I would imagine that, by now, everyone has read Gutman's warning.         Cached document here

Vista isn't happening in the Square Mile this year. It's that simple. We do not know what the DRM code is doing, it runs at a level of privilege way, way above our own security systems and we simply cannot cede that degree of control over our operations. Let's not even think about malicious code masquerading as the DRM components of a device driver, or as a revocation notice; the worst of it is that bad drivers cannot be backed-out to a minimum certified functionality (like the basic 640x480 video mode) unless we have a long train of certificates permitting us to do so - and that train only needs to be broken once to cost us millions. Nobody has done any of the thinking about system recovery before they started coding driver revocation, and it's simply too late to put it in now.

What happens in five years time is another matter: hell, we're only just getting 'round to XP. We do innovate, despite the staid reputation, and we do spend money if there's a measurable gain - and all too often if there isn't one - but we are very, very cautious about system changeovers because subtle changes in our calculations can cost megabucks and the regression-testing to prevent that costs an eye-watering amount of time and money.

And yes, we're under a regulatory obligation to do the testing. Everyone is taking some serious operation risks if they don't, so - as usual - our regulations are actually no more than sound business practice and a valuable protection. But I bet everyone else in 'the real world' just wings it on 'upgrading' to Vista and hopes it all works.

Unless, of course, there are horror stories. Or quite possibly, even if there are; and what's the betting that the features of Vista be imposed on us anyway, in service packs to XP? Microsoft are going to do some very intensive news management in the next two years; cynic that I am, I believe that the advertising spend on Vista is more to do with financial leverage over the media than any need to open up a communication channel with the customer base.

But, however clever and well-funded their PR people may be, we will know. Investment Banks see everything: it's our business to know about every business and we will buy in the talent from firms who have made the upgrade. And, more importantly, we will buy in the talent from firms who have failed to make the upgrade; brush up your CV's fellow-geeks, the lessons you will learn have a realisable monetary value.

Fast-forward five years to the day when we are forced to move on from an obsolete OS. What's the betting that you'll see a quiet but very well-funded programme of co-operation with the Open--Source movement? Imagine a really cautious risk manager insisting that every trading desk has one reserve machine running cut-down versions of the trading systems and the spreadsheets on Linux... It's not as expensive as losing a day's trading - especially if (say) we have to exercise an option before close-of-trading on the NYSE.

I've worked with Windows all my working life and, despite what you may hear, it has been a blessing to us all: without it we would still be running Wang word processors on Wang hardware that saved documents in a Wang file format that can only be read by other Wang applications and printed on Wang Printers. Or HP, Or IBM, or Toshiba: whatever. It took a Big Bad Corporation to build a big enough operating system that everyone uses it, and every other software vendor works with it rather than against it, each other, and the user population. I fully expect the Big Bad Corporation to make a handsome profit from their systems and I am certain that Microsoft have behaved far, far better than IBM would've done if their DOS and their visual interface had established the natural monopoly that emerges from a widely-used operating system. But Vista and Microsoft's implementation of DRM is a clear indication that they have failed to balance the constant commercial compromise of profit, competition, quality, and customer service.

No, I'll go further - Vista marks out Microsoft as having abandoned that constant search for balance: they are working against their customers, they know it, and and they are entirely satisfied with the direction they have taken.

...Another post that started as a comment on someone elses's ideas. In this case, reddragdiva. The original post is here.

Tags: ranting