I was reading the leaked memos from Microsoft and as I was reading the first few paragraphs, I could not stop thinking that nobody on their right mind writes internal company memos like this. Nobody puts this kind of history background.
Consider the recipients: "Executive Staff and Direct Reports; Distinguished Engineers".
I could not stop thinking that these memos were written to be leaked. They read like ads.
Update: Alex points out that Cringely made the same observation. The difference is his article is actually interesting. Here is a tidbit:
But I have to say that Gates or Ozzie or whoever actually wrote these documents has done a very effective job of differentiating the company roles in a way that makes Google appear to be the bad guy, and Microsoft appear to be the good guy. Google is going to develop and deploy Internet services while Microsoft is going to ENABLE the deployment of such services BY ITS DEVELOPER PARTNERS. This makes Google the would-be monopolist.
Looking deeper, though, we see that the only way Microsoft can achieve its vision is by continuing to own the platform. They want us to be GRATEFUL, in fact, that such an enlightened outfit is running the store. And this will work to an extent, but only to an extent. Then what happens? All hell breaks loose as Microsoft again changes the game. Here's how: read the rest
Posted on 11 Nov 2005