This sounds more like a computer society historical re-enactment than a court case in 2011, but as strange as it sounds, Bill Gates will be taking to the stand in court today for the case between Novell and Microsoft. Novell’s lawsuit against Microsoft is for damages from Microsoft’s anticompetitive behaviors that destroyed the WordPerfect product in the marketplace.
Will Microsoft fail again with their Windows 8 tablet strategy?
“We view the tablet as a PC” – precisely why their last attempt failed. Given the odd mix of touchscreen UI elements mixed inexplicably with the traditional Windows UI in a recent Windows 8 demo video, it looks like they’ve got it all wrong again.
Apple sue-fest continues: HTC
Come on Apple, give it a rest. Get back and get busy with what you do best, innovation, and not turn into the next Microsoft and make your money from legal action against your competition (e.g. the Microsoft (SCO) vs Linux distro companies fiasco that went on for years and really went no-where for Microsoft)
As I said last week, you’re in danger of becoming the next Microsoft in more ways that one – your closed approach to iOS is blatant vendor lock-in, and you’re gunning down your competition in needless legal battles. If you carry on with this sue-fest, you’re putting me off from buying any more of your products. I love Mac OS X and my MacBook Pro, but I can’t bring myself to buy my next one from a company that pursues these kinds of legal action against your competitors. My next laptop will be running Linux (again) at this rate.
Windows 8 UI is a confused mess
Microsoft has a video on YouTube giving a demo of the new UI for Windows 8. It looks impressive, relying heavily on a touch based interface which would suggest it’s being geared towards supporting tablets. However, halfway though the video, the presenter shows that you can still access files on the file system and use Office to edit your Word docs etc. What, with my finger as a mouse? I don’t think so. This is just as bad as trying to squeeze the Windows interface into Windows Mobile for phones which was just as awful and hard to use even with a stylus replacing the mouse. It’s taken all these years later for Microsoft to try another attempt at a new/improved UI for mobile devices (with the new Windows Phone 7), so apparently it takes them a while to learn from their mistakes.
I’m not sure what the point of this video is. You can’t please everyone all of the time, and trying to just results in a half-baked solution. If the video was demonstrating that Windows 8 will support touch based tablets as well as desktops with two different interfaces, then that’s not as bad, but using Office on a touch based device with your finger as a mouse and the existing desktop UI, that’s a disaster.