In my opinion, part of the problem seems to be with Microsoft itself. The corporation has so many levels of bureaucracy that to get anything done with efficiency is like jumping hurdles and cutting through red tape. I'm sure that most of the programmers have been employed there long enough to know that it's better just to go with the flow and follow the status quo rather than fighting the beast for innovation. Microsoft needs to work from the inside out. They can't perfect the product until they fix the problems within the corporation.
Now that Google is a publicly traded company (on the stock market) Google's values are subject to the board's behavior. The board doesn't exist to uphold values. The board exists to make shareholders happy. To make shareholders happy, they have to expand. Thus, values get compromised along the way. The values remain posted as a PR tool.
You'll start to see Google become the next Microsoft over the next several years.
I actually applied for a job at Google, and the job was re-posted as a "contract" position through a "temporary" placement agency. Once a company goes corporate and contract, the values that they uphold become questionable.
I love Google, but I see them going down the wrong path.
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In my opinion, part of the problem seems to be with Microsoft itself. The corporation has so many levels of bureaucracy that to get anything done with efficiency is like jumping hurdles and cutting through red tape. I'm sure that most of the programmers have been employed there long enough to know that it's better just to go with the flow and follow the status quo rather than fighting the beast for innovation. Microsoft needs to work from the inside out. They can't perfect the product until they fix the problems within the corporation.
Now that Google is a publicly traded company (on the stock market) Google's values are subject to the board's behavior. The board doesn't exist to uphold values. The board exists to make shareholders happy. To make shareholders happy, they have to expand. Thus, values get compromised along the way. The values remain posted as a PR tool. You'll start to see Google become the next Microsoft over the next several years. I actually applied for a job at Google, and the job was re-posted as a "contract" position through a "temporary" placement agency. Once a company goes corporate and contract, the values that they uphold become questionable. I love Google, but I see them going down the wrong path.