Figgy FUDding

FUD

Fear ... Uncertainty ... Doubt

When reading interviews with Microsoft officials beware the FUD. Much like this country's administration, Microsoft loves to smear the competition while playing up their own, inferior products.

What got my ire up this week, is an interview with Bill Gates about the state of Microsoft, the industry, competition, etc.

What amazed me most is the way Gates danced around every issue, making sure to plug a product when he had no other answer.

Here are some lowlights (speckled with my own comments) of the C|Net News.com article which can, in its entirety, be found here.

CNET: One of the big phenomena of the year has been blogging. Has the growth surprised you?
BG: "Now, with blogs, you always have to be careful. The decay rate of 'I started and I stopped' or 'I started and nobody visited' is fairly high"

Comment: Yes, that's because Microsoft doesn't have any blogging products. Just wait until they release some of the stuff he talks about. It won't matter if the drop off rate is 100%, it will still be the best thing invented since the wheel - according to Microsoft that is.

RE Online Music:
BG: "Apple is doing things the way Apple does--where it's the Apple hardware and the Apple store, that's great for them. We're doing it the Windows way, where you've got things like this Creative Zen Micro, which sold out this holiday season."

Comment: Right. Apparently Gates is not aware that iTunes is available for Windows? So now I'm using Wintel hardware with Apple's service. Not what he means you say? How about Apple licensing the iPod to HP? To Motorola. Now they're just playing the same game MS does but in a more open format. I can load MP3's and AAC's on the iPod. What can you load on the Windows based device? WMA. This is Microsoft's prorietary format. Of course they want you using it.

Oh, and the Zen Sold Out? How many units was that Mr. Gates? How many iPods sold again? FUD

Gate's comment about Apple having only "three hits" in the past 20 years is a nice way to backhand Apple across the face without seeming like he's doing so. I think Microsoft would be thrilled to have hits like the Apple II, the Mac and the iPod instead of just ... Windows and Office. Seriously, that's only two hits by my count.

CNET: Other browsers are making market share gains. When does this become a problem or an issue for you guys?
BG: "So when people say Firefox is being downloaded onto people's systems, that's true, but IE is also on those systems."

Comment: IE CAN'T BE REMOVED. If it could, it sure as hell wouldn't be on MY system anymore. Microsoft has inextricably linked the browser to the OS which is what causes most of the problems for them. So your browser has a security hole in it? Well, now so does your operating system.

BG: "it's (Firefox) very easy to download."

Comment: Yes. Yes, it is. It's very small, easy to install and doesn't wreak havoc on your computer if something goes wrong or you want to uninstall it. So let's just stick with bloated and buggy IE ... shall we?

BG: "We need to keep IE the best. We need to innovate in IE, do more add-ons, do improvements. We have some very exciting plans there. Some percentage of users are going to try Firefox and IE side by side, and use the one that's best.

"So no big problem; it's not that people have stopped using IE, it's just we've got lots of good ideas that can match and move ahead.

"In terms of our agility to do things on the browser, people who underestimated us there in the past lived to regret that."

Comment: So why don't you do just that? Innovate! Create more add-ons! Do IMPROVEMENTS! The last thing added to IE was pop-up blocking and that's ONLY for Win XP Service Pack 2 folks. Otherwise the browser has remained untouched for 3 years! The rest of the world? Screw 'em!

He keeps talking about all the great ideas they have but doesn't say they're going to do anything about them. THEN he launches what he does best ... a threat. Personally I don't know anyone who's moved to Firefox and regretted it.

CNET: But some people have left because of security issues.
BG: "Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE."

Comment: Yes. Microsoft is big, has money and pays their developers gobs of cash. So naturally they would be the ones who "invest" more in security. The competition developing more secure browsers RIGHT NOW are investing very little because they are not paid or paid very little for the work they do and, yet, they're able to run circles around Microsoft in this area.

BG: "know that there are hundreds of very smart people who are constantly improving your browser and making sure that you're safe. And so with auto update and IE, you're getting the top security team and the quickest response team that there is anywhere."

Comment: Yes. Hundreds of smart people. No doubt they are very smart. But Firefox has THOUSANDS of very smart people working on it in some form or another. As far as quickest response team? Well, there's been a security hole in IE since before October 2004 and a patch for it was only just released this week. Let's see, that's 1, 2, 3, 4 ... ummm, how many weeks did that take? In the mean time... watch out!

For more of the Gates interview, click the link at the top of this entry. That's all my blood pressure can take today...