Driving a Ford product the other day, I was waiting at a stoplight and happened to look down at the console between the front seats. There was a small metallic plaque attached to the console that said: Powered by Microsoft. Those are frightening words.
Microsoft is an unusual company. It has been written about many times. Some of the writers have been in awe. Others have written disparagingly. Both types of writers are correct. You cannot help but to stand in wonder at a company built on bluff and chicanery as was Microsoft. The product that brought the company into prominence in the computer industry about 30 years ago was pitched to IBM for use on its new personal computers and then purchased from another company. The product became known as the disc operating system (DOS) and it built an empire.
Microsoft has grown into a giant in the computer industry and has a reputation for releasing its products before all bugs have been fixed. It apparently wants its customers to find them. It is a company that often seems to prefer buying its competitors rather than creating its own products. It is a company that sells obsolescence to its customers to protect its future sales.
It is this obsolescence that makes the words Powered by Microsoft of concern in an automobile. This vehicle uses software programs that were already obsolete when it was purchased. It means the software programs installed in the computer chips in the vehicle are based on programs written as much as 30 years ago. Newer programs are based on the older programs. New is written with pieces of old. It is a design flaw that is eating at the computer industry.
But it is also the design flaw that creates billions of dollars worth of new business for the computer industry every year. It is the business of replacing hard drives that become corrupted and the computers that surround them. It is also the business of writing updated operating systems, applications software, peripheral drivers as well as the operating controls for your auto’s climate control, brakes, radio, ignition, lights, telephone, back-up warnings, global positioning system and the list keeps growing.
And if you think your automobile is becoming too dependent on obsolete software, you might not want to fly the unfriendly skies. The modern airliner is so full of outmoded, unsafe software programs, it is mindboggling. As a pilot once explained while showing off the latest computer programs in his cockpit, “We will soon be here just to make the cabin announcements.”
Surprisingly there is little impetus today to correct the growing problems with this obsolete software use. Programs by various computer industry companies that were launched decades ago continue to gather dust. Simplified operating systems have been designed and remain curiosities instead of the basis for further development. Cheap memory and the ease of layering more code on top of old code dooms new development.
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