“In the battle between Apple and Microsoft, Bertrand Serlet and Steven Sinofsky are the field generals in charge of competing efforts to ensure that the PC’s basic software stays relevant in an increasingly Web-centered world,” John Markoff reports for The New York Times. “The two men are marshaling their software engineers for the next encounter, sometime in 2009, when a new generation of Macintosh and Windows operating systems is due. Their challenge will be to avoid refighting the last war — and to prevent finding themselves outflanked by new competitors.”
“Many technologists contend that the increasingly ponderous PC-bound operating systems that currently power 750 million computers, products like Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Apple’s soon-to-be-released Mac OS X Leopard, will fade in importance,” Markoff reports. “In this view, software will be a modular collection of Web-based services — accessible by an array of hand-held consumer devices and computers…”
Markoff reports, “Mr. Sinofsky’s approach, he said, is meticulously planned out from the beginning, with a tight focus on meeting deadlines — a crucial objective after the delay-plagued Vista project — but with little room for flexibility. In contrast, the atmosphere inside Apple’s software engineering ranks has been much more improvisational.”
Markoff reports, “Mr. Sinofsky, 41, who joined Microsoft in 1989, is the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live engineering group, a position he assumed a year ago after running the company’s Office team of programmers. Mr. Serlet, 46, Apple’s senior vice president for software engineering, left Xerox’s fabled Palo Alto Research Center to join Steven P. Jobs at Next Software in the late 1980s and has headed software development at Apple since 2003. ‘Under Sinofsky, the culture is, you plan and stick to the plan,’ said Steven Capps, a former Apple and Microsoft programmer who has designed operating systems at both companies. ‘At Apple you see what you’ve got.'”
The potential risk in the Microsoft approach, he said, is that “they’re like the test pilots who won’t pull up when they see the tarmac.” …After struggling for more than half a decade with Vista, its most ambitious development project ever, Microsoft has begun work on a reportedly less ambitious successor under Mr. Sinofsky’s leadership
Markoff reports, “Mr. Serlet’s programmers are planning to integrate Apple’s consumer products and its personal computers more closely with the Internet, according to several people briefed on the company’s plans. Indeed last week, at an industry conference, Mr. Jobs said that an infusion of Web services for Macintosh users was imminent.
“Apple is expected to add a networking capability to its next-generation iPod music players. In addition, the software for its next big product, the iPhone, is based on the core of OS X, the operating system for the Macintosh. The approach further blurs the line between the computer and other devices — as well the distinction between the device and the Internet as the place where programs and data reside,” Markoff reports.
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jamie” for the heads up.]
Sinofsky is 5 years younger than Serlet yet he looks much older. That must be what working on Microsoft operating systems will do to you.
Daring Fireball’s link to this same article on NYT site with this quote:
“One software developer… compared the two men’s approaches to the difference between martial marching band music and jazz”
I think that just about sums up the difference between Microsoft and Apple.
Web based computing????
And what about all the folks who are still using dialup, not because they choose to but because that is all that is available to them now and all that will be available to them for the next decade or more.
How about all the computer users who do not want to be connected to the almighty web?
Equating OS X with Vista-less is more tan a little disingenuous. OS X is what Vista wanted to be but failed. The tempo is set at Apple, Microsoft just has a lot of me-too tasks that burn out any talent that might fall into MS’s clutches
Excuse but:
“The two men are marshaling their software engineers for the next encounter, sometime in 2009, when a new generation of Macintosh and Windows operating systems is due.”
Hello? The next generation of Mac OS X is due THIS year- not in 2009. And Leopard will already blow away anything Micro$loth could possibly come up with in 2009.
““Software is like the tax code,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, a venture capitalist and a former Apple executive, who in the 1990s developed an operating system called Be. “You add lines, but you never take anything away.””
Was Gassee interviewed for this article, or is this an old quote. Bottom line is that Apple is clearly better positioned for a more net-centric computing distribution, and like the article implies… desktop computing is going away anytime soon.
After struggling for more than half a decade with Vista, its most ambitious development project ever, Microsoft has begun work on a reportedly less ambitious successor under Mr. Sinofsky’s leadership
Less ambitious? Vista as delivered was nothing more than a cosmetic upgrade to XP with a few new features and some security holes patched. How much less ambitious can you get than that?
Damn!
“desktop computing is NOT going away anytime soon.”
Oh wow! Just saw the iPhone commercial on TV for the first time. Almost missed it while correcting my typo.
Didn’t Jobs just clarify that the OS of the iPhone is<> OS X, and it’s not just <i>based on it???
Quoting the article . . . .
“Microsoft is trying again to reconcile the PC operating system with the Internet. It calls the new strategy Windows Live, an effort to leverage its desktop monopoly onto the Web. That effort can be seen in Mr. Sinofsky’s dual role. He is in charge of development for both the next version of the Windows operating system and the new Internet services.”
There they go again, M$ does not make a product that serves its customers. M$ software is instead a byproduct of their business impreatives, primarily that of a monopoly.
Please – the LAST thing I want is my Mac dependent upon an internet connection to operate. So what happens when I’m on a plane, or in a remote location, or my ISP goes down? Oh yeah, my Mac would be dead.
Nice thought, but ain’t happening in the next 20 years minimum.
Australia’s Telstra better get it’s shit together then.
Having all the apps on a computer may be a good thing…
BUT – has anyone actually realised that without some sort of internet connection you wont be able to do fuck all on the computer!
Without an internet connection a pc is just a worthless set of parts – You have more chance in getting work done using a slate and a piece of chalk stick!
Web based computing? I DON’T think so!
I often work with information that is regarded a trade secret. There is no way I’m ever going to store that data in a location that is not the laptop in my hands. The security risk is too great. And who are we supposed to trust to keep our data safe? Microsoft? Puh-lese.
Interesting, this is cool, nearly made my day.
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ipod download
http://www.zuneconverter.net
If you are like myself and like drinking Camels Milk (slober) you know then that when you pay for something, you want to have it and have it any time you wish, (no innuendo’s intended). Therefor I want my itunes tracks just as I want my software, Pouf-ur! Pay once, use forever until an upgrade is required!.
Bill Gates speaks about new videogame control system.
check out the story at
http://iprodreviews.blogspot.com/2007/06/bill-gates-speaks-about-new-videogame.html
or visit
iprodreviews.blogspot.com
re: Bill Gates speaks about new videogame control system.
check out the story at
http://iprodreviews.blogspot.com/2007/06/bill-gates-speaks-about-new-videogame.html
or visit
iprodreviews.blogspot.com
—–
ROFL!
Gates is soooooooooooo visionary! (NOT!)
Nintendo has already done that in the Wii.
I think Gates has totally lost the plot and needs to be put in some retirement home for computer nerds.
He is so out of touch about what is already out there in the marketplace.
It’s quite frightening really, how he got so rich with no original ideas or talents.
All this from the ‘genius’ who stood infront of the world’s press and proudly announced that “the internet will neve take off”.
ROFL!
“Many technologists contend that the increasingly ponderous PC-bound operating systems that currently power 750 million computers, products like Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Apple’s soon-to-be-released Mac OS X Leopard, will fade in importance,” Markoff reports. “In this view, software will be a modular collection of Web-based services — accessible by an array of hand-held consumer devices and computers…”
And what operating system will run on these devices?
How many hardware companies are going to spend the big bucks and develop their own OS to run the browser to run the web based programs?
How many hardware companies would just go the cheaper route and simply grab a Windows Vista or Mobile license?
How many hardware companies wouldn’t want to take advantage of maximum third party development by subscribing to the most used OS in the world?
Windows survies because nearly everyone is trained to code for it, it benefits from the economies of scale and certainly a lot cheaper than developing one’s own.
Sure it sucks, but the reasons above is why it survives.
Apple has pretty much sucked up all the available market for “we make the OS and the hardware” concept because it’s funded by a rather large war chest that got it’s start early on in the personal computer buisness and continued by cornering the “high margin” end of the personal computer market.
Nowadays if one has a great hardware concept startup, it’s cheaper and faster to simply grab a Windows license and be off.
> Less ambitious? Vista as delivered was nothing more than a
> cosmetic upgrade to XP with a few new features and some
> security holes patched. How much less ambitious can you get
> than that?”
The project was far more ambitious. They ran into so many problems they had to keep dropping features – example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS
AFAIK, in the end, they discovered that they just couldn’t pile any more spaghetti code on top of the existing mess, scrapped what they had and begun again with the Windows Server 2003 codebase.
“Cosmetic” is inaccurate, too. Certainly, substantial re-writing has gone on. The networking stack is, apparently, entirely new:
http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-051.htm
Of course, Vista is not worth using when OS X is around, but the project was ambitious and what was delivered is not merely cosmetic but includes substantial re-writing — heck, they had to put all the DRM in it, too
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http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
Web based computing = thin computing.
Thin computing puts all the control and all the information on somebody else’s computer and leaves you with a smart terminal and rental fees.
I have already had the experience of web-based computing last year. At my university, the laptops that came with the standard “university build” had all the software modified to use a key server for licensing and copy control. When the laptop wasn’t connected to the network on campus, it turned into a very expensive paper-weight.
I wiped it clean and installed my own software, mostly FOSS.
Now take a look at what Google is doing for off-line computing — that’s the real direction…
” martial marching band music and jazz”
I think that just about sums up the difference between Microsoft and Apple.”
In one case you end up with a bunch of people who can win a market share war, in the other case an eclectic mess and 2% market share.
“In this view, software will be a modular collection of Web-based services”
And no one will use paper any more. And we will be able to control the weather. And we’ll have flying cars.