BKMSWAY.RVW   961102
 
"The Microsoft Way", Randall E. Stross, 1996, 0-201-40949-6, U$25.00/C$34.00
%A   Randall E. Stross
%C   1 Jacob Way, Reading, MA   01867-9984
%D   1996
%G   0-201-40949-6
%I   Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
%O   U$25.00/C$34.00 800-822-6339 Fax: 617-944-7273 bkexpress@aw.com
%P   318
%T   "The Microsoft Way"
 
High tech competitors resent Microsoft's clout.  Geeks resent Microsoft's
dominance of the field with bug-laden software.  The masses probably wouldn't
mind seeing the richest man in the world take a pratfall once in a while.  So a
book about the things Microsoft does right, backed up by access to the entire
company and its internal archives, would be quite a treat.  If, that is, the
book was any good.
 
Perhaps the implications of that last statement are a bit harsh.  While the
opening chapters of the book are pretty awful, the material does get better
towards the end, when dealing strictly with business practices and money. 
Overall, the work is merely disappointing.
 
Stross makes a great many pro-Microsoft statements, but fails to provide real
backup.  The reader is expected to assume that Bill Gates is an intellectual
giant, but the only supporting evidence (aside, I suppose, from the converse of
"if you're so smart why ain't you rich") is a statement by Bill Gates that Bill
Gates has a pretty good memory.  The text is not an unadulterated paean of
praise: Stross does point out that Microsoft does fail to back up its
statements of the general benefit (in terms of the "public good") of its work. 
However, the promised insider information is not used well in support of
Stross' arguments: very little is in evidence in the early chapters, and later
material, while interesting, is not vital.  The chapter on antitrust
investigations is, perhaps, the strongest part of the book, but even there the
bottom line is that the deal with Intuit was not allowed to proceed and
ultimately MSN was unbundled.
 
Many parts of the book demonstrate a weak grasp of the nuances of technology
and the high tech industry.  A discussion of analog versus digital forms of
information storage insists that analog "data compression" has limits whereas
digital compression doesn't.  A subsequent look at machine readability isn't
very enlightening.  While the intent of the volume is not to provide a
technical reference, the author's lack of understanding of high technology
flaws his analysis of the high technology industry.
 
At times Stross contradicts himself.  Page 79 seems to imply that Microsoft did
not license rights to an existing encyclopedia for the text of Encarta: pages
82 and 83 show that it did.  At other times material is used repetitively in
different parts of the book (which is odd in view of the reams of content that
must have been available.
 
For technophiles who are fascinated by the gang from Redmond, there is some
interesting inside info, although little insight.  Those businesspeople
interested in emulating the MS success formula will be disappointed.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996   BKMSWAY.RVW   961102
 
======================
  Please note the Peterson story - http://www.netmind.com/~padgett/trial.htm
                 Genesis 4:9/Proverbs 24: 11,12 - your choice