joeware - never stop exploring... :)

Many people think I hate Microsoft because I can be harsh concerning how they do things.

Many other people think that I am in love with Microsoft and a cheerleader because I point out that I am a Microsoft MVP.

The answer, as with many things, is somewhere in between. I point out things I think are right, I point out things that I think are wrong. I don’t generally mince words either way. That can make me unpopular with people who don’t want to “hear it”. I am not looking to win any popularity contests. Part of what makes me respect someone is accepting someone else’s opinion and standing up for their own opinion and being willing to debate the facts.

What do I like about Microsoft? I like a lot of the people. The good people, the people who really care, the people who are intelligent and can speak intelligently to customer’s concerns no matter how irate or crazy the customer gets. The people who are willing to stand up and say, even though I work for MS, I don’t think they did this or that right and I think it needs to be fixed.

Unfortunately this isn’t everyone. As with any company, there are a lot of people who are just there. They have a job, that job is what they do, if you point out something wrong they basically tell you it isn’t their job or tell you you are wrong. They won’t admit that maybe MS doesn’t have the right solution for every case.

There are some that don’t brook any feedback that isn’t of the kiss their butt kind because they think to themselves, what else are you going to do? Yes, unfortunately we are in a climate where for all practical purposes, MS is the real supplier of products in use in most homes and businesses. The sheer volume of the MS installed based to anything else is staggering. Of course that attitude by those people isn’t good, if they continue, it will only hurt MS and make it so the MS dominance isn’t true anymore. Being on top isn’t a forever thing, ask IBM, ask Wang, ask Sperry Univac. I think it is simply a matter of how long will MS be on top. That depends entirely on the second group of people mentioned below.

MS has some absolutely amazing people who bust their ass to try and make things better and are willing to help anyone having trouble with pretty much anything they are having troubles with. These are folks that you can often find in newsgroups and listservs and blogging. These people won’t start swinging at you if you point out shortcomings, they will listen, they will debate, they will try to convince you where you are wrong or actually agree that you may have a point and help get it straightened out. There may be times when they do strike out but that isn’t the norm, anyone can have a bad day.

I can talk about this because I have been fortunate enough to deal with and recognize both sets of people. I know how incredibly frustrating it can be to hit the troublesome employees. I know how much fun and helpful it can be to hit the good employees. I won’t mention the troublesome employees, I think they know who they are, if they don’t, they don’t really care that they don’t know anyway. I will, however, mention some good employees, employess that I think Microsoft is lucky to have because they are the reason Microsoft is great.

One of the most helpful Microsoft employees I have ever encountered is a young guy named Eric Fleischman. Eric (or more properly ~Eric) has a blog which is not updated on a regular basis, but when it is, it is often quite useful. ~Eric is a code geek. He likes to fish through debug dumps. He likes to look at and tackle hard problems. He has the fire to argue with you about how things work and hash out things that are right and wrong. He is willing to listen. Generally if he stops helping it is because he can’t help anymore because there is nothing he can do or someone has clamped down on him for being “too” helpful. ~Eric is the kind of person that makes me say Microsoft is great. Microsoft seems to have a good chunk of the available people who are like this.

Some [1] others that make the company great are PSS folks like Raphael Donato and JD Hurt. People who are MCS techies like Matt Grimes and John Gilbert. People who are MCS Project folks like Kevin OConner. Redmond folks like Stuart Kwan, Dimitri Gavrilov, Brett Shirley, Sanjay Tandon, Levon Esibov, Lori Moore, Jim Allchin, Alun Jones, John Buscher, Mark Caldwell, Gary Wilson, Janni Clark, Eddy Malik, Brian Boston, Eric Sassaman, Jerry Bryant, Steve Riley, Rich Kaplan, actually just about everyone I have met or dealt with that reported up the security chains at MS or worked on the Directory Services stuff or in the MVP program. Amazingly bright and well spoken folks, all.

I have argued and debated so many different things with so many of those people and almost every time, it seemed, at least to me, to be a good debate. These people care about their products, they understand their products. These are the folks that make Microsoft great. Without them, the whole company would be a very different company and certainly wouldn’t be where it is.

If you are lucky, you get to eventually deal with these folks and others like them. If you are unlucky you deal with the other ones and get very frustrated and have very bad opinions about the company.

What makes Microsoft great? Some very incredible, intelligent, caring, and helpful people.

Where is Microsoft’s future? These same people.

What could hurt Microsoft most? Loss of these same people. Either them leaving entirely or simply losing that caring and helpful attitude.

joe

[1] Just some, I can’t recall every single good person I have dealt with in the last 10-12 years I have dealt with a lot of them.