Microsoft's Missed Opportunities: Memo From 1997 161
New submitter gthuang88 (3752041) writes In the 1990s, Microsoft was in position to own the software and devices market. Here is Nathan Myhrvold's previously unpublished 1997 memo on expanding Microsoft Research to tackle problems in software testing, operating systems, artificial intelligence, and applications. Those fields would become crucial in the company's competition with Google, Apple, Amazon, and Oracle. But research didn't do enough to make the company broaden its businesses. While Microsoft Research was originally founded to ensure the company's future, the organization only mapped out some possible futures. And now Microsoft is undergoing the biggest restructuring in its history.
At least F# and LINQ saw the light of day.
Re:Too long (Score:2, Funny)
Can you sum it up for me?
Okay, now can you put it in layman's terms?
Okay, now tell it to me like I'm a ten year old.
Okay, tell it to me like I'm a five year old.
Okay, now tell it to me like I'm a five year old who drank a Big Gulp and you don't want to mop the floor.
Re:What about git? (Score:5, Funny)
Look, a modern software company must do 4 things:
1) Employ hipsters.
2) Use Git and GitHub.
3) Use Ruby on Rails when creating any sort of software.
4) Use MongoDB when storing any sort of data.
Microsoft may do part of 2), but I don't think they do 1), and I don't think they do 3), and I don't think they do 4).
If a company doesn't do those 4 things, then they're old hat. They're Web 1.0. They're SQL. They aren't cool. They aren't stylish. They can't scale without bound. They're a company that's irrelevant in this modern world of wearable Internet. They just aren't chaz.
Re:Too long (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft ought to have presented screens showing a "house", with "rooms" that the user could go to containing familiar objects corresponding to computer applications – for instance, a desk with pen and paper, a checkbook, and other items. Clicking on the pen and paper would open the word processor, and so forth.