Was Scoble Crying Over a Windows-Only Telescope Application?
Mike Arrington believes he has tracked down what it was that made Robert Scoble cry the other day - a new piece of software dubbed 'WorldWide Telescope' that is set to launch at the TED Conference in 9 days.
This guess would seem to be likely on the money as Dan Farber even predicted this exact application being the cause of Scoble's tears 3 days ago. He was able to pull together this guess based on some of the hints Scoble leaked out including that Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay were the two behind the project.
Though not the Giant Onion or Doomsday Device I had been hoping for, this could be a pretty neat application: provided it does more than Google Sky already does. As an avid space-buff I loved when Google rolled out Sky layer for Google Earth, but was left wanting more - this application could very well expand on that, but there is one potential problem: word is that it will be Windows-only. Which means one thing: I won't be using it.
Microsoft, if you really are setting out to create a piece of software that can "change the world" like Scoble thinks it can - please get off your damn high horse and release it on all the operating systems. Yes, I know it's more work, but you are not helping your reputation any when you create something cool that not everyone can use.
If you think I am going to buy (or even use for that matter) Windows just to get one application - no matter how cool - you are sorely mistaken.
5 comments:
well ther is always Windows Live Writer .. that would make two at least :)
Not to disappoint Scoble, but this isn't such a great thing. Is it cool? Most definitely, but not a cause for tears.
Why are Mac/Linux users always crying that Microsoft doesn't release products on their PCs. Hang on - Microsoft PCs are around 85-90% of the market - so why, as a first release - would they bother to spend another 6 months coding just to release it on the remaining 15% of the worlds PC.
In my mind, it makes absolutely no sense to do this. Go get yourself some virtualization technology, get a copy of windows and stop your incessant crying. Either that - or just stop complaining.
@steven - i have heard many good things about that software.
@thattalldude - agreed on not being tear-worthy (that's why I originally thought giant onion or doomsday device), but it could be really, really cool, we'll have to wait and see.
@anon - because of the fact that most of the other big boys play nice with potential customers and release software cross platform. I understand Microsoft's thinking in not doing it, but think it's rather silly.
If they have some software that is truly excellent, they should make sure as many people as possible can use it. It's little things like that which could help them shake the 'bad guy' image we've seen from them in recent years and has very much been put on display during the recent Yahoo/MSFT talks.
I'm going to have to agree with anon on this one... Microsoft is in the business of making money off of its Windows platform.
Apple is in the business of making money off of its Music business. They got there by making a better end-to-end offering and tailor their business to the needs of the majority of consumers. They started by making iPods Mac only... and had to adapt.
If whatever this is is released as Windows only... so be it. The market share for Windows is 90%+ when you look at the worldwide market.
What are your thoughts on exclusive titles for gaming consoles?
Just because something is better for the consumer... doesn't mean it's better for the business. If Toyta gave away all of their cars for free... everybody would love it... but the business would go under. I'm all for Microsoft to keep certain apps private to Windows.
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