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The Microsoft Watch posting 10 Ways Microsoft Can Make Windows 7 Lucky lays out a 10 step Vista recovery program for Microsoft. Here are my reactions to the 10 steps.

1. Windows 7 has to be a whole lot better than Windows Vista.

Better doesn’t mean tons more features.

Any process requiring more than two mouse clicks is too complicated. Every Wizard is unnecessary. Windows 7 must wring the complexity out of the user interface. Microsoft can make Windows 7 more compelling by radically—and I mean RADICALLY—changing the UI. The old motif has got to go, and its replacement shouldn’t be one motif but several.

Featureitus seems to be a Microsoft marketing mainstay. Deviating from it will require changing the culture, and we all know how extremely difficult that is.

2. Windows 7 must generate a compelling hardware refresh cycle.

Microsoft’s fundamental development philosophy should be: one operating system to rule them all. If Apple can put Mac OS X derivatives on other hardware, such as iPhone, surely Microsoft can do something similar with Windows 7 (I’m not referring to a separate, embedded product).

Mac OS X is built on an a venerable UNIX architecture that has morphed countless times in the last 39 years to meet the needs of countless products, while still retaining its core designs and philosophies. I think history tells us the design of Microsoft Windows lacks this ability.

3. Windows 7 should go back to basics.

The browser has got to come out of the operating system. Internet Explorer has caused usability and security problems for far too long.

Fat chance. Doing so would be admitting to a major faux pas. Something that seems to be alien to Microsoft culture.

4. Call it Windows 7 Core.

The starting point must be the core, the kernel. Supposedly, Microsoft has made a fresh start with the Windows 7 kernel. From a usability and security perspective, that’s exactly what Microsoft should do. But Windows 7 has to be more by being less: It has to be the kernel, and to developers and other partners almost nothing more. Microsoft should even consider separately branding the Windows 7 kernel.

I think backwards compatibility hacks are the bane of Windows. On one hand Microsoft marketing seems to demand them, even though black hats use them as avenues of exploitation. Taking them out or drastically munging them raises customer hackles, as witnessed by some customer reactions to Vista.

If Microsoft does decide to start fresh, my advice would be to build on something that works, like a UNIX thingy. Don’t even think about doing it yourself, ever again. Operating systems are the most difficult things to program, and take a very long time to get “right.”

5. Windows 7 should be familiar.

Windows Vista was too much like the disastrous Windows Me II.

Learn from Max OS X.

6. One Windows 7 version is enough.

From the Windows 7 Core, OEMs should be able to customize the operating system for specific hardware and usage roles.

Gee, just like a UNIX thingy.

8. Windows 7 must give much, through sync.

Synchronization is the other killer UI, and it’s essential to fulfilling Ozzie’s mesh vision. Windows 7 needs a synchronization engine bound to the IP stack. This sync platform would become the hub for data exchange regardless of format or service. It’s a tough challenge and maybe even beyond Microsoft resources for Windows 7.

O.K. to what ever this mesh vision thing is. Wouldn’t want to stop someone from being “innovative.”

9. Windows Vista Capable means backward compatibility.

I’ve suggested some radical changes to Windows that simply are unworkable because of backward compatibility considerations. It’s time Microsoft put all that virtualization technology to good use. The company should radically rearchitect the operating system, while using virtualization to provide backward compatibility to Windows Vista and XP. Then the company can put all those Windows Vista Capable stickers to good use, on Windows 7 PCs.

Cool idea. Who knows, maybe building on a UNIX thingy and virtualizing sins of the past, may be a way for Microsoft to get back on its horse.

10. Windows 7 security features must increase usability by decreasing complexity.

Microsoft’s approach to security is fundamentally flawed.

I think the black hat underworld would whole heartedly agree.

Bottom Line

The author of the posting, Joe Wilcox, is making some intelligent suggestions. I doubt Microsoft will listen to such things until it is in really deep yogurt and hurting. Until then, marketing weenie greed will continue guiding the good ship Microsoft.

…John

I chuckled at the Inquirer posting last month Dealing with Ballmer is like dealing with an estate agent, over the remarks of an EC regulator dealing with the recent judgment against Microsoft.

Neelie Kroes revealed how in meetings she found him more slippery than a well-greased eel.

She said that she could remember at least four times when, if you were naïve, you could have thought everything was fixed.

However, it turned out that nothing was ever fixed and Microsoft was not even trying to “deliver and implement.”

In short, negotiating with Steve ’sounds of silence’ Ballmer was like dealing with an estate agent who is trying to convince you that the kitchen really is not falling into a Victorian cesspit and will be cheap to repair.

Unfortunately for the Vole, Kroes really thinks that Steve is the sort of person where you have to count your fingers after shaking hands. This might cause a few problems for Microsoft when it comes to the EU deciding about any take overs of Yahoo.

Today over breakfast I read the eWeek story “Steve Ballmer On Vista, virtualization and open vows”. Baller was interview by Senior Editor Peter Galli. (sorry, there doesn’t seem to be a link to the article on eWeek.com).

I was struck by the responses beginning with “Well,…” An insurance adjuster advised me some time ago to not believe anything after the “Well,…” I don’t. This sage advice has proven itself again and again.

Steve Ballmer has proven his marketing genius over the years. I think Microsoft would be just a shadow of itself if it weren’t for Ballmer’s marketing talents.

In the end, I think Ballmer always gets his pound of flesh. Late last month during a conference call billed as “significant, ” Steve Ballmer and others divulged some details of opening some API’s and protocols. See Microsoft Opens Kimono - Somewhat.

Oh, about that pound of flesh. In the interview Steve says

Open-source developers can write software that uses those patents. Their customers, the users of the products, must get a license. The developers themselves don’t need to get a patent license.

Slick, Steve. Slick.

…John

Some times banks just don’t get it. The CNET posting Windows-based cash machines ‘easily hacked’ is an example.

Up to 90 percent of the ATMs in the U.K. could be at risk from these attacks as they rely on desktop PC technology–usually Intel hardware and Windows operating systems–linked to other machines, some connected to the Internet, in the bank’s network, according to experts.

Beware when you next step up to an ATM machine.

(Credit: TechCrunch)

Here are a few things that may be lurking behind the facade.

… only the personal identification number was encrypted when information was sent from a U.S. ATM to networked bank computers. The card numbers, card expiration dates, transaction amounts, and account balances were clearly readable in plain text to anybody intercepting the data as it traveled through the network.

I can see it now. Microsoft’s patch Tuesday becomes a bank holiday.

“An ATM becomes like a PC with attached devices–it has to be kept up-to-date with hot fixes and patches. It is a much more complex beast, and the security aspects of that need to be at the forefront of a bank’s mind.”

De-evolution in action.

… the stability of Windows-based ATMs was worse than that of their OS/2-based predecessors, saying some ATMs suffered downtime of up to 30 percent.

Welcome script kiddies to the world of sloppy banking.

… the shift among ATMs to modern PC infrastructure means it now requires only minimal programming knowledge to hack ATM machines successfully once access has been gained to its system.

“If you are a programmer and you have some programming experience, then it is a cakewalk. If an exploit will work on a home or office computer then it will work on these ATMs,” …

Password, what password.

Researchers from IRM were even able to unlock and clear out the safes in two out of three U.K. cabinet ATMs, opening the safe using a default key code they obtained from a safe manual online. They also reset the cabinet ATMs’ software using a piece of wire jammed into the receipt slot, giving them access to the engineering mode where they could control the machine.

What part of basic network security 101 don’t bank technocrats get?

… the most effective way to protect against these new threats is to use a multifunction device with routing, firewall, intrusion detection system/intrusion prevention system and VPN (virtual private network) capabilities, positioned in front of, and protecting, the ATM network.

Well duh!

I don’t think ATM stupidity is unique to the U.K. So, beware when you next step up to an ATM machine, anywhere.

…John

The author of CNET posting Making the switch from Microsoft Office to Web apps, Dennis O’Reilly, has been using ThinkFree Online instead of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

(Credit: ThinkFree Online)

ThinkFree Online is a Java-based service that provides 1GB of storage for your files, though individual files can’t be larger than 10MB. You can upload .doc, .xls, and .ppt files to the site (it works with Office 2007’s XML formats as well), work on them in an environment much like their native Office apps (though in a smaller window with text ads along the right margin), and return them to your desktop, where they open in the Office equivalent with all changes in place. There’s also a limited-function, Ajax-based Quick Edit app for making fast, simple changes to files.

You can choose to keep your files private, or share them, either with a select group, or the world. In fact, easy collaboration is one of the great features of the service for workgroups. You can tag files for easy retrieval, but ThinkFree’s search feature located the files I was looking for without having to attach tags to them.

I gave ThinkFree Online a whirl. It ran very slow on my Mac workstation. I think I’ll stick with Google Aps.

…John

The Vista trudge continues. The InfoWorld posting Price cuts don’t get to heart of Vista’s problems, says analyst tells the story.

“In some ways, it’s an attempt to remove any barriers that may be dissuading people from buying Vista,” said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland, Wash.-based research firm. “But the missing step here is simplifying what people need to know to buy. People are so confused about the versions and what they need on hardware that they don’t even get to the price.”

But Microsoft didn’t reduce the number of Vista versions on Thursday; instead, it said it would cut the price of the OS. How much the company’s didn’t spell out except in general terms: In developing countries some prices will be slashed in half, while in established markets such as in the U.S. and Europe, prices may fall just a few percentage points, or not at all.

Let’s see. Price cuts for some, and none for others. Strange.

The closing of the posting seems to sum up the latest installment of the ongoing Microsoft comedy of errors.

“For one thing, I don’t sense the need that people think they need to have the latest technology anymore,” Cherry continued, giving his interpretation of what’s forced Microsoft’s hand. “That’s one. The other is that Microsoft has always gambled that if their software got bigger and they added more features, they didn’t have to fine-tune it because the hardware would be there to bail them out.

“That’s not what happened here with Vista.”

Somehow, I think Microsoft would probably continue their Vista failing streak, even if they gave it away.

…John