Type A Learning Agency

Freedom to Cooperate
How Microsoft's focus on "innovation" hurts us all
by Arlo Leach

Microsoft's response to its anti-trust problems has been to defend loudly its "freedom to innovate," even though its technologies are usually well adrift of the cutting edge. This ironic slogan only masks the real effects of Microsoft on the software industry, as it methodically suppresses the good work of other companies in favor of its own interests.

In science or medicine, different researchers or institutions might compete vigorously, but they still build upon one another's work. In this way, society as a whole moves forward and benefits from rapid technological advancement. But our industry works differently. Every time anyone shows signs of advancement, Microsoft jumps into the game with its own, incompatible products, dividing industry resources, causing confusion for clients and vendors, and posing a constant dilemma for IT decisionmakers.

In our work, this strategy causes lots of duplicate effort. The timeline may vary, but we see the following pattern repeated over and over:

Elapsed time, months	Event

0	Some company launches a new technology
6	Technology starts to take off; web developers begin to study it and purchase tools to use it
12	Developers integrate technology into their products
18	Microsoft notices momentum of new technology, releases competing product
24	After months of exclusive support by Microsoft for its own technology, clients require that their products be built using the Microsoft technology
30	Developers have to study the Microsoft technology and purchase tools to use it, even though an adequate technology was available two years ago
36	Losing market share, the original technology dies out

As if the duplicated effort isn't bad enough, developers also have to deal with the frustration of knowing that the newly ascendant Microsoft technology often doesn’t work as well, isn't as easy to use, or costs more than the original technology. After all, nobody ever says, "We need to use Windows Media Player because it works better than QuickTime," they say, "We need to use Windows Media Player because our IT department won't support QuickTime."

From video formats to the famous "browser wars," this battle is playing out in every imaginable corner of the industry. Here's a list of other great technologies that have been overpowered by a Microsoft competitor:

Technology	Pioneered by	Overpowered by	Turning point

Graphical user interface	Macintosh	Windows	1995
Audio format	AIFF	WAV	1996
Web browser	Netscape	Internet Explorer	1998
Web scripting language	PHP	ASP	1999
Streaming video format	RealVideo	Windows Media Player	2000
Handheld OS	Palm	PocketPC	2001
Browser plug-in format	Netscape plug-ins	XObjects	2001
Portable development platform	Java	.NET	2003?

In each of these cases, the original technology was proven, widely adopted, and at least as good as the Microsoft technology that eventually pushed it aside. When you put it all together, Microsoft's apparent need to replace every good idea with a not-quite-as-good idea of its own begins to look downright pathological.

But what does this mean for your business? When you make choices about tools and technologies, we encourage you to look beyond Microsoft and give equal consideration to the more mature, more compatible solutions that are often available. If Microsoft's option is truly innovative, by all means, use it. If not, don't be afraid to choose the better product. By building upon the best work out there, we can all help move our industry forward.

What do you think?
Do you have an endangered technology to add to our list? Or have we missed any true Microsoft innovations? Clue us in, and we'll update this article accordingly.