Chairman Bill's Thought Processes

(Innovation -- "I do not think that word means what you think it means." -- from The Princess Bride)

Microsoft is all about Innovation -- it's what the People want
- In Microsoft Word 95, GoToPageNumber (Ctrl-G) pops up in about a second the first time, immediately afterward
  - FindWord (Ctrl-F) and ReplaceWord (Ctrl-H) pop up almost immediately all the time
- In Microsoft Word 97, GoToPageNumber (Ctrl-G) pops up in about SEVEN SECONDS the first time
  - In Word 97 (and later) GoToPageNumber is combined with FindWord and ReplaceWord in a window with folder tabs
  - FindWord and ReplaceWord exhibit the same SEVEN SECOND delay the first time
    - All three come up more quickly subsequently
  - Dr. Phil does not imagine a crying need for these three functions to be combined into one more complicated window
- Office 95/Word 95 and Office 97/Word 97 have reorganized their directories
  - Much harder to tell where any part of one program lives, or how much space it occupies.
  - But I seem to recall the Microsoft Office 97 is more than twice the size of Microsoft Office 95
  - Innovation, including combining the functions noted above, clearly involved much more code
  - So it not easy to tell what cost there was in combining those three functions, but there had to be some
- What exactly ARE all those innovative features and what small percentage of Microsoft Office users use them?
  - Dr. Phil does not use all the features in Word 95
  - Dr. Phil has only ever used two new features in Word 97, and then only occassionally
  - Dr. Phil has many quibbles about how Word 97 and Excel 97 display or change the way that things were done in Word 95 (and Word for Windows 6.0 before that)
  - Dr. Phil has only ever sat down at Word 2000 twice
    - Both times were to use functions already present in Word 95 and Word 97
  - Dr. Phil has never touched Word XP
  - Some of the issues that Dr. Phil would like addressed in his documents actually have to do with Printer Drivers, not Word or Excel
    - You can display 2-up or 4-up on the screen
    - But you can only print 2-up or 4-up on a sheet of paper if the printer driver allows it
      - Dr. Phil's HP LaserJet 4ML can print 2-ups and 4-ups in Windows 95/98/Me in Postscript
        
        Printer drivers for Windows NT4/2000 don't allow for this, even in Postscript
- Isn't Microsoft Windows supposed to be a GUI (Graphical User Interface)?
  - Wordview 7.1 allows previewing of Word 95 documents as Read Only
    - Wordview 7.1 uses some of the same Buttons as Word 95 (easy)
  - Wordview 97 allows previewing of Word 97 and earlier documents as Read Only
    - Wordview 97 has no buttons, only pulldown menus (hard/annoying)
- I thought those default File Extensions were supposed to mean something.
  - Excel 97 Viewer does allow one to read Excel 97 spreadsheets without Excel 97
  - Unlike the Wordview 97 Setup program, there is no question to make the default spreadsheet Excel or Excel 97 Viewer
  - But if Excel 97 Viewer is open, it acts like it owns the default File Extensions for Excel
    - Click Start | Documents | (Existing Excel 95 spreadsheet file) and it opens in Excel 97 Viewer, not Excel 95
    - Clicking File | Open for Editing fails to find Excel 95, complaining instead that it can't find Excel 97, even with an Excel 95 file.
  - Wordview 97 when open, ignores Click Start | Documents | (Existing Word 95 file) altogether and neither Word 95 nor Wordview 97 opens the file.
- Upgrades for Upgrades' sake only benifits Microsoft's revenue stream
  - Why does it seem that every new version of Microsoft Powerpoint is effectively incompatible with all previous versions?
  - If you are expected to Upgrade your software at Microsoft's whim, they why tick off your customer base?
    - Dr. Phil feels that "testing" at Microsoft has little relationship with what Real Users do in the Real World
  - If you are forced to buy the new version with a new machine, shouldn't it work with the old ones?
    - Microsoft (and others) should make it easy to buy New and Legal copies of previous versions of their software
      - It would help eliminate piracy
      - If there was a reduction in price for legacy programs with zero support, it would make it easy for smaller offices, students and Third World countries to at least have some Legal copy of Microsoft products
- Why does each new version of the Windows GUI look stupid, ugly and cheap lately?
- How do you find the right new function in dynamic pull-down menus?
  - Dr. Phil resisted customizing the menus in Office 95 and Office 97 for a long time
  - Using the default menus meant that one could always sit down at anyone's PC and use it
  - But customization can really improve fucntionality
    - Except that Excel and Powerpoint don't allow Word's level of customization
  - However, dynamically changing menus means that you never seem to know where functions are on any given machine
- Innovation Bloat = Code Bloat
  - New machines have more memory and more disk space than ever
  - Microsoft is under no obligation to fill that space
  - Older machines do not always allow for more memory and may have disk restrictions
    - PC's do not come with an expiration date
  - How is it that the screen can't keep up with my typing ( speed < 1 KHz) on a 1 GHz machine with Word 2000?
- This is Innovation?
Microsoft Passport use goes from 7 million users to 14 million users
- This proves that people trust Microsoft with their personal information
  - So we shouldn't worry about Verified by Visa using Passport
  - Having Microsoft be a central information depository is a good thing
  - Microsoft only has our best interests at heart
- OR They just wanted to use their new PC.
  - Windows XP requires Passport to register the Operating System (or the computer doesn't work)
- This is trust?
Security is now Microsoft's Job Number One
- Because Security is what people want and they trust Microsoft
  - It is Microsoft's success as an innovator that makes them such a target
- OR Micosoft programs have had such a poor track record
  - Every week brings to light new Security flaws and issues
  - Some of the patches/fixes introduce new Security flaws
- This is Security?
The Internet is now Microsoft's Job Number One
- Wait! Oh, this is from the Old Microsoft, not the New Microsoft (see Security above)
- Internet Explorer is an integral part of Microsoft Windows
  - Because we spent millions making it that way
  - Because you can use IE in lieu of another program's control screens or Help files
- Microsoft Office wants to turn all your documents into Web documents
  - Even though such HTML code is needlessly convoluted and doesn't like Netscape
  - By making non-standard (er, Microsoft standard) Web pages, only Microsoft programs will work right with it.
Ease of Use is now Microsoft's Job Number One
- Wait! Oh, this from the Old Old Microsoft...
- Microsoft Office Assisant
  - Paper Clip Guy will try to help you do some task
    - Instead of just answering your damn question about some task
  - Paper Clip Guy was advertised in a big promotion as being dropped in Word XP
    - Just kidding, apparently
    - The much hated Clippy is still around
    - Guess Bill missed the little leering guy
- Microsoft Bob Version 1.0
- The fastest way to find information on Microsoft's web site is to use Google
- This is Ease of Use?
This is the most tested product in Microsoft history
- Microsoft Word 97 shipped unable to write a .DOC file that Word 95 could read
  - Every office in America that bought a new copy of Word or upgraded, needed this capability
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional shipped with 64,000 known bugs
  - A Microsoft questioniare asked if I would be upgrading NT4 to 2000 (a) Now, (b) Never or (c) After Service Pack 1 ships
  - A rash of Security flaws are included in an emergency update, which MS promises will be shipped with Service Pack 3
- Microsoft Windows NT4 Professional SP0 could not change User Passwords
  - Oh you could run the program, but the password didn't actually change
  - Changing passwords, especially on the initial login, is a standard Security issue
  - From what Dr. Phil can tell, it wasn't until NT4 Service Pack 5 was shipped in the NT4 Workstation box, that the Installation CD-ROM was upgraded from SP0 to SP1, so that you could do initial password control on new installs
  - NT4 Service Pack 4 was so rife with errors itself, that many IT users just waited for Service Pack 5
- Internet Explorer 5.01 checks the Microsoft website on its own for upgrades
  - Since when does Microsoft tell me what my computer does on my time?
  - On at least two occassions, updates were installed WITHOUT ASKING
    - This even in light of the fact of previous updates that added new problems
  - Compatibility Issues dictate what software does or does not get installed on any machine
- This is Product Testing?

Last Update: 17 September 2002 Tue