In 2009, Microsoft Still Underestimates the Web

http://lifehacker.com/5127866/in-2009-microsoft-still-underestimates-the-web

by nx • 18 years ago

23 15 18 years ago

seldo• 18 years ago

Of the many pieces of evidence that Microsoft doesn't get the web, the fact that they suffer under download spikes is one of the least persuasive. For example: they think that buying Yahoo, the slowly sinking grandaddy of the web, is somehow going to help them beat Google, even though Google has been wiping the floor with Yahoo for near-on a decade now.

dmix• 18 years ago

Why does it have to be about beating Google?

Business acquire companies to make money, to get ROI. That comes well before beating a competitor in any investment, unless its clear that they will damage your market share in the future.

Consumers will still need desktop OS's for a long time and Google isn't competing with Microsoft on the enterprise front (yet).

Live search is only a small portion of Microsoft's revenue, but $44 billion is a significant amount of cash.

palish• 18 years ago

I'd say a Google OS would have the potential to be pretty damaging to Microsoft's market share.

aston• 18 years ago

Akamai?

Niten• 18 years ago

Some tech at Microsoft chose the wrong server to host a download, therefore Microsoft's corporate strategy with respect to the Web is "clueless"?

Hard to argue with that kind of logic.

jws• 18 years ago

I don't think it is a good indicator of corporate strategy, but is deeper than just a bad web server.

I tried to get it so I could have a Windows machine for IE testing.

1) It required me to log in with my Microsoft Id. I didn't have one. No link or hint for how to create an account.

2) I clicked about a bit and found where to create an account. The SSL certificate was flagged as signed by an unrecognized authority. It was still a microsoft machine and I had come in from a trusted path, so I accepted it anyway.

3) This new account sent me an email to validate, but allowed me to log in and proceed BEFORE the validation was sent. Probably an abuse vector there.

4) I then get a page with a little green "loading" indicator spinning about. After staring at that for an hour I checked the javascript log and the javascript had blown up on load and left the animated gif misleading me that progress was happening. Don't be updating the loading user feedback device if you aren't loading. That is called lying.

5) Tried a couple more browsers, no better results. Eventually it degraded to 404s and then a "Coming Soon" page.

There are numerous warts on a rollout that is, at least partially, intended to change the media dialog from the negative tone of Vista to a "now things are good" message of Windows 7.

somnambulist2• 18 years ago

Yesterday I too tried to download the new version of windows life; but after 33%, it would not download any further

somnambulist2• 18 years ago

when will these guys ever learn?

aneesh• 18 years ago

Especially after Microsoft's Cashback.com outage on Black Friday (the worst day for an e-shopping site to go down), I'm surprised they let this happen. This was on the calendar for a long time, and they should've gone to great lengths to make sure they could handle the traffic.

MrRage• 18 years ago

> Microsoft's not the only one who's blown web launches. Apple did it spectacularly with MobileMe

Oh, come on! Those aren't even in the same category. MobileMe wasn't a big file to download. If tanking on a large download means Microsoft is underestimating the web, then what the heck was Apple underestimating with MobileMe?

trezor• 18 years ago

Alternative take: Windows 7 beta is such a popular download that with the current demand even MS is having troubles hosting it.

I think the rumours about Microsoft's near imminent death is greatly exaggerated.

old-gregg• 18 years ago

That was my take also.

Personally I could never understand why does everybody think Microsoft must become a great Internet company. I do understand that a lot of people are tired of so many years of Microsoft dominance on the desktop and are willing to look stupid predicting their collapse just because another markets opened up that MS isn't dominating in (yet). But hey, IBM is still around and doing fine.

A friendly reminder to Web 2.0 types: the only company making seriously big piles of cash, the big boys club kind, is Google. And the rest of Internet ghetto can only dream of making the kind of cash Microsoft is generating without "getting it".

And speaking of new markets...

Here's another reminder: measured in computer years, widespread Internet is very, very, very old and can hardly be called a "disruptive technology" anymore. We've all had fun throwing VC-supported sheep for free, now lets get back to work, figuring out what software users want.

That's what Apple's been doing, and perhaps this is what Microsoft has done with Windows 7. I hope so, even though I'm not their customer.

mdasen• 18 years ago

Just for some perspective: 2.5million people downloading at a relatively slow 250KB/sec comes to about 4.8Tbps. Currently we push a mere 2.1Tbps across the Atlantic. So, the downloading from Microsoft might actually outpace the combined traffic from the Americas to Europe! No CDN can handle traffic like that.

And c'mon, how many times has a Linux distro come out just to download annoyingly slow for the first few days? This is a much bigger launch than a new Linux distro.

arthurk• 18 years ago

The hoster for the Windows 7 beta download is Akamai, MS is not hosting it themselves.

axod• 18 years ago

Maybe they should learn how to host files themselves? Just an idea...

In 2009, Microsoft Still Underestimates the Web

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