My own bottom 10
Mary Jo Foley writes about Microsoft's 10 biggest mistakes. Man, does she miss some big ones! Here's my version:
- Bob 2.0: The original Bob was actually worthy of respect insofar as it was totally different. When it flopped, though, why bother with 2.0? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result.
- NetDocs: Oh my God, what a giant cluster this one was.
- WinFS: Blech
- Origami: Hey, here's a cool "stealth" launch. Isn't Microsoft cool like Apple? Oh, it isn't at all cool or useful? Well, uh, never mind.
- Mira: A monitor that you carry around with you! How ... dumb.
- Windows ME: Shame on us.
- That MS Floppy Disk Picture thing: Believe it or not, years after the last time you ever remember even thinking about recalling a 3.5" floppy disk, MS comes out with a 3.5" floppy disk reader that hooks directly up to your TV so you can show pictures. As if your digital camera didn't come with a cable that would do this that you just threw away when you opened the box.
- Cairo / Blackcomb / Longhorn / Vista: A sad, sad progression of really cool slide decks getting progressively more real and less interesting
- Whatever version of MSN I worked on: I can't even remember what it was, but the installation CD (yes, an install CD, we just had to copy AOL), played a little song that featured the lyric, "It's just too stupid to stop." And indeed it would have been, but it did stop ... stopped selling.
- Skull: Few people know about this attempt to make a Microsoft version of Doom ... in fact, this may be the only mention of it in history.






6 Comments:
HA!!! I remember Skull....and the crazy scribble line fountain. Fun!
I'm trying to remember the name of the mountain-climbing "game" that we worked on, too ... man, that was sad. And I think it actually shipped. Also, needs to give a hats-off to MarkCi and mention Sidewalk ... although the mistake there is that we didn't follow-through with it.
Beyond the Limit: the Ultimate Climb?
I'd say paying Ralph Reed $1.6 million would have to rank right up there. Also, withdrawing support from gay-rights legislation (possibly related). Oh, and telling its contractors to take an unpaid one-week hike looked f'ing minor league.
However, the mistake that will ultimately destroy MS was to create the remote scripting stuff that Ajax is based on.
Oh, and that god damn paper clip man.
I'm intentionally not posting a comment to this post based on the fact that I worked (to use the term loosely) on two of those projects in my brief 7 years at the 'soft. It might be embarrassing to draw attention to the fact that I personally am responsible for the flat stock price since 2000. All of you who still own MSFT can send me 1% of your gains when the share price skyrockets like last night's July 4th show because I've quit to join Dave at AMZN. Sell!!!!
Oooh. Damn! If you add MaryJo's list, I worked on 3 MS warts.
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