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I'm going to start by saying what this page is about. I am not going to say microsoft is evil (as I do in email and on other pages). This is almost a religious debate, and the same rules that I have set aside for my religious debate, will apply here.

WHAT IS AN INNOVATION

This may be crucial. Many people can accept an innovation as being simply a "new way of doing things"- but I reject that and instead allow the American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Forth Edition. Not because I personally believe that it is right, but because Microsoft, being the one passing this word around left and right like it was holy water, is probably using the most modern definition. dictionary.com has many useful definitions, and even some for "innovate". Unless they change it to something ridiculous, I'll probably accept it.

WHAT HAS MICROSOFT "INNOVATED"

This comes as a public challenge. I cannot think of anything Microsoft has innovated; Anything that Microsoft did first. I'll go over some of the examples I have seen, and refute them here. Come to me with any example you may have and I will attempt to do the research and publish the truth.

Microsoft BASIC

Microsoft wasn't the inventor of the BASIC programming language, nor even the first company to publish a version for the microcomputer. Thomas Kurtz and John Kememy invented it, and Li Chen Wang innovated with "Tiny Basic" - a version introduced in a magazine.

Jeroen points us to someone who claims to be a little bit more authoritative: Why I Hate Microsoft

Do you think they hate Microsoft? Anyway, this site points out that Microsoft,

``"adapted" BASIC to run on the Altair 8800 computer and sold it to Altair's manufacturer, MITS.''

Quite interesting, right? They go on:

``Even though the BASIC programming language was already in the public domain by then, the interpreter that could run it on home computers wasn't. Thus Gates and Allen had created an original product; a true innovation. It would be one of their last.''

Now remember that this page is dedicated to demonstrating that Microsoft hasn't had even a single innovation. The first question is "what was the first personal computer?". According to Personal Computer Milestones it was the "Simon", which I suppose was invented by Edmund Berkeley back in 1949-1951. I don't think it ran Basic though.

But the HP 9830 did.

AND it predates the Altair 8800 by about three years.

AND I'm afraid that Microsoft didn't make that version of BASIC either.

Microsoft DOS

For a while, Microsoft's flagship was a disk/based operating system emerging in an era where disks were uncommon. The key technologies seen in MS-DOS include:

• A filesystem: one that Microsoft didn't invent
• A command line interface: based on CP/M, which in turn was based on other things
• An API, which was based on IBM's own specifications.

This means that Microsoft's greatest triumph was in implementing it- getting it to work. This surely was a great task, but not the 5-billion dollar task that Bill Gates suggested it was in his prepared statement to the DOJ. Other people have implimented similar projects that (interestingly enough) work much better and more rhobustly than MS-DOS, and with budgets that could not have even approached 1-million dollars, let alone 5-billion.

Pupeno writes:

``I think they didn't even create it. They bought it from another company, it was initially called QDOS, [the] Quick and Dirty Operating System''

MS-DOS 2.0 is different than MS-DOS 1.0 (QDOS) not just because it supports fixed disks, but because of motivation: CP/M was not only still around, but actually popular. There exists much speculation that the biggest reason fixed disks and removable disks have such internally different APIs was to avoid legal action from the [at the time] present owner of CP/M, Digital Research.

Fortunately, it doesn't matter. Vestiges of QDOS remained as long as the replacement markets weren't prohibitive: EDLIN was around until people started selling full-screen editors; the BPB was unchanged until people started selling disk translators.

It's hard to call anything about MS-DOS "innovative" when every single improvement followed someone else who might have done it better or cheaper, but just wasn't included with the IBM PC.

Word Processing

A popular Microsoft product has been Microsoft's Office Suite. It was based on Microsoft Works, which was originally based on an IBM product. Neither was particularly good, and both were predated by dozens of other products.

Software Development

Microsoft C compiler didn't become popular until the "big switch to '95" that only Microsoft was ready for. Traditionally as is today, Microsoft's code generators are among the worst in the field, falling behind even some of the freely available ones. Even if Microsoft's code wasn't big and bloated, the resulting binaries would still be slow.

Craig writes:

``This is just a historical note about the C compiler microsoft sells. In the late 80's I was developing C programs under DOS using the Lattice C compiler. One day I got a letter from Lattice saying they were out of the C compiler business, I should contact microsoft for support. I found out that microsoft bought the compiler and exclusive rights to sell it from Lattice. The compiler got worse and worse after that. The main point is that microsoft could not create a C compiler from scratch, they had to buy one.''

Windows

A generic term for a technology attributed to Apple Computer. Both companies "lifted" this technology from Xerox's R&D. Neither brought a graphical interface to the personal computer first. They were both beat by GEM and Quarterdeck.

Online Help

Recently, Bill Gates suggested "Online Help" as a innovation Microsoft was a part of. UNIX had "Online Help" before it had offline help. Infact, one of the original goals of UNIX systems was as a word-processing platform.

The World Wide Web

Microsoft was nearly usurped by the modern internet. They were unprepared, and Netscape was able to sell a product that browsed this modern internet. Microsoft did what microsoft does best: threw a lot of money at the problem. They "gave away" their browser, and forced Netscape to spread themselves too thinly. Microsoft was then able to "encourage" vendors to use their server-platform (despite being quite immature and insecure at the time- note: not much as changed) as it was the only platform able to interoperate with the market share. Rationale again: trade secret.

Internet Multimedia

Microsoft is attempting the same tricks again with multimedia. It's only the laws of mathematics that keep Progressive Networks in the game- although their client share has dropped of the radar.

Networking

Microsoft's greatest "innovation" was in lifting the networking core from a free operating system. They won't share their changes in the spirit of "trade secrets" but since Windows 2000 would pass all fingerprinting tests as the afformentioned free operating system, it's easy to assume "not much".

Electronic Mail and Collaboration

Exchange has become the "de-facto" method of corporate messaging, and yet still is the worst interoperator with the rest of the internet. Another example of Microsoft-copying, not willing to admit inferiority, and just throwing more money at the problem. Exchange would not be in-use anywhere if it's competition had the funds Microsoft had from it's illegal monopoly with MS-DOS and Windows.

Mobile Computing

Java is often touted as the origins of this technology, and while that isn't even true (LISP machines in the 1970s) Microsoft still calls it one of their innovations. Someone should tell Microsoft that the GNU people already made is possible to hook the C/C++ programming languages into Java.

Security/Trustworthiness

Microsoft is guilty of the three worst crimes in the security business.

Inventing a new algorithm and calling it a "trade secret"

Note every new Microsoft Security Extension actually had less security than it's predecessor. It wasn't until Microsoft "embraced-and-extended" Kerberos that network-file security become tolorable.

Using fixed, widely deployed keys that never expire.

And they're still in Windows XP....

Using undocumented methods of "increasing" security.

Remember, there is no security by obscurity itself.

Microsoft will likely never learn from these things. Thus because of Microsoft's illegally-gained monopoly, every time Microsoft forces an application down (MS-IIS) on the grounds of interoperability, the security of the general public is put at-stake.

Open Systems

Microsoft recently has talked about their open projects, but rejects GNU as a virus. GNU requires that changes made to free things be given back so that everyone benefits from the changes. Microsoft apparently doesn't like to give back, because they don't seem to mind the taking part.

Component Object Models

And they still don't have explicit versioning or dependencies, despite SOM (structured object model) the IBM innovation that Microsoft unsuccessfully cloned had these things. The .NET initiative attempts to produce a "new" COM that can do these things, and be applied to mobile code, something Java already did.

As near as I can tell, there are some consistancies in the above scenerios. One is that Microsoft has a tendancy of throwing the budget from their illegal monopoly into pentetration of a market, and then lowering the overall security of the Internet by requiring the use of immature, and otherwise untested products. The other is that Microsoft has borrowed the tactics of monopolists gone and past to put the competition out of business, and then being better than the worst was before.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

I urge you to think about these things every time you see a Microsoft lie. Just keep it in your mind whenever an advertisement for a Microsoft partner or product wafts past you.

And then: Ignore them. Don't let Microsoft abuse you and me with their "innovations". My home computer, My personal computer is at risk because of Microsoft- and the worst part is that I don't even use any Microsoft products. Microsoft still has a monopoly, so don't use anything Microsoft.

That means you can't buy a computer from HP or Gateway while they sell Microsoft. Go buy one from a local shop that doesn't move enough to get that special OEM discount. Or shop online- Computers can be had for cheaper if you don't put Windows on them.

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