act.
Even in their marketing material, "programmers" and related terms are often more prominent than "users." Bill & co realized early on that the way to get users is to get software that users want/need. They've been courting developers since the beginning and I've never seen (historically speaking - since I was born about the time Altair came out) that they deviated from that plan. Apple didn't start this model until OS X came out and even Linux is only just starting to lower the barrier to entry for developers of *desktop software*. (that's not entirely true, actually, but we in the Linux community have generally treated trolltech/QT like redheaded step children so if you don't count them the previous statement is passable)
It's interesting that the word "users" features much more prominently in some of the earlier texts than it does in the later ones.
I could've known Gates' "Open Letter to Hobbyists" is in a closed format.
"I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
Anyone know the context in which the word "animalbabies" appears in the Bill Gates April 1987 Byte Magazine article?
This guy's the limit!
87: programmatic programmers propose protocol redesign
87: excel expertise fact fixing
87: foolish formulated graphical guiding
95: maintenance march messy
95: studying super tracking users
98: undermine unintentional unix users
Developers: We can use your help.
Our shop is 100% Microsoft, including:
Windows Ce
Windows Me
Windows NT
Due to the flexibility, nimble, responsive solutions we have, we call this
Ce-me-nt
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
from TFA:
"Who were we imitating . . . When we did the Altair BASIC? . . . And who were we imitating when we did Microsoft Word? When we did Excel? It's just nonsense"
Bill, you must've been kidding. Those were exactly the same sort of imitiations that your company now accuses FOSS of and derides them for it.
I find the absence of the word 'security' very interesting. I wasn't expect to see a word like 'quality' of course.
stored on computers from birth to the grave
I'm intrigued by the prominence of "blah"... maybe Bill is borrowing George W's approach of deliberately dumbing down the audience
"Don't hate the media, become the media." -Jello Biafra
Check out Ballmer's July 2004 speech: the dominant words are "innovation" and "blah" :-)
I hate the sensational/soundbyte news system that we have today. Stewart does a great job of pointing out the absurdity of CNN/FOX/MSNBC/etc (when it suits him at least), but in many ways he is part of that very same system now. Politics has become a game whereby the winners win by making the shortest and simplest statements designed to appeal to their constituency such that they cannot be cut up and taken out of context. The middle and well argued ground has been all but cut out of the media (and I do not think BLOGs particularly help with this either--as they usually target one extreme or the other). Anything controversial is strictly verbotten. It does not pay to try to express a complex-thought to the media or to make meaningful off the cuff remarks because any small mistatement will be thrown back in your face and your actual statements and any nuance in them will not remain intact for the listeners to hear (especially shows like TDS). Sure, many Democratic-leaning* voters may find it less-noticable and less-objectionable, but I suspect that if and when Fox or whomever comes out with the equivalent conservative leaning show there will be increased scrutiny... even if the humor is the same.
* Yes, I recognize he has taken jabs at Kerry and other Democrats, but these usually aren't aimed at policy and certainly not usually at mainstream Democratic policy itself (the fringe stuff, perhaps).
Keep saying something enough and it will become true. Gates just lies and lies in the Playboy interview:
What was the first microcomputer software company? Microsoft.
WRONG Digital Research was found the year before, it was also the company Microsoft stole DOS from....
And who were we imitating when we did Microsoft Word? When we did Excel?
WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3......
As you move the slider forward through time you start to see less "computer" words (like Altair, cassette, floppy etc) and more "business" words (agreement, indemnification, patented etc). That's very telling all by itself.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
Not that should surprise any of us here, but I found somewhat humorous anyway. In the time line, for November 1984 is an ad for MS Word. While praising "Spell"'s ability to have custom words added to a dictionary they used the words cryptococcosis and aepyornis as examples of technical terms that could be added. Interestingly enough, 20+ years later, they're both still "addable". If a company was aware of these words over 20 years ago why not add them to the built-in dictionary somewhere along the way?