Users say, 'Listen up'
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"Microsoft is 100% in control of developing its specifications, even if they do pay lip service to letting customers comment," said Steve York, senior manager of enterprise computing services at General Motors Hughes Electronics in Los Angeles.
Changes are made in specifications such as MAPI and OLE strictly to benefit Microsoft, not for any user benefit, he said.
Bryan Tsunoda, Microsoft Mail administrator for federally funded research and development center The Aerospace Corp., which uses Mail on about 3,000 personal computers and 2,000 Apple Computer, Inc. Macintoshes, agreed that users are left out.
"I have not known Microsoft to take any input from corporations with respect to which APIs to support," Tsunoda said. "It's usually 'my way or the highway,' OLE or nothing. It kind of hurts, especially since they seem to be discouraging people to use ODBC."
Microsoft tends to be more willing to take into account user wants when it comes to building applications, but even then it typically does so only for those products on which it makes the most money, Tsunoda said.
"Mail and Schedule+ are way behind," Tsunoda said.
The specifications would be stronger and users would be happier if there was a formal user review and comment period with Microsoft specs as there is with specifications developed for the Internet, York said.
Protocols such as TCP/IP were developed and demonstrated, then made available on the Internet so potential users could test and comment on them. This process resulted in usable, reliable technology, York said.
A similar process, in which Microsoft users could test and offer ideas to tweak Microsoft's APIs before they are released, would also result in more reliable technology that is suited to what users need, York said.
Overall, Microsoft is fairly open to input from users and other vendors, but it should license technologies such as OLE to other software developers, said Keith Johnson, systems analyst at Becton Dickson Research, Inc. in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Doug Henrich, director for the developer relations group at Microsoft, said the company does get input from users, mainly through independent software vendors, which get feedback from their customers and pass that on to Microsoft. But Microsoft does keep control of the process, he acknowledged.
The rapid spread of new standards from Microsoft and their quick adoption in applications from Microsoft and other vendors, may lead users down Redmond Road unwillingly.
Bob Stratton, a technical advisor at Gulf Canada Resources in Calgary, Alberta, just signed a site license for 1,200 copies of Microsoft Office even though he thinks some of the products in the suite aren't the best in their class. The superior implementation of OLE in the integrated package prevented Stratton from going with Software Publishing Corp.'s Harvard Graphics and Lotus Development Corp. AmiPro, which he said are otherwise superior to the similar Microsoft applications in the suite.
"You're pushed into buying Microsoft products to take advantage of things like OLE and [Dynamic Data Exchange]. Microsoft is trying to get an edge, and that might be a problem later on if other applications don't conform to its specs," Johnson said. Microsoft denied that it exploits its own standards development process to get an edge in the market.
"Our only advantage is that we make a strong early commitment to these specs, whereas some other companies want to think about it for a longer period of time. Bill Gates stood up and made a commitment to OLE, whereas the others waffled a little bit," said Dave Seres, group product manager for OLE at Microsoft.
Another chief concern among users is that Microsoft standards tend to
be Windows-centric. More than half of those surveyed 57% said Microsoft's
de facto standards are too reliant on Windows. What's more, 48% of users
foresee themselves standardizing on one set of networking specs for Windows
systems and another for non-Windows machines.
"There's no doubt at all that their specifications have a
Windows-centric approach and that they don't want to have anything to do
with certain operating systems like OS/2," York said.
Microsoft should make cross-platform implementations available at the same time as their Windows counterparts, users said. These should include not only those platforms such as the Macintosh where Microsoft sells large amounts of application software, but also platforms such as OS/2.
"There are some things that don't run best on a PC," said Bob Halloran, network engineer at AT&T Universal Card Services in Jacksonville, Fla. Windows is a multitasking piece running on top of a single-threading operating system. The development front ends like Visual Basic are real pretty, but for the real down and dirty [application development] stuff you need a full-featured multitasking-from-the-get-go operating system underneath."
Randy Dugger, associate director of information systems for biotech firm Liposome Technology, Inc., which has a mixed Windows and Macintosh net, praised Microsoft for the breadth of its support. Microsoft has done more than competitors like Lotus to make applications and APIs available on platforms other than Windows, he said.
Microsoft is expected to release a software development kit for ODBC on the Macintosh later this year and has plans to port OLE to several other platforms.
STANDARDS ISSUES
Of even greater concern to users than cross-platform support is interoperability with competing standards.More than two-thirds of users surveyed said Microsoft should hand its standards over to standards bodies to administer. But two-thirds also said their needs are better met when Microsoft develops and distributes a technology as a standard quickly, rather than waiting for a standards body to deliver a specification.
"Everyone wants to do their own [standard] when users are really looking for just one," Dugger said. "Think if this happened in the car industry. We'd have cars with steering wheels on different sides, and the gas and brake pedals in different combinations."
Microsoft has stated its intentions to support Distributed Computing Environment and to form links between OLE and the Object Management Group's CORBA standard, as well as to support X.400 and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol in its Exchange messaging product. All these directions are indications that Microsoft recognizes the need and the market opportunity represented in specifications that are open, York said.
"They're moving in that direction, and I think it's because they recognize that those standards are strong standards that they'll eventually be forced to support anyway," he said.
RAF RECOMMENDATIONS
In general, the survey shows that a large percentage of Network World readers are uncomfortable with Microsoft's power and are concerned that it will hurt their ability to build and support flexible heterogeneous networks.Microsoft has to come up with a more open process for letting users have input early on in specification development. While some users won't take advantage of such an opportunity, it seems that many would like to have the option. Even if Microsoft has such programs in place now, it's obvious that many users aren't aware of them.
Finally, users need Microsoft to create specs from the start that are more inclusive of non-Windows applications and platforms. This will require Microsoft to be more willing to reach compromises with other vendors and to be more of a leader within industry standards groups, rather than watching from the sidelines until the time is right from its own perspective to join.
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