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April 2, 2001

RADICAL SIMPLICITY
Simple Twist Of Fate

Hardware and software get more complex all the time. Can vendors really simplify their tools-and do they have a good reason to?

By Eric Chabrow (echabrow@cmp.com)

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t's one matter to blame IT vendors for continuing to produce hardware and software that are far more complicated than necessary. It's quite another to expect companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle to simplify their products unless competition forces them to, says Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter.

Gelernter says it's unlikely that companies such as Microsoft will uncomplicate their wares. That's because of their responsibility to shareholders not to tinker with the status quo by which the company found such success. "How can you ask them to do differently? 'Every company envies us,'" says Gelernter, mimicking a theoretical Microsoft publicist. "'Every computer scientist wants to work for us. Every child in the world wants to be Bill Gates. We'll never change our software.'"

Not surprisingly, Microsoft disagrees. Tom Laemmel, product manager for Windows XP, says the new operating system and the Office XP productivity suite, both due out later this year, will demonstrate the company's commitment to simplifying its software. For instance, the Office XP suite will feature smart tags, a drop-down menu that provides helpful tips about the activity the user is performing, and a task pane, a window that shows options such as formats and styles current versions of the Office suite.

Nonetheless, Gelernter believes the greatest strides in IT simplification will be made by the little guy, the startup. And, when the innovative small vendor successfully streamlines an IT tool, the major vendors will take notice and not only follow, but try to dominate the marketplace.

That's what happened nearly a decade ago, after Mark Andreessen launched his startup. Netscape brought network computing to the masses with the first widely accepted Internet graphical user interface, replacing awkward Unix commands. Seeing the success of the Netscape browser, Microsoft entered the fray by creating its Internet GUI--Internet Explorer--which today is the dominant browser.