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Ray Ozzie Quit... What Took Him So Long?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the paychecks-aren't-bad dept.

GMGruman writes "The mainstream press acts surprised that Microsoft's chief software architect is resigning, but InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard explains through a review of Ozzie's efforts at Microsoft how the Redmond giant has consistently ignored and squandered the design savvy that Ozzie has tried to bring to the table. If you ever wondered why Microsoft's products like Windows and Office are so bloated and underwhelming, while Apple's are almost always wonderful experiences, this analysis will solve that mystery. And you too will wonder how Ozzie could have lasted so long at a company that doesn't believe in design."

14 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Wow.... by rotide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you ever wondered why Microsoft's products like Windows and Office are so bloated and underwhelming, while Apple's are almost always wonderful experiences, this analysis will solve that mystery.

    No bias here..

    1. Re:Wow.... by recoiledsnake · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously, Windows 7 runs on old Pentium 4's nicely and Office 2007 and 2010 are not really bloated compared to their functionality. But iTunes on the other hand....

      --
      This space for rent.
    2. Re:Wow.... by Missing.Matter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If ever a story needed to be modded flame bait. The summary just begs for reactionary keyboard banging.

    3. Re:Wow.... by numbski · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No - he's talking about UI consistency and overall layout, not performance on older hardware. Whether you meant to do it or not, you've set up a straw man here.

      Granted, ESPECIALLY with iTunes, and ESPECIALLY with the latest version, Apple seriously violates it's own UI guidelines. As of right now, everything always looks greyed out, and the minimize/maximize/close buttons aren't located where they're supposed to be, and they're vertically oriented instead of horizontally.

      Apple's no saint, but the original poster's point still stands. Overall, Apple still wins on this.

      --

      Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

    4. Re:Wow.... by vux984 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, it often runs SLOWER if you turn off the aero interface. If your GPU can do your desktop rendering, let it. You did say 'older' hardware, and that can mean just about anything, but a lot of what I consider 'older hardware' is better with Aero on.

      But I agree with the sentiments that the submission is an apple fanboi. I'm writing this on a macbook pro but itunes is anything but archtypical good design. Its a music library manager, and ipod/iphone sync tool ... already the two should be separate. Lets tack on a web browser type thing (iTMs) except its not really the web that it browses, its apples proprietary alternative. What a great idea! How can we make this less appealing? How about a social network!! Hello pointless bloat that makes office look lean and task-focused.

      As if that's not enough, lets name it Ping! It rhymes with Bing! from Microsoft and also happens to be named the same as a standard network utility.

      Oh, and one more thing, lets violate the user interface standard by making the window control widgets smaller than normal and arrange them vertically instead of horizontally too. Steve Job's would blow a gasket if someone else dared to violate his beloved UI standard.

      If Microsoft wrote iTunes people would point at it as a symbol of everything that is wrong with Microsoft.

    5. Re:Wow.... by VGPowerlord · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Err, the quote was that Windows and Office were bloated(which directly translates to bad performance on older hardware), not about UI consistency of layout. You're the one setting up a straw man here.

      No, setting up a strawman is taking what someone said and misrepresenting it.

      For instance, you just did it by referring to "bloated" and ignoring the "and underwhelming, while Apple's are almost always wonderful experiences" part that followed it that would most certainly refer to the UI as well.

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  2. I never wondered why Office was so bloated by decipher_saint · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Inside every version of "Word" is every previous version of word, so you can open that Office '97 document just as easily as your 2010 document.

    Bloat accrues in most software I reckon.

    That said, it's sad to see when talent is trumped by management but I think we all know that's par for the course in IT.

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
    1. Re:I never wondered why Office was so bloated by bjourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Word has lots of features yes. But it is not slow or more unresponsive when compared to other office suites. OpenOffice always loads much slower than MS Office for me on similar hardware. MS Word's speed is on par with Abiword, although the former has many more features. Excel on par with Gnumeric, OpenOffice Calc is the slowest one by a margin. The reason may be that Windows preloads the libraries MS Office uses and therefore gets a speed advantage. Never the less, the end result is a better user experience.

      --
      Football Odds
    2. Re:I never wondered why Office was so bloated by decipher_saint · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think there was a cutoff at some point (Office 2005?) where it only went back as far as 2003, but I've had some experience working with Office guts and there are some mind-bendingly old components still being used that only kick in with specific document versions.

      Mind you, it's been about 4 years since I mucked about in there so who knows what changed, but the point I was trying to make still stands.

      The longer a piece of software is around the more likely it is to bloat.

      --
      crazy dynamite monkey
    3. Re:I never wondered why Office was so bloated by numbski · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is the precise reason that i use .rtf as much as possible. If I don't need any super-fancy formatting, I always save as .rtf. Cross platform (for the most part), opens in just about every version of everything that I'm aware, including Microsoft Works if I recall correctly.

      --

      Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  3. Re:It's for the best anyway by oneiros27 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I personally suspect that the people who are smiling all the time are the ones who are insane.

    The ones who frown at least have a chance of being connected to reality.

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
  4. Re:finally by recoiledsnake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now comes word that Microsoft's head designer Ray Ozzie -- officially Chief Software Architect, de facto the highest-level designer in the company, with a purview outside the tired Windows/Office megalith -- has decided to take a break.

    Someone that gets confused between a designer and an architect has no right to write a tech article such as this one.

    --
    This space for rent.
  5. Ding dong! by drlloyd11 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, this is the man behind Lotus notes and Groove. Two of the biggest piles of snot ever made. His existence at MS was a blight. Now if they can get Balmer to join him they may have something there.

  6. Microsoft and design by byteherder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "...company that doesn't believe in design."

    It is not that Microsoft doesn't believe in design, it is that they suck at it. The best case in point is Windows security.