The 9 Things Microsoft Got Right
Posted 12/16/08 at 11:00:00 AM by Alex Castle
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In the Holiday 2008 issue of Maximum PC we published a list called “9 Things Microsoft Got Right.” It was a lovely list, of course, but thanks to the space limitations of the print magazine we weren’t able to go into much detail about each of the items on it. We decided that the topic was interesting enough that it deserved more than that, so we’ve rewritten it for the web, with more information and analysis.
So, without further ado, here’s our list of the top 9 things that Microsoft got right:
Mainstreaming the PC
Early PCs were anything but user-friendly. Incredibly esoteric interfaces were hardly intuitive, and sky-high price-points meant that anyone who wanted to learn to use the machines had to be either independently wealthy or willing to give up their earthly attachments just to buy in.
Not that early Windows machines were cheap, either, but they were relatively easy to use, and by appealing to the users who didn’t have the knowhow to use earlier OSes, Microsoft grew the userbase of its software, pushing PCs into the mainstream and subsequently forcing down prices.
The “Mostly Open” Platform
Calm down, Linux-lovers, no one’s going to claim that Windows is open source; just that Microsoft’s thorough and well-documented APIs have been a major factor in the rise of Windows as the dominant platform. Those APIs, in addition to the Redmond giant’s ongoing commitment to fostering a strong community of developers, have ensured a steady stream of killer apps for Windows, securing Microsoft’s place as top dog.
Xbox Live
The Xbox wasn’t the first console with online gaming (that honor goes to the criminally under-appreciated Sega Dreamcast) but it was the first to do it successfully. By requiring a broadband connection to access Xbox Live, Microsoft ensured the service would run much more quickly than the online offerings of its competitors (which didn’t even include Ethernet ports standard). And by unifying user’s accounts and community features across all games, Microsoft created a single, brand-able online experience.
Although the Xbox was never a serious contender for its generation’s top console, the success of Xbox Live, and its subsequent improvements on the 360 have proven that online gaming isn’t just for the PC.
Pushing Minimum Hardware Specification
Just like any software, Windows has system requirements, and with each version, the minimum system specs get goosed somewhat higher. On one hand, this is necessary to allow Microsoft to keep pushing the technical capabilities of its OS. But beyond just that, the Windows minimum system specs give developers who want their app to be runnable by all Windows users a lowest common denominator to shoot for. By incrementally increasing the minimum specifications, Microsoft raises this ceiling and ensures that applications continue to evolve.
The Mouse as a Business Tool
The mouse, which just recently had its 40th birthday, is nearly ubiquitous on the desktop computer. But everyone’s favorite peripheral hasn’t always been so popular; it took Microsoft’s Windows to make it that way.
That’s not to say that Windows was the first OS to utilize a mouse; the Macintosh GUI allowed users to point and click a year before Windows did. However, the device wasn’t taken seriously as anything more than a toy until Windows 3.x got wide acceptance as an office tool.
Bringing TCP/IP to the Masses
Microsoft’s decision to include a TCP/IP stack in Windows 95 was proof that the Redmond giant understood the growing importance of the internet as a tool for a broad consumer base. Together with the included version of Internet Explorer, this made a huge number of Windows users into first-time web surfers.
Supporting Legacy Devices and Apps at All Costs
Whenever Microsoft releases a new version of Windows, they get some flak over compatibility issues with programs written for previous versions of the OS. Despite this, Windows has the biggest backwards compatibility team in the industry, famous for writing “shims” for specific apps and games to make sure they work on newer versions of Windows, even when the app is incompatible because of shoddy programming on the original creators’ parts.
So even if they don’t get it right all the time, Windows has proven that they get the fundamental fact that if an upgraded version of an OS breaks your users programs, it’s not an upgrade at all.
DirectX
Our younger reader may not remember this, but there was a time when playing a game involved more than just double-clicking an icon. Instead, you had to exit Windows, boot up in DOS and run the game from there, all because developers preferred to write their games for DOS, which gave them direct access to the computer’s components, such as the display adapter. Fortunately, Microsoft understood how important it was to get developers writing games for Windows, so they created DirectX, a set of APIs that allowed programs to interface directly with the devices needed to create compelling media on the PC.
By listening to developers and giving them the tools they needed, Microsoft allowed gaming to flourish on the PC. If they hadn’t, who knows what modern games would be like…
Churros
Alright, so maybe the verdict is still out on the recent Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads. Nonetheless, the commercials did get one thing right. One brilliant inclusion proved that Microsoft truly, profoundly understands the zeitgeist of modern tech culture. The factor in question? Yes, that’s right: the churro factor.
Think what you will about the rest of the ads, but you cannot deny that churros are indeed a warm, chewy, cinnamon-dusted treat, and Microsoft can’t go wrong in associating their brand with the fried Spanish delicacy.
Old?
Submitted by cappomutato on Thu, 12/18/2008 - 10:06pm
- Instead, you had to exit Windows, boot up in DOS....
How young is the writer that the "Back in my day..." statement even includes Windows? Don't you remember before that when half the games required putting the disk in and rebooting because the game wasn't using DOS at all? Or tediously copying line after line of BASIC out of a magazine in order to build the game yourself? Sheesh
Online console network...
Submitted by Ignorant_Techie on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 2:03pm
Just to correct the statement that Sega Dreamcast was the first console with an online network - that title actually belongs to the SNES and Genesis.
They had the XBAND modem back in the day...which was an online network which allowed network game play over a modem with a limited support of games.
Submitted by eday_2010 on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 3:41pm
No, they are correct. While the Super NES and Sega Genesis did have X-Band, and the Genesis and NES also had the TelePlay modem, thos do not count towards what they are saying. Both Xband and TelePlay were extra peripherals that needed to be purchased separately. Same with the Netlink for the Sega Saturn.
The Dreamcast had networking built in specifically for online gaming, and it was the first console to do so. I am 100% that that is what they are referring to since having it built-in ensured that everyone with the console had the ability to get online without more hardware.
Whoever had online gameplay
Submitted by willsmith on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 3:54pm
Whoever had online gameplay first is irrelevant. Xbox Live was the first console online service to actually supplant the PC, however briefly.
Submitted by Muerte on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 1:13pm
YOu have to give early MS its props. If you think IBM's hardware mainstreamed PC's your only half right. If it weren't for were for OS's that were easier to use, all that hardware would still be sitting in businesses and universities only being used by techs.
Also consider the complexity of making an OS open enough to have hardware and software developed by almost anyone. Which other OS has made that as easy as MS? Linux? Apple? I don't think so.
I bitch about them now as much as the next guy but I also used all of their OS's and a few PC's before there was a GUI and know from which I speak.
people want to have their
Submitted by nekollx on Sat, 12/20/2008 - 1:35pm
people want to have their cake and eat it two. They want all the bells and wistles of vista (aero glass, live thumbnails) but want it to run on their 6 year old macines that were struglign with XP and don't want to upgrade.
Suck it up.
If you want something prettier, stablier, and more powerful but they want it to run on hardwere that never even dreamed of those features.
we got the exact same bitching with Windows 95/98 ---> XP.
Howe many of you still run Win 98
or 3.1?
Supporting Legacy Apps????
Submitted by ghot on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 2:14am
Yes MS does that, what they ALSO do is force consumers to upgrade perfectly good hardware by NOT backporting their API, namely Direct X. I'm quite sure all those DX9 vid card owners didn't appreciate that one bit. Yes with the most cumbersome method, they DO support legacy apps...who cares?
IBM mainstreamed the PC not MS....
MS included an IP stack in Windows....because they HAD no choice. If they hadn't MS would be a spot on Unix's shoe!
I'm getting really sick of Maximum PC brown-nosing MS, have some honor at least...sheesh!
Sure, MS made an OS that was user friendly...however, they then proceeded to screw all their customers by forcing hardware upgrades when they weren't necessary.
...and while I'm "on my rant" where the h*ll did they get those people for the Mojave experiment, some farm in Kansas? If I EVER went into an IT dept. and saw ANY of those people from that commercial...I would instantly write that company off.
Publishing a magazine has certain responsibilities.....namely.....honest, factual reporting. I've been a subscriber since 2003 and I'm beginning to wonder if I should continue to buy your magazine. maybe you should rename it....Maximum Enquirer...that's where you headed and it's a very sad direction. You state over and over that the editorial and the advertising dept. have nothing to do with each other.....give us a break. Sure, I positive, Maximum PC's depts. are in fact seperated, but when you waste magazine space with articles like this one...it surely makes a person wonder.
Who's brainchild was the Autopsy section? You actually think that your' readers dont have a screwdriver and a multitude of broken hardware that THEY can take apart? I think it's high time for the fluff articles to disappear and the hard reporting to re-emerge. Ther's been a bad sea-change in the last 2 years with Maximum PC and I for one am tired of it.
Even your bechmarks are becoming one sided, and you seem to shy away from the benchmarks that people WANT to see...scared? It's time to stand OUT from the crowd, get back to your roots and start writing serious articles.
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 10:30am
few things, one Mojave was not IT guys geting to know vista it was the Average consumer so you woun;t see them in the IT department, period.
Now as for Windows Minimum Specs, would you prefer MS design their OS to alwos run at the minimum of Win 3.1?
You realize Application developers use a OS minimum specs are their baseline.
How fun would Fallout 3 be if it HAD to meet the minimum specs of win 3.1?
you guys gotta quit puttin
Submitted by atomaweapon on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 12:37pm
you guys gotta quit puttin your newest articles from the mag up here so early. This is the second article from the latest issue that I read on the site when it's been in my magazine I haven't finished reading yet. What's the point of paying for the mag when I can read all the articles in a week or so for free
Submitted by soccer1105 on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 2:40pm
i think all bold is just as annoying as all caps.
I agree
Submitted by winmaster on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 7:08pm
I agree to both of you. If I am going to pay for a magazine, I want to get the content long before it is offered for free. Also, please turn off your bold.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
I LOVE THAT LAPTOP. I HAD A
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 2:49pm
I LOVE THAT LAPTOP. I HAD A 286 WITH A NOT SO COLORFULL DISPLAY.
6, not 9
Submitted by Wildebeast on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 11:48am
Six items on the list, I gotta absolutely agree with.
"Supporting Legacy Devices and Apps at All Costs"
??? --only compared to companies more committed to the "mysterious black box" product model.
So --if/when I buy Vista, or what's next, I'm going to find that my apps that were made incompatible with XP,by a MS patch, will run in some compatibility mode?
I've got a WordPerfect Office Suite that was never compatible with XP, so that is/will be with Vista or what's next?
"Pushing Minimum Hardware Specification"
?? This is what has made Vista a disaster. They made it a "planned obselescence" marketing thing.
I refuse to say that MS has handled any marketing right, since they used their market position to strangle Netscape, Lotus, and Wordperfect out of business --for most intents & purposes.
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 11:53am
XP didnt have Compatability mode, right click your shortcut in Vista and go to proerties Compatability mode goes all the way back to win 95
Submitted by winmaster on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 7:10pm
You can do the same in XP. The exact same process.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 11:45am
Windows has system requirements, and with versio, the minimum system specs
There was a Windows Versio?
Submitted by savage4naves on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 10:28am
Is it true that Microsoft will include it's own virus protection in the upcoming version of windows?
A day without laughter is a day wasted...
Submitted by soccer1105 on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 10:35am
I think it's going to be an optional download, kind of like windows defender is for XP.
Submitted by amacieli on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 3:57am
It was a real pain in the arse fiddling with EMM - that dastardly emm386.sys /loadhigh and whatever else. And changing the order in which things were loaded to make more efficient use of memory. Ugh!! However, there was the unforgettable Leisure Suit Larry to while away the small hours at University, and Harvard Graphics whenever you wanted to do a pie chart...
Submitted by shellpc on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 1:36am
I remember running games in dos 5 on a packard bell 386sx. Having to tweak autoexec.bat and config.sys to get games like Pool of Radiance to run well.
And again on a pentium mmx with Windows 95 since most didn't seem to want to run except in dosmode.
Setting up sound card settings and loading emm386 for those games that used expanded memory. MSCDEX for games that used cd-roms.
Love DirectX though and would not want to go back to those old days, but nice to reminisce sometimes. =P
ohh the old packard bells, I
Submitted by quickone on Sat, 12/20/2008 - 6:31am
ohh the old packard bells, I had one when I was little, trying to figure out how to get that huge floppy disk in the slot to play my Oragon Trail on the green screen. Although I think Chess Master was the first game I played on a computer. Fumbeling around in MS DOS Shell, how a 5 or 6 year old figured that mess out I will never know, Win95 seemed amazing at the time on the Pentium 266.
Over all Kudos to MS, yeah they have stangeled a lot of compteiters over the years but they have made computers user friendly, IBM made the mainstreem computer but if the general population never used it we would not be where we are today.
How many people who are bashing Vista actually use it? I hated it at first but after a few months it is an upgrade to XP as long as you get the computer (and exta RAM) to run it. Which I hardly think is an issue for people around here
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 3:50am
Oh gawd.... Packard bell... I feel your pain. What a crap machine. The very first PB to the very last PB machines were equally crap and I am happy they died. I'm very happy you can no longer purchase a new PB machine.
I always built my own machines. The last machine that I actually purchased was a 286 IBM machine.
Submitted by winmaster on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 7:13pm
Packard Bell sucks. I used to have one. It was one of the newer ones, running Windows 98 SE. Ah yes, 200mhz Pentium, 16x optical drive, 32MB of RAM. Those were the days.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Packard Bell still exists.
Submitted by big_montana on Tue, 12/16/2008 - 5:39am
Packard Bell still exists. They withdrew from the US market, but are hugely popular in Europe and Asia. Gateway purchased them earlier this year before Acer purchased Gateway.
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