microsoft is an island 1 september, 2002 by johnmichael patrick monty monteith

I try to avoid bashing Microsoft employees. Try. The truth is that the folks working in Redmond are some of the most brilliant people I have ever spent time with. Microsoft does an amazing job of finding people that have considerable energy, considerable technical knowledge, and amazing loyalty. While they may score highly on all of these, no one is perfect (no matter how I try to convince my family otherwise.) Nearly all of them seem to be missing something most everyone else in the world has a little too much of: An open mind.

There are a number of Microsoft gurus that read these articles regularly, and unfortunately, many of them know where I live. So, please forgive me if I try to tread lightly. However, I think I am already doomed. Not because I said they do not have an open mind, but because, deep down, they know I am speaking the truth.

Employees of Microsoft know that they are a software company second to none. They know that 99.9% of all of the world’s computers run their software. (I exaggerate, certainly, but only slightly.) They know that whenever anyone writes anything about computers, the name “Microsoft” will be included somewhere. They know that the entire software and hardware world is dependent on every decision they make.

The tired cliché certainly applies: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And in the software world, Microsoft has absolute power. Corruption has never been far behind.

The result is that 99.9% of Microsoft employees have this ‘indestructible’ mindset where, if it did not come out of Redmond, it is not worth hearing about. Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, and it is certainly higher than my one tenth of a percent. But, not much.

For example, today I was meeting with Jerry, and he was telling me and some others about the Halo on his Xbox. He was saying how this game is the ultimate in taking out aggressions because it is so violent. More violent and destructive than anything else out there – so you have to get this game. Well, anyone who has played the recent group of games knows that Halo is basically a children’s story compared to Grand Theft Auto 3.

While it did not surprise me that he did not know what GTA3 was, even if it is the biggest selling video game of the past year. He does not know about it because it is not available for the Xbox, and was not developed by Microsoft. No surprise, there. Redmond is a rather exclusive island, after all.

What did surprise me was, after finding out it was a Playstation game, he had absolutely know interest in hearing anything more about it. He made a joke about how there will be a hack on the Xbox to play Playstation games, and then he will try it, and changed the subject. This, after spending ten minutes discussing Halo. He actually gave the impression of being a video game enthusiast for a few minutes, but truly, he was a Microsoft video game enthusiast.

For one more example, I will bring up my discussion with another MS employee (who I will not even mention his first name, since he will likely be reading this.) He was talking about how he just ordered AT&T Digital Cable to get the digital music stations, because he loves music but did not want to hear commercials. Another person in the conversation mentioned that you can get digital music on satellite as well, and so we discussed that for a minute. Then another asked whether you could listen to radio stations on the Internet, and this MS employee said the sound quality is not good enough. To this I mentioned hooking up a USB to digital audio out box for fifty bucks, and then subscribing to Music Match radio (CD quality sound, dozens of channels, and you can build your own stations.)

He had no interest in this, and changed the subject back to cable and satellite. Then I mentioned that he could also get nice quality sound on MS Media Player, even if it is not as good as Music Match. Suddenly he was interested in hearing about the USB to digital audio, and using it with Media Player.

I do not bring this up to beat up on Microsoft employees. Once again, they are a brilliant and friendly bunch. The point here is that the attitude that many of us feel is oozing in everything Microsoft, the company, does – from forcing their standards on us, to the inability to uninstall their products – is related to this Microsoft mentality. Why would you use anything other than the Microsoft product? To Microsoft and their employees – there is no competition.

That is why they do not find anything wrong with changing the Java standards in the MS Java Virtual Machine. Or, changing API calls without notifying anyone else. Or, including a new program in Windows that will put a competing product out of business. What could be wrong with these practices when you will not be using anything but the Microsoft product anyway?

I suppose if I were working for Microsoft I might develop the same mindset. It is tough to be software rulers of the universe and not allow that to influence your attitude toward the competition. Still, no matter how brilliant they are, as soon as the conversation switches to something built outside of Redmond, the brilliance dulls considerably.