Microsoft Moves from Followership to Leadership | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Moves from Followership to Leadership

forbes.com

18 pointsp0ppe18 comments

Dear god what buzz-word laden soup. Switch out the brands and this article could just as well be about Nokia or GM or whatever BigCo.

The author's description is also a buzz-phrase:

Randy Ottinger is an Executive Vice President at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations.

Whether or not this article is fluff or insight depends on what Microsoft is doing: Are they creating a new product category?

What if you could dock a tablet and run it with the power of a desktop PC? If the dock/undock experience could be made seamless, then this would constitute a new product category. (It would be somewhat like the OQO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OQO )

If there was a docking mode that wirelessly linked and activated the screens just on device proximity without plugging in, then you could make the workstation/tablet transition relatively painless. There would be some lag with the wireless mode, but it should be good enough for light, mainly read-only actions. Plugging in would seamlessly transition to the desktop mode.

Add a wireless mode that links to the desktop display/input devices across WiFi, and you have a workable new product category.

If they were truly leading, they would apply the Metro UI to a 30-inch touchable drafting table, tilted at 45 degrees (see the original Jeff Han multitouch demos).

Portable/casual computing has already been reinvented; it's time to do the same to the high-end professional workstation.

You can already do that with a mount. Windows 8 is display size agnostic.

Example of a 80inch TV with a touchscreen running Windows 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFv4C4fVzE&feature=playe...

But they're hardly making that environment their flagship; instead, they're making a (pretty decent) iPad clone with a better keyboard and a stand. They should be focusing on the environment where both the iPad and the PC underperform (relative to the possibility space): knowledge work and the enterprise. Microsoft needs to leapfrog, not catch up.

If Microsoft could actually release a desktop operating system that is properly designed visually and in terms of user experience, people could actually admire their PC's like they do in all of their stupid commercials. Their market share is so massive that a success in the desktop space could then drive growth in mobile as they actually have build a good UX there.

They have. It's called Windows and it does have a properly designed interface which is very robust and flexible. People not only admire it, they adore it so much that they don't want Microsoft to change it in any way.

I suppose that you think OS X is better? Well, that's like, your opinion man. I disagree and so do millions upon millions of other people.

OP was talking about user experience, not user interface. I don't know anyone who admires the UX of Windows, but lots that enjoy the UI. Examples of the differences: Windows will still show you focus-stealing dialogs that may result in a total shutdown of the OS if you're busy typing. Windows will still by default reboot if you walk away for 15 minutes and it decides to update. Application installation and uninstallation is still a pain for most users. Multiple monitors are not supported well. There are no virtual desktops.

The user experience on Windows is distinctly subpar to every other operating system I've ever used. I know this is my opinion and I know that there are probably millions who disagree with me. But as I've said, I've not met any yet.

>Multiple monitors are not supported well

What do you mean by that?

Let's say I have 20-30 windows open on a laptop connected to an external monitor (I do, right now). Windows 7 has one taskbar, and so it becomes extremely difficult/near impossible to quickly determine which window is on which screen. This could be improved by adding a second taskbar (I think this is coming in Windows 8?) but I think more is needed.

Additionally: some application titlebars can be dragged so the window appears on a different screen, but some cannot. Excel, when maximized, cannot be dragged to another screen.

Back to taskbar issues: My biggest complain pre-Windows 7 was that you could not reorder items. I thought they fixed it, but they actually made it a lot more annoying with W7. I think Windows assumes that each window of an application is related to the other windows (never the case with my workflow) and so you cannot separate them by dragging. Say I have 5 Firefox windows with a few tabs each, where each window's tabs represent a collection of related topics. Now say I have some Word and Excel documents also open that relate to the browser windows. I'd like to arrange Topic 1 from Firefox, Word and Excel on one monitor with their taskbar items together, Topic 2 on the second monitor with their items together, etc. It's very unpleasant and difficult to manage windows on Windows.

>This could be improved by adding a second taskbar (I think this is coming in Windows 8?) but I think more is needed.

Yes, this is coming in Windows 8. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/21/enhancing-wind...

>My biggest complain pre-Windows 7 was that you could not reorder items. I thought they fixed it, but they actually made it a lot more annoying with W7. I think Windows assumes that each window of an application is related to the other windows (never the case with my workflow) and so you cannot separate them by dragging. Say I have 5 Firefox windows with a few tabs each, where each window's tabs represent a collection of related topics. Now say I have some Word and Excel documents also open that relate to the browser windows.

You can ungroup windows in the taskbar with 7 Taskbar Tweaker http://rammichael.com/?proj=29

> You can ungroup windows in the taskbar with 7 Taskbar Tweaker http://rammichael.com/?proj=29

Thanks but it's useless for me as I'm on a business machine with restrictions on allowable software installation.

Here's the thing...just because you aren't getting something exactly the way you want it...does not mean that the UX is somehow awful for every person using it.

Furthermore, Windows has left the hooks available for people so that they can change something if they don't like it. That's the best UX present any company can give you.

There are plenty of apps out there to modify Windows. As a matter of fact, there's very little that can't be modified. Why don't you just look around for some program to do what you want?

> does not mean that the UX is somehow awful for every person using it.

Oh I know - I was merely giving my own opinion.

> Why don't you just look around for some program to do what you want?

I'm not allowed to. This is a business computer, not a personal machine. Not everyone has the freedom to install third-party software to fix up bad UX in the OS they are using.

The OP was talking about both. They said "properly designed visually". That's the interface. Then he said "and in terms of user experience, people could actually admire their PC's like they do in all of their stupid commercials".

"I don't know anyone who admires the UX of Windows"

Well, I don't know any users who don't admire it. I know users who have the occasional gripe, but overall most people that I know are very happy with Windows and simply don't want to use anything else.

"The user experience on Windows is distinctly subpar to every other operating system I've ever used."

OK. The user experience on Windows is distinctly exceptional to every other operating system I've ever used.

I've used them all too and while Windows may not have every single feature that you personally want, the UX is leaps and bounds ahead for the most important features. Basically, it just works. I cannot say the same for OS X or any Linux desktop where you have to fight with them to get them to do what you want.

Windows has such a great UX, such that if you don't like something, you can change or add it. You can't say the same for OS X. Apple doesn't even allow developers access to the APIs that they use...for instance, for their Dock. So, if you want to replace the Dock with something better...you can't. If I want to replace Windows' taskbar with a Dock...I can do that.

That's the experience that I want. I don't want to fight with the company or the group, to get what I want. You want virtual desktops in Windows? Add them. You want "better" multi-monitor support? Add it. Being the world's most popular desktop operating system has the advantage that many people have developed solutions for your minor complaints.

"Windows will still by default reboot..."

Most people want updates to be applied when their not in front of the computer. If you're in the minority, change the setting.

Showing the world some 2-years old tech doesn't turn a dinosaur into a cheetah.

If urgency is one of the qualities of a leadership then yes Microsoft seems keen to create new products rather than just sit on the sidelines until somebody creates a market. Microsoft has been burnt badly by following that approach. iPod, iPhone, iPad are all examples of that and that is why others are eating Microsoft's lunch.

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