Leaked Internal MS Wishlist: BWA-HA-HA-HA

This, pointed to by this, which I got to from this Slashdot article basically demonstrates that the people within Microsoft who work on MS Windows want it to be more like Linux and Mac OS X.

Pardon my Les Nessman-like restrained snicker.

... and yet... somehow, they also seek to add more bloat.

I don't know... The Phenomenal Cosmic Power of UNIX-Like Operating Systems has grown on me. There is nothing compelling on the MS Windows side to make me want to switch.

I was talking about this with a friend... she's taking some UNIX and other engineering classes... and she had to do a paper for Technical Writing... a newsletter article. So she was doing it as Linux promo piece.. an interview with an enthusiastic Linux System Administrator (me). She asked what was the one thing that made Linux a better choice of Operating System. I paraphrased Aladdin, by saying, "Phenomenal Cosmic Power!!! Itty-bitty living space." She then asked what Microsoft would have to do to win me back... I told her that the "free-ness" of Linux is certainly liberating... but that's not the only thing that makes Linux the right choice for me. If Windows was free (as in beer) and Linux was as it is (F/OSS), I would still choose Linux. Because it's BETTER. Better shells, better modularity, better choices, better catalog of software that matters to me, better security, better performance, better efficiency, better usability... as in better.


So... in the end... Microsoft and it's minions seem to be trying to cosmetically placate the Windows users who know Linux or Mac users who brag about usability features they've had for years (perhaps a decade or more). I think, tho, that as time goes on, it's going to get harder and harder to build Band-Aid upon Band-Aid onto the decidedly non-UNIX-ey foundation of MS Windows and still justify charging $400 for "the good stuff".