I got an invitation to Google Wave today and (as I sometimes do accidentally) I opened it using Internet Explorer.  When I did I was treated to this message…

Google has clearly taken an “Anyone But Microsoft” stance.  Safari would be understandable because it uses Webkit like Chrome but Firefox shows they went out of their way to support the Gecko engine while not supporting I.E.’s rendering engine.

Honestly, the more I use it the more I like Chrome so I can’t blame Google for trying to push IE users to a new browser.

Joe Wilcox has an article over at Betanews where he outlines what he feels are the strategic issues surrounding Windows 7.  In large part it’s an article designed to goad Mac fans (it’s even named “Mac fanboys should get a life and some Windows 7 common sense”).  But once you get past that he makes what I feel is an erroneous point about Windows 7’s “true competition” (as he puts it).

He lists three “true” competitors: Windows XP, Pirates and Netbooks.  The one I’m interested in is his point on Windows XP.  He says…

Windows 7's biggest competitor will be Windows XP, which runs on about 80 percent of PCs, according to combined analyst reports. Microsoft's first challenge will be getting XP users to move up to Windows 7. Mac market share was 7.6 percent in the United States in second quarter, according to IDC. (Gartner and IDC should release Q3 preliminary numbers in the next couple of days.)

I’m not sure I would have keyed in on this if not for Mac lover John Gruber’s post which focused on that paragraph.  He said…

I think Wilcox is spot-on that Windows 7’s primary competition is XP. Microsoft really does worry first about raw market share, and XP is the market leader by a long shot. Such comparisons against the Mac are apples-vs.-oranges, though, because Apple isn’t concerned about overall market share.

Sometimes I think certain points seem so obvious that people don’t actually think them through. This is one of those points.  At first blush it seems like XP will be a big problem for Windows 7 but when you look at the actual facts you find that’s not the case. 

Here are a few reasons for that…

1.  You won’t be able to buy computers with XP anymore.  The reason XP has been a thorn in Vista’s side is because Microsoft was forced to let PC manufacturers continue to sell XP (largely because Vista was such a disaster).  But WIndows 7 won’t have that problem.  I suspect Microsoft will allow manufacturers to still sell Vista on systems but who in their right mind would choose Vista?

2.  XP is losing hardware support.  Anyone who has maintained a large number of XP computers over the last couple of years will tell you that some specialized hardware is starting to come without XP drivers.  Worse, many new systems are 64bit which adds another wrinkle.  So even if someone pursued XP by installing it themselves they’re going to run into problems.

3.  XP really isn’t sufficient.  Again we come back to the problem of Vista.  People stuck with XP because Vista was so bad but that doesn’t mean people have been blinded to the fact that XP is 8 years old and getting a little long in the tooth.  All the security concerns, power management issues, and other issues are still there and are all still bugging most IT people.  There was just no where to go up until now.

The bottom line is that PC users have been waiting for a decent upgrade.  Not clinging to XP out of some love for it.  Now that we have a worthwhile successor I suspect you’ll see a Windows 7 rollout that is faster than any previous version of Windows.

First let me say this.  If you haven’t either told me to “Go F**k Myself” or thought of telling me to “Go F**k Myself” at some point in the last 48 hours than this post doesn’t really apply to you.  You should feel free to skip it. 

To the rest of you (who probably aren’t reading this but what the heck) I have a message.  In order to frame that message I would like to quote one of the lovely messages I’ve received over the past day.  It said…

Hey F**k w*d,

Why don’t you mind your own F**k**g busines (her mis-spell, not mine - tom).  Some of us are really upset about losing all our data and we don’t need you telling us you don’t give a c**p about it.  Why don’t you just leave us alone and not be a j**k*ss about things.

Some people actually care about other people’s suffering but clearly you don’t so why don’t you just live your d**n life already and let us live ours. 

With hopes that you go f**k yourself,

[Name Withheld]

In fairness I was the one who withheld her name.  She was brave enough to put it out there with her real e-mail address (which was valid, I checked).  So kudos to her on that.

That said here’s my message to the author and everyone else who wrote similar ones: I think you missed the point.  To save myself from having to type any more than I have to and to prove I’m not back tracking I’m going to quote from the FAQ on my “about page” to make my point…

===Begin Quote===

“Why are you so mean? I don’t think I am mean but I know where the sentiment comes from.

Here’s the thing, I can be hard on people from time to time but that’s because I actually do care. It’s easy to just say “you’re great” to a person and then go on your way but to me that’s dishonest. That’s really saying “it doesn’t matter what you do it’s of so little importance that I’m just going to tell you how great you are no matter what”

I believe what people do is important and I believe that I have an obligation to tell them when their actions don’t deliver the results that their words are intending.   So I'm not going to tell you how great you are unless you actually ARE great but I am willing to do everything in my power to help make you great.  That's the sentiment I live by.

If that makes me look mean then so be it. I’d rather look mean and be comforted by the fact that I did the right thing than look nice and be the guy who just doesn’t give a damn.  “

===End Quote===

And that is what I say to you.  Believe it or not, I am the one who “gives a f**k” about your suffering.  I am the one who is trying to make you see that you made a mistake so that you won’t do it again.  The folks who are out there telling you it’s all big, mean Microsoft’s fault for losing your data are the ones that don’t care whether this happens to you again (and if you continue to not back up your data it will in fact happen to you again)

Sure, I’ll be the first to admit to the character flaw that is sarcasm and I’ll absolutely agree that my message would get across clearer without the sarcastic title.  But that’s the world.  No one’s perfect.  That shouldn’t stop you from thinking through what I said and realizing I was trying to help you.

So in closing, and I say this with all the love in the world, but if you can’t see that I’m trying to help you than you can go f**k yourself.  But I mean that in the nicest way possible.