Googling Microsoft Vista

In a move that is likely to have all anti-Microsoft people cheering, Microsoft agreed to change its Windows Vista operating system after getting complaints from Google stating that the default Vista desktop search engine was somehow slowing down other similar programs; namely Google's desktop search engine. In a move meant to show compliance with a ruling regarding anti-trust violations, Microsoft agreed to make the changes to Vista and is working to ensure that whatever is causing Google applications to run slowly will be taken care of in short order.

Now although this likely is a victory for Google, it just points out the fact that there are still many more problems out there where Microsoft is concerned. Now don't get me wrong, I think Microsoft is one of the shining examples in the American lexicon of companies that have shown how to take a great idea, modify it and then run the world with it. Apply to any office these days and you're required to know Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Any of the other members of the Office Suite of products are bonus skills but gone are the days when you were asked to state your proficiency with word processors, spreadsheets and computer slides. Though there are other products, Microsoft products are the standard which most of the world uses. There are a few bastions of resistance out there who rail against Microsoft's efforts to take over completely but they are still not as large a force as to challenge Microsoft's dominance.

One of the reasons for this is that Microsoft has been around far too long to have an immediate impact from non-Microsoft companies. When Windows came out, way back when, sure it was a rip on the visual interface pioneered by Xerox and then Apple, but Microsoft took it to the next level and made it readily available to everyone out there at a bargain price. When personal computers first came out, I remember that my Dad bought one of the first ones and though it was powerful for its day, it was not as user friendly as today's PCs are. For example, unless you knew the basic commands for DOS, you were lost in the water. As it is, most people have trouble making sense in English, do you really think that the non-IT people out there are going to want to learn yet another language? Apple's Macintosh computers were good but not popular due to their closed architecture. Basically you could modify your system when you bought it and then that was it. You were done.

Microsoft jumped on the PC market with a fury and ended up packaging their operating systems with every new PC that came out and now you are hard pressed to find a PC that doesn't already have a Microsoft operating system already loaded. There are always complaints in the market about how there are superior prouducts to Windows that are available to the general public. One of the most popular these days is the Linux operating environment that takes all of the features of Windows but puts it in open source so that means anyone can modify it and then put it out for the world to see and use. It's a novel concept that is driving innovation and development a lot farther and faster than many people realize but the problem is that when the average computer user is faced with a choice of a known quantity versus something unknown, they tend to go with a brand name.

Linux and the like are probably much more stable, have more capabilities and will someday possibily surpass Microsoft's hold on the market but it isn't likely to happen very soon. While these Anti-Trust cases are in place on Microsoft and they are serving to hinder their dominance of the martket, it can't undo the years of ruling the market that Microsoft has enjoyed. If rival companies had good alternatives years ago then they should have started the way Microsoft did. Join with like-minded PC developers who feel that Microsoft has an unfair advantage on the market and begin packaging their operating systems with those PCs. Once that's done, sell like the Dickens and get your product name out there. Mac is trying with their attempts at cuteness with the Mac and PC commercials but still, cute isn't enough to knockout Microsoft.

Google is like a boxer who has managed to stagger the untouchable heavyweight who has never been knocked out. Their arguement that Vista is 'doing something' to slow down the downloading or running of non-Microsoft products is true. Try downloading a rival program to a Microsoft program and see how difficult it can be. I remember in the old days with Netscape. Though it is in use today, a few years ago it was the only choice for web browsing. Compared to competing products, Netscape was the best but then Windows made it difficult to download it for the first time on PCs with Windows running. Soon the average user got frustrated and began using the default Microsoft Internet Explorer and soon Netscape degenerated into what it is today, a good product that is still struggling to keep pace. Mozilla is attempting to fight back, hopefully with a little more success but the sad truth is that until the majority of users out there (the non-IT gurus) give up on using only the default tools and products, Microsoft isn't going to feel any hits other than glancing blows.