MacLochlainns Weblog

Escape from New York, a cult classic, has Snake (Kurt Russell) rescue the President from Manhattan, which in this dystopian film’s theme is a prison. Windows 8 seems like a new dystopian version of Windows where only Microsoft’s browser works to perform real browser activities.

Gone is the European Union’s antitrust suit. Why? Oh, yes, Microsoft promised to provide options to users of its platform. Gone that! Will the European Union retake the mantle of the Avengers and free us from the mantle of Microsoft’s attempt to play Loki in compelling users back to their browser?

An excerpt from Greg Keizer’s ComputerWorld piece:

“Windows on ARM [the former name for Windows RT] prohibits any browser except for Internet Explorer from running in the privileged ‘Windows Classic’ environment,” said Anderson. “In practice, this means that only Internet Explorer will be able to perform many of the advanced computing functions vital to modern browsers in terms of speed, stability, and security to which users have grown accustomed.”

While I’ve used Microsoft Excel since version 3 – sent to me for review by Microsoft along with my first non-Mac mouse in 1990 – their browser is something to avoid. It’s the first thing that I disable when installing a new Windows’ instance, by substituting Mozilla’s Firefox.

My question is: Will all those accounts and finance folks who drive Microsoft Office sales because of Excel’s VBA features really drink the Kool-Aid and buy into this new generation of browser tyranny? Let’s hope they don’t! Maybe they’ll take a closer look at OpenOffice 3. 😉

However, I strongly doubt they’ll surrender their VBA driven models unless OpenOffice provides something similar. Let’s face it. Microsoft Excel’s VBA feature is probably one of the smartest thing Microsoft ever marketed because it’s seals the deal for the Microsoft cash cow – the Microsoft Office Suite.

Disclaimer: I’m primarily a Mac OS X, Linux, and Unix user, but like it or not, the reach of the Windows’ desktop is omnipresent in our lives; and let’s face it: Windows 8 will continue to be the most frequent choice for corporate desktops. It’s also the platform for Microsoft SQL Server. Therefore, it’s critical for us to rise up and shout for browser freedom – Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and the little guys too!