I don’t like to toot my own horn (much) but back in 1998, I wrote about how Microsoft was making it so easy to develop Web applications that soon most corporate development shops would think of the Web as something that originated in Redmond. Well, I was reminded of that realization this week when surfing around on my Mac, and finding out that I can’t get to certain parts of the Internet. I now live in a Mac ghetto as far as the Web is concerned, and like most ghettos, it isn’t easy getting out of it – unless you happen to have a Windows PC nearby.
I couldn’t connect to the Web site of my doctor’s office to make any appointment, because their site only wants patients to enter on IE and Windows. I am testing some security appliances for Information Security magazine, and some of their configuration pages also expect to see IE and Windows. I thought I would upgrade to QuickBooks online rather than buy some new software — but guess what? It only runs on IE and Windows! And the OfficeLive service from Microsoft – which by the way is very cool and is an absolutely free Web hosting solution – only runs on IE and Windows. The list goes on and on.
Fortunately, I run both MacOS and Windows here, so it is more of an annoyance than a showstopper. But still, the message is clear: if you use anything other than Windows, you are not worthy. Go the store and buy a real OS.
The Microsoft Web has been happening for some time. As I wrote several years ago, developers are building Web-based applications using tools and servers from Microsoft. They run on IIS with ASP, and use Visual Studio and of course assume that Internet Explorer is the intended browser so they write these apps accordingly. And if they dabble in Java, they use the Windows version of Java that doesn’t quite work on non-Windows platforms.
Microsoft’s tools certainly can deliver the richest, coolest Web stuff in the shortest time. Of course! That is their not-so-secret plan. They get what makes developers tick and then they supply the Microsoft-flavored crack that keeps their programming mojo pumped. It is a wonderful thing, no? Sun, bless them, still can’t figure this out. IBM with all of its Eclipse and open-this-and-that, can’t figure this out.
Well, there are some bumps in the road, especially with the latest version of IE, version 7. Some of the IE faithful are finding out that things can be painful under the Microsoft Web. IE7 breaks a lot of stuff, and not everyone has tested – or adjusted — their apps for the new browser. Eventually, we will all work out the bugs, I am sure, because we have no choice.
Remember the days when the Web was “browser-agnostic” – meaning that you could run anybody’s browser to view any Web page? That’s so over, so quaint. Now we can’t even build a Web that is “IE agnostic” to run on any two IE versions, let alone versions of IE back to say, v5, which seems like ancient history but is still pretty much in active use on many desktops today. That is one of the problems of the Microsoft Web: it flies in the face of what the Internet used to be all about: writing to internationally accepted standards that actually meant something.
Oh, come off it, Strom. (You might be saying.) So what? Look at what happened to Netscape, who took the standards high road? They got AOLized, and then sank after a cameo appearance at the Microsoft monopoly trial. Who needs standards when Uncle Bill can take care of all of us? Aren’t we better off with just running Windows?
Not really. The Web deserves better than to become yet another Microsoft business unit. There is a reason why I still use my Mac as my main business computer, so I can save the countless hours that I would have spent fixing spyware attacks and redoing my OS when it gets messed up with somebody’s idea of a good joke. But it means that I have to live in my Mac ghetto, and that’s a shame. Because it means that now we are locked into the Microsoft Web.
This one resonates with me, writes one of my readers:
My wife (sales exec) left Microsoft in October after a long career there and she demanded I buy her a present upon exit – our first Mac. She strolled around the Seattle Apple store with me and the credit card and the Apple boy with his hand truck in tow, and just pointed at stuff. We got a loaded 15” MacBook pro, 30” monitor; 500GB outboard drive, and so on and so on. (Note: turns out Redmondites get a pretty discount at the Apple Store on everything and my theory is it serves just one purpose which is a little monthly report that the store mgr sends to SteveJ who forwards to BillG with snarky comments. All my wife’s senior dev mgnt friends have Macs at home.)
So the first thing I learn in Mac land is that that some chunk of the hefty mark up you shell out for that stuff is so you get to experience the most beautiful consumer packaging in the world. Who does their Styrofoam, Prada? The second thing I learn is that initial transition was harder than I’d been told. Some things were just flat out weird and you found out how much of your Windows behavior had turned into reflexes (I miss my Control key) and I still have serious futzing withdrawals (its like buying a Lexus when you’ve driven an MG all your life; you miss the simple pleasure of fixing things that break). But overall, I get it know.
The one thing that hasn’t gotten better is the web – just as you say. A particular annoyance for me is media files; Quick time has been kicked to the curb. I’m thinking my only hope now is running IE under the Parallels VM.
For playing media files, on a Mac or on Windows, I find that VLC has good compatibility:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
While there are sites out there that require IE running under Windows, in my experience, they are few and far between these days. Building a web site or web application that is not cross-browser/cross-platform is pure laziness at this point.
At my company, we develop primarily with Macs running Firefox. We also test in IE, and ensure that our stuff works in Firefox on both platforms, Safari on the Mac, and IE under Windows. For the most part, it doesn’t require a lot of extra work, and it is certainly worth it. I’d rather put in a bit of extra effort instead of alienating my customers, or even worse, my customers’ customers.
For quicktime, get Flip4Mac and Perian plugin, that’ll put stop to your pain with media. Flip4Mac is for wmv (or whatever – windows media basically) and Perian supports whole lot of other formats. They are both plugins, so no need for extra applications or anything, it’ll all play in quicktime.
I had that same issue with Quickbooks online. They gave some seriously lame excuse that they rely on doing autocomplete (type ahead and the like) and a few other AJAX items that they say can’t currently be done on the Mac or Firefox. HELLO! I do this all the time in my development. So does Google and a whole host of other place. It’s not like they’re even using ASP or .NET to corral them into IE. Since IE is NOT standards compliant, it is the hardest browser to write for since you have to do things in a non-standard way for IE specific code. I actually take the time to make things work in all browsers/platforms starting with developing on my Mac with Firefox. Developers that don’t write standard code are lazy. I would never hire one!