Microsoft Should Throw a Rock Through Its Windows

The window on Microsoft’s operating system agility has closed, and to fix it, Randall Stross argues in the New York Times, the tech giant needs to start from scratch. Windows “has become an obese monolith built on an ancient frame,” Stross says, and it “seems to move an inch for every time that Mac OS X or Linux laps it.”

Redmond should draw the blinds on Vista, and refashion its next upgrade, Windows 7, by aping Apple: Force speed-conscious users to buy new versions of their existing applications. Even Microsoft’s own software engineers say Windows 7 must break with what Stross calls “an obsolete design.” “Sticking with that same core architecture is the problem, not the solution,” he concludes. (More Microsoft stories.)