Interesting article about Hotmail and Microsoft

Here is an interesting about Hotmail, .NET, and Microsoft. [link|http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/21/hotmail/index.html|http://www.salon.co...l/index.html]
Here is an interesting quote:
"And instead of hurting Microsoft, Ozzie argues, Hotmail's outages, security problems and minor troubles may actually improve the company's chances of making .NET work. Solutions can be applied to more ambitious plans, "increas[ing] the probability that they'll be able to manage the more strategically important services such as HailStorm when they indeed need to roll them out," he says.
...
And even if the Hotmail development process can be regarded as a training-wheels approach to .NET, that still may not be enough to ensure success, say critics.
"Is sitting in a wading pool good training for the Olympic high dive?" asks Miller. "You might learn some basics like, 'Don't breathe when your head is underwater,' but you're never going to pick up the technique until you buckle down and do it right."

It won't be easy. Microsoft has continually "sacrificed security for default features," ....... "The needs of a commercial software enterprise such as Microsoft" -- the need to create new products that bring in revenue -- "are fundamentally at odds with the growing need for software stability,... Stability, rather than revenue growth, is often the primary goal of the programmers who are constantly improving [open source servers].

This seems to be the common theme: MS markets to PHB's, and not techies. The techies get the headaches, and the PHB's love instant icons and "seamless" services. "Seamless" as in no barriers to hackers.

That is why MS does NOT sink: the PHB's are more enthralled with the gizmos than they are upset with techie complaints. MS just makes the technies look like complainers. "Come on, now, MS can't be that bad because everybody else is using it. Perhaps you just need to reboot it more, guys."

MS has decided to pick making the PHB's happy, and F the techies. The PHB's sign the checks to MS, not the technies. If a hacker brakes in, MS sends a letter to the PHB telling them that the techies forgot to install the patch in time.

I predict a new title:

Certified Patch Integration Technician.

AND, then MS gets profits from this new certification.

They win either way.

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