 keith2468Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-03
Winnipeg, MB
2 edits | $30 product for Free? Good Deal From MS If you haven't worked in a variety of environments the problems MS faces with distributing Giant may not be apparent.
Giant used to charge US$30 for this product.
The Giant AS user base will increase by maybe 1,000x maybe 10,000x if MS makes it available (under whatever new name) as a free download.
The user base will go up by even more if MS makes it a critical update, even if just to Windows XP and later.
With the increase in user base size, the expertise of the people installing and running the product is going to go way way down. Probably few people running Giant AS now don't know how to do self-support via the web, how to debug conflicts, etc., and probably few people running Giant AS now didn't have previous experience with the other more popular products.
If MS makes Giant AS available even just as a recommended update on Windows Update there will be tens of thousands of ordinary consumers installing it and wondering why their favorite porno, gaming, gambling and screen saver download websites no longer work, wondering why they are getting warnings about malware downloads, wondering why their favorite application has been flagged as adware.
What this means is that MS is going to have:
1. Do very thorough testing to ensure it is relatively bug free.
2. Test that it is compatible with a very wide variety of other popular products -- including non-MS products.
3. Upgrade the user interface, configuration instructions, and help file to ensure that the there is enough guidance for ordinary windows users and that it enough of it is in language consumers can understand, so that support resources aren't overwhelmed.
4. Probably upgrade parts of the user interface and functioning so that users can more easily grant permission for what you and I would consider adware to continue functioning. (MS can't be as inflexible about banning suspect software, since MS is a big target with deep pockets, and almost a monopoly, and so a much easier target for lawsuits by adware makers.)
5. Although it was acceptable for Giant AS to not get anywhere near all adware, and although it was acceptable for Adaware and Spybot S&D to get even less adware, once Giant AS becomes an MS product, people are going to start complaining shrilly that it isn't 100% thorough. |
