When will Microsoft ever get its act together?

In IIT, where I first came across computers and the Internet, I used mostly Linux and other Unix based operating systems. They were difficult to grasp the first time around, but once you got the basics figured out, they were quite easy to configure, customize and use. They were very very robust. At that time, I did not understand why most people were so anti Windows and MS Office. I used MS based systems mostly to watch movies since for some reason Linux did not have a good viewer (at least in the late 90s).

Today, after having used Microsoft based computers for no less than 9 years, I understand what I could not a decade ago. My computer is a state-of-the-art HP EliteBook. I have the most expensive hardware on this system. My operating system is the top-of-the-line Windows XP Professional. I don't understand why my computer operating system still keeps hanging ever so often. Every time this happens, the only thing I can do is to reboot. Each reboot takes around 10 - 15 minutes of my time. At 1am, when one is fighting a deadline, these 15 minutes are worth their weight in gold.

Another example - I used Lotus Notes for email during my time at McKinsey. Now, having used MS Outlook for the last 3.5 years, I must confess that it is the most heavy, most cumbersome and most buggy piece of software that I have encountered. It causes my computer to underperform so significantly, that I often shut it down when I'm working on critical stuff.

I have stopped using Internet Explorer altogether - Google Chrome is so much lighter, responsive and intuitive - it has become my default browser.

Microsoft has a monopoly position in these products - the least they can do is to make them REALLY REALLY good. However, they cannot seem to get it. They have had similar experiences with web-based email (Hotmail, which is so much inferior to GMail), smartphones (their OS is nowhere even close to Google's android or Apple's iOS) or even search (Bing could not dent Google's market share). These guys are in the best place to invest vast resources and cream the competition. But they don't seem to get it!

What is up with Microsoft???

Service economy? Ha ha

There are no two ways about it - our service economy sucks! Getting a broadband connection at home (this is the most premium plan, and with the 'best' operator) is proving to be a headache. This is after my earlier broadband connection would provide such terrible connectivity that I would find it quicker to use a data card on my computer!

This is not just about broadband, or even telecom. I don't understand why we do not have a good, professional service economy. Where if I am told that xyz will happen on a certain day, it does happen on that day (or even that week)! This is true even of the largest retailer in India, who commits delivery on a certain day but actually delivers on some other day.

Earlier, this was a given - because everything was Govt. (or should I say bureaucracy) owned, and the Govt. certainly does not care about service. It is much more difficult to understand now - we have private companies with a profit motive, we have differential pricing, we have pretty much all elements in place for great service. But do we get it? Unfortunately, the answer is no!

My hypothesis is that this stems from 2 key factors - a) the chaos and unpredictability of daily life in our cities. I cannot predict to within 30 minutes the time it will take me to get from place A to place B, or whether I will find parking there, or whether the guy I'm supposed to meet or the item I'm supposed to collect will be there at all! In such an environment, even a small variable can effect output tremendously. Therefore service providers are unable to predict things themselves b) we are horrible at communication and are very short term thinkers. We think saying something conveniently now (Yes surely I will deliver today / Guaranteed madam, kaam aaj ho jayega) is enough to satisfy the customer, rather than say something not so pleasing, but then keep the promise. Ergo, we are short term optimizers rather than long term strategics.

Whatever the reason, our service economy sucks!