A Week on the Microsoft Campus

So, I spent most of the last week on the Microsoft campus in Redmond attending a “Vista Readiness Event”. It was hosted at the PAC (located right next door to the much dreaded Building 19 aka the Recruiting Building).

There were 17 or so talks targeted at ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) who need to be concerned about Vista. Specifically, the presentations were by Program Managers who talked about features that might have an impact on third party security products (AV, vulnerability scanners, the whole shebang).

Rahul once told me that the key differentiator between Microsoft and Apple is the fact that MS gets developer relations (provides a comprehensive API + developer support) and that’s what really differentiates them from Apple. Never really thought much of it until I had a chance to experience it first hand last week. Almost all of the PMs gave enthusiastic pitches for their features, solicited feedback and volunteered their email ids. The message was loud and clear – “Microsoft cares about your development experience.” The Microsoft people who were hosting the event showed us a good time as well. We went down to The Garage in downtown Seattle for an evening of bowling and pool.

I haven’t really had a chance to follow the blog chatter on Vista. But now seems like an appropriate time to chime in (briefly) while I am on the topic. At first glance, it seems like rootkits (or any other malware that rely on kernel level exploitation to work) don’t have much of a future in Vista (thanks to mandated driver signing and PatchGuard). The UI? Well, as with any release of Windows, the UI is revamped. Its no big secret that the folks in Redmond have been borrowing ideas off of Steve for some time now. But at no other time has the convergence with the Mac UI been clearer than now. Small wonder then that he sounds so pissed off. The widgets on the side of the screen -- Anyone heard of konfabulator?