Day: April 20, 2009

A. Do you use Microsoft Office 2007?(proceed to B)
B. Do you hat the ‘ribbon’ feature(ie lack of Menus and toolbars)? (proceed to C2)
C1. You must be using Open Office, Mircosoft pre-2007, or non-microsoft – Good for you, I knew I liked you for a reason
C2. You finally have someone to blame her name is Julie Larson-Green (Corporate Vice-President( for Windows Experience)

D. As someone twitter today: StephenAtHomejust saw crazy article in nyt. go read it yourself. i’m not your personal assistant!

E. I am your personal assistant and I will provide a link, a paragraph or two, and then the complete article.

Opening up Windows: Microsoft focuses on users for next system

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) – Julie Larson-Green hopes you’ll like Windows 7. If not, well, now you and a billion other people know whom to blame.Microsoft Corp. is counting on Larson-Green, its head of “Windows Experience,” to deliver an operating system that delights the world’s PC users as much as its last effort, Vista, disappointed them. She’s in charge of a wide swath of the system, from the way buttons and menus work to getting the software out in January as scheduled.

Given Microsoft’s history, Larson-Green’s plan seems downright revolutionary: Build an operating system that doesn’t require people to take computer classes or master thick manuals.

“We want to reduce the amount of thinking about the software that they have to do, so that they can concentrate all their thinking on the task they’re trying to get done,” Larson-Green said in an interview.

Microsoft relies on Windows for half its profit, which helps fuel money-losing operations like the pursuit of Google Inc. online. Windows was still profitable after Vista’s 2007 launch, but its poor reception dinged the software maker’s reputation at a critical time. Vista was designed for powerful, pricier PCs just as nimble rivals like Google were releasing Web-based programs that could run on inexpensive computers. Microsoft appeared to be clinging to an endangered world order that spawned its operating system monopoly.

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