by David Morgenstern
May 16th, 2008 @ 10:53 am

Could it be that a Macintosh program will be the tipping point for the confidence that ISVs have in Microsoft as a technology partner? One c-level technologist for a Windows enterprise app says “no more” to Redmond’s vision.

I wrote the other day about Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit’s announcements about the Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 and the eventual return of support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to the Mac productivity suite. One reader, a c-level executive at a enterprise ISV told me that this announcement out of Redmond was one waffle too many for his company, one that has relied on Microsoft since its beginnings.

The company’s product is sold into Fortune 500 enterprises. “Office 2008 is indicative of a larger problem at Microsoft. To borrow from Alan Cooper, the inmates are running the asylum [the author of the 1999 Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity].

The engineers are making changes with little regard for the millions — maybe billions — of people who depend on Microsoft technology. I wish the VBA flip-flop was the only example.” He then ran down a list of recent actions and inactions by Microsoft that concerned the company. He started off by pointing to the ribbon interface in Office 2007 for Windows.