Super Volatile

Anderson is hinting that Mozilla may pursue anti-trust action against Microsoft in the U.S. and Europe because of the Windows RT restrictions. He writes on the Mozilla blog that Microsoft's action:

"... runs afoul of the EC browser choice commitments and seems to represent the very behavior the [Department of Justice]-Microsoft settlement sought to prohibit."

Given that Microsoft has only the tiniest slice of the tablet market, and Apple dominates, there's no anti-trust implications here. If there were, they should apply to Apple, by banning competing browsers from the dominant tablet operating system, iOS.

Or why we are not going to see Firefox Mobile on iOS.

They called it out in my performance reviews: I lacked “respect for authority.”

In the most innovative industry on the planet being fired for the above sounds really ironic.

By clearing the interface of all unnecessary elements and using the content as the design core, the team has been able to distinguish this OS from more traditional UIs: the interface disappears, and the content itself becomes the interface. The interface shows the actual content and is not just the means to get to the content. Reducing the visuals on the phone promotes direct interaction with the content.

An overview of new design system from Microsoft. I don't know if it's going to fly, but wish it to succeed. That's why I'd be much happier if it was executed by Apple instead of Microsoft.

I called up Bill and said, “I’m going to turn this thing around.” Bill always had a soft spot for Apple. We got him into the application software business. The first Microsoft apps were Excel and Word for the Mac. So I called him and said, “I need help.” Microsoft was walking over Apple’s patents. I said, “If we kept up our lawsuits, a few years from now we could win a billion-dollar patent suit. You know it, and I know it. But Apple’s not going to survive that long if we’re at war. I know that. So let’s figure out how to settle this right away. All I need is a commitment that Microsoft will keep developing for the Mac and an investment by Microsoft in Apple so it has a stake in our success.”

It doesn't sound like blackmail AT ALL.

This screenshot of Windows Explorer from Windows 8 has been already ridiculed by everybody and his dog. It's looking like Apple and Microsoft, both having 30 years of experience in interface design, reached radically different conclusions.

Reading the article clearly shows that Microsoft's design is driven by data. Apple, on the other hand, seems to employ designers.

Three main concerns are enumerated in the post: WebGL exposes too much sensitive, privileged, or unhardened code to the Web; depends too heavily on third-party code for security; and is too susceptible to denial of service attacks. The first of these is perhaps most significant. Video hardware and video drivers are traditionally only exposed to relatively "trusted" code—programs that the user has explicitly chosen to install. Display drivers are notoriously unstable and buggy, and developers of 3D software have to go to quite some effort to ensure their programs do not use (or misuse) the 3D hardware in such a way as to cause problems.

Microsoft refuses to implement WebGL, giving security as a reason. Interestingly, it's not an issue for every other browser out there and even for Microsoft's very own Silverlight... It's worth to read response of the VP of Technology at Mozilla, Mike Shaver.

About a month before the launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft held an iPhone funeral procession in Redmond. This is not something a confident business does, this is something an arrogant business does — regardless of what company does something like this it is both childish and stupid.

That funeral alone should be a reason for CEO to step down. Especially when you look at such a hubris in a perspective of the last few months, when Windows Phone didn't make any relevant dent in the market.

Microsoft's DNA is: slow release cycles and building "solid" products. To the contrary, Gaurav is notorious for saying, "you ship or you suck", taking the emphasis away from the framework builders. Your promotion was solely dependent on the amount of stuff you ship and the impact you make. (that's not too much news to web startups?) They had weekly release cycles - faster than Google back then. The rule on the ground was if code breaks or does not ship in time, the engineer is held responsible, No - not the test, not the project manager. Engineer should drive everything.

On engineering culture of Bing, back and then. Maybe it's just because the article was written by a former employee, but the message is clear: Bing has lost its vibe.

"It's a culture that actually awards the political assassins," said a software engineer who thought he might be one of the exceptions -- an outsider able to thrive despite moving to Redmond mid-career.  He was well aware of Microsoft's reputation for being hostile to those hired into senior positions from the outside but he was flabbergasted just the same when a top exec showed up in his office one day to spell out the facts of life inside Microsoft shortly after he arrived on campus.

"He's standing there telling me, 'I can have your team broken apart any time I want, just remember that,' " he said.

Or why the company that's doing so well is in such a bad shape.

Even before Microsoft made him wealthy, it appeared to people who knew him that Mr. Allen had broader interests than running a software business. David Bunnell, who worked in New Mexico in the 1970s with Messrs. Allen and Gates at the pioneering PC maker Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, better known as MITS, said Mr. Allen was more passionate about music and culture than his business partner.

"He was more interested, in a broader sense, in the world," Mr. Bunnell says. "I think Bill is more single-minded."

Something tells me that THAT is exactly one of the most crucial things that distinguish people like Gates, who were able to create remarkable companies.