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A Microsoft-Speak Timeline - From Altair to Zune

Posted by Zonk on from the always-he-is-looking-to-the-future-to-the-horizon dept.

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.'"

15 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Keep on getting away with it... by PurifyYourMind · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Keep on getting away with it... by xappax · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Try embedding an Excel spreadsheet into your non-MS calendar, or pasting a MS Word doc into a non-MS email app. It doesn't work so well, does it? The incredible inter-operability and compatibility that you're describing exists because MS has direct control over all the specifications and interfaces for pretty much all the apps most people use today.

      MS didn't "innovate" the idea of getting everyone to use only MS apps for everything. If any company held such a powerful monopoly, they could do something similar. MS enjoys a greater degree of compatibility and interoperability in their software because they control the whole game - the OS, the browser, the word processor, the spreadsheet, etc. are all totally under the control of MS. If a small company has a truly innovative idea, they have to fit it within the existing inflexible MS specs and APIs, or they're out of luck. Meanwhile, if MS has even the slightest idea for a new feature, they can just re-mold the entire OS and application architecture to implement it.

      What if you could get better gas mileage in a Ford, but you could only use Ford gas and drive on Ford roads? Would that be considered "innovative"? Requiring people to commit themselves to a restricted proprietary environment in order to get the benefits of interoperability is a sign of lazy development at best and anti-competitive profiteering at worst - but if that's what they call "innovation" these days, who am I to argue?

  2. Re:The most surprising thing to me by camperdave · · Score: 4, Funny

    Was the missing three years- just what in the hell was Microsoft doing from 1977 to 1980 anyway?

    Downloading CPM on a 300 baud acoustic modem?

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  3. A key to MS success is exposed here by mattnuzum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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)

  4. The word "users" by JamesTKirk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's interesting that the word "users" features much more prominently in some of the earlier texts than it does in the later ones.

  5. Open by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 3, Funny

    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."
  6. Windows CeMeNT by viking80 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  7. My favorite quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:My favorite quote by ch-chuck · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Who were we imitating..

      Oh, DEC BASIC, Wordstar and Lotus 123.

      --
      try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  8. Where's the word security? by millia · · Score: 4, Insightful


    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
  9. Typical Gates logic.... by jsimon12 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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......

    1. Re:Typical Gates logic.... by Inthewire · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Gary Kildall wrote CP/M in 1973 for the Intel 8080, one of Intel's first microprocessors. He then began writing various versions for popular (and unpopular) microprocessors. He soon tired of reimplementing common functionality, isolated those routines, and created a distinct BIOS for each new chip. Now he had a standard OS that could be ported to any appropriate chip with relatively little effort. Digital Research was formed to sell this product, which it licensed at $10 per copy to manufacturers.
      During that same time Microsoft was formed to sell programming languages for microcomputers. They actually supported CP/M and recommended it to clients. When IBM showed up with Project Chess, Microsoft suggested that CP/M should be the OS. IBM was unable to come to terms with Digital, so Microsoft bought and modified Q-DOS from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, licensing it to IBM as MS-DOS (called PC-DOS by IBM).
      Customers purchasing a new IBM PC had the option of PC-DOS for $40 or CP/M for $350 (IIRC). Digital sued, but the court found in favor of Microsoft.

      In other words, Digital and Microsoft were both options for the IBM PC, and Digital got screwed, but not because Microsoft stole CP/M - though Tim Paterson did pattern Q-DOS after CP/M. Linus patterned Linux after Unix, right? Same interface, different internals.

      --


      Writers imply. Readers infer.
  10. I see a trend by jbrader · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
  11. Re:TDS is a very MIXED bag by thommoose · · Score: 3, Insightful
    What the parent poster is forgetting here is the fact that TDS is on a network called, "Comedy Central." It in no way purports itself as a news station.
    In fact, there's the famously funny exchange on crossfire where Stewart has to remind his hosts their show is on CNN whereas his show is followed by puppets making crank calls.

    C'mon buddy--- get real... If anyone's looking to "Comedy Central" for news on what's going on in the world, they've got bigger problems than a left-wing bias- that's for damn sure.

    And as much as Blogs might be a concern, frankly, if you have the wherewithall to subscribe/read a blog, then you're far better off than the remote jockey that takes in his news in the 30 minutes before South Park. Chances are you're aware of the slant and prefer that blog for that specific reason- and remember, blogs are not governed with the same liability and adherence to source material as traditional broadcast media... But, hey, at least you're literate- Congrats!

    I'd have modded ya up anyway just for the assertion that FOX/CNN/MSNBC are absurd- even sans the caveat... My .02--- keep the change.

  12. A lack of Progress? by Mystic+Silverfox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?