Microsoft Doing The Splits
John Tyra | July 26th, 2008Our good friends at Microsoft announced a reorganization for their PSD (Platform & Services Division) group that will effectively split them into two separate groups. One group to handle the Windows OS and another for Windows Live/Online Services.
Paul Thurrott will be pleased, as he has been talking about this very same thing for years, except that he was referring to a further level of separation: consumer versions of the Windows OS as a separate company versus the business versions, which actually makes sense. At the risk of duplicating what Paul has already said, there are very distinct differences between what a business needs and a consumer needs in terms of an operating system.
Let’s set aside the flame war between the anti-Microsoft and anti-Apple camps for a moment and just speak generically regarding this concept. For most of you home users, they are not going to need the ability to add their computer to a domain or push enterprise-level management policies to thousands of machines. On the other hand, your enterprise/business needs don’t usually include low-end movie editing or gaming. These groups are simply two very different animals, but the OS rarely reflects these differences.
Overall, let’s hope this is a step in the right direction regarding Microsoft’s future plans for the segration (and eventual fine tuning) of their different branches of influence. With each division focusing on a more grainular scope, they can push the product further without worrying about their changes affecting other divisions. It’s like the difference between using a shotgun to kill an ant versus simply stepping on it with your shoe; both are effective, but only one is efficient.
