The other day I imagined myself working at Microsoft. No, it wasn’t a nightmare. My job was to produce an operating system for professional PC users and hobbyists. I was head of the revived Xenix division.
Xenix was a Microsoft-branded UNIX, licensed from AT&T back in the 1980s. It wasn’t open-source and it most definitely wasn’t free.
At the publishing house where I worked, I ran the Xenix server. It was installed on a TRS-80 Model 16 system, which had several terminals around the building. The inventory and sales software we ran was written in COBOL. My job was to backup the server daily. Occasionally I had to restart the system when the boss would experiment with Xenix to see whether it was worthy.
The boss insisted that he log in under the root account. After all, he was The Boss. This terrified me, so I had everyone log off the network and I backed up all the data. Then I let him loose, which inevitably resulted in a core dump and system crash. Thankfully, his frustration diminished his interest in the system, so he stayed away after a few frightening episodes.
In my recent daydream, I was appointed by [Microsoft CEO Name Here] to head up a rogue division at Microsoft. They wanted to do battle with Apple, trying to win over the high-end users who wanted a more stable system, something without all the Windows baggage.
Further, the notion was to cultivate a legion of fans. Microsoft was aware (remember, this is my “dream”) that lots of hackers and Linux enthusiasts would be drawn to an MS Xenix brand. Despite a nasty feeling for Microsoft, the notion was that an MS Xenix would legitimize their efforts. Recognizing that Microsoft would offer a greater potential for market share, we could win over many converts.
In my position, I would insist that everything be open. Full docs, all online, nothing hidden or secret. We’d give away development kits and encourage distribution of software, including frequent (and free) updates.
Internally, the division would lobby hard to get professional-grade software available for Xenix. This would include categories like photo editing, video production, animation, technical drawing, and other niche markets. That was the primary goal, but secretly I wanted to entice the hacker community, making the Xenix platform an ideal development tool. Speed would be the key; minus the Windows and Mac OS X overhead, Xenix would be optimized for extreme performance.
The downside to all this was that Xenix would require very specific hardware. You just couldn’t buy a PC box from some brick-and-mortar and expect Xenix to even load. Even so, I figured to play off that hard-ass reputation. Defiant marketing would include catch phrases like “Not your grandparent’s operating system” or “The dark beer of operating systems” or “All bark and all bite, too.”
That’s where my daydream fell apart. While all of this fantasy is possible, the people who run big software companies like Microsoft typically hail from Sales, not Engineering. They fear alienating any portion of the market. A targeted OS like Xenix might be successful in my head, but in reality it wouldn’t have a chance. But for a while, it was fun to dream.
