Joel on Software - Thursday, February 17, 2005: "So far, it looks like this is a nifty program, and consumers should be happy that Microsoft has announced it will be free, but it really, really would have been nice for us here in the software industry if Microsoft had set a price on this thing just to provide some air cover for the other companies working on spyware removal. This is not a software category where a monopoly monoculture will be a good thing." Ah, but this is the beauty of the thing. The same company that flooded the world with this poorly designed bloated bag-o-crap needs to hit another home run, and it's the bottom of the ninth and all their best hitters have struck out as mighty Bill wheezes up to the plate... "HEY... let's tie another wagon to the cash cow!" And as what's left of Norton and Macaffee hurl themselves from the burning superstructure we watch it sink into the tar pit as MS corporate management are hanged by their private parts from the mizen mast. err, or something. Anyway, this whole notion that Microsoft must fix the bad design of Windows by adding more software, free or otherwise, on top of it is a major admission of failure, one of several, inability to support multiple hardware architectures quickly being the other one that comes to mind. Like the mangled mass of metaphors in this post, Windows can't be fixed, and the egos at Microsoft won't let it be re-written. Apple use will continue to grow, as will Linux, and there will be a continuing trend back to server-centric computing that will make the outcome of the OS wars less interesting anyway. Can Microsoft succeed in a competition for on-line storage and services? Do they have the courage to buck Intel and start coding for radically new processors? Can you spell "Razor thin profit margins"? Well, of COURSE you can NOW. Anyway, this is all fun to watch from the vantage point of never having to boot Windows again. The longer the agony lasts the better. I don't think I should add future posts right after watching epic movies such as Return of the King.