I was just browsing the web, looking for some info on Raymond Chen when I came across an old article written by Joel Spolsky that had been featured on Slashdot a while back. In Joel’s article, he writes:

The old Microsoft, the Microsoft of Raymond Chen, might have implemented things like Avalon, the new graphics system, as a series of DLLs that can run on any version of Windows and which could be bundled with applications that need them. There’s no technical reason not to do this. But Microsoft needs to give you a reason to buy Longhorn, and what they’re trying to pull off is a sea change, similar to the sea change that occurred when Windows replaced DOS. The trouble is that Longhorn is not a very big advance over Windows XP; not nearly as big as Windows was over DOS. It probably won’t be compelling enough to get people to buy all new computers and applications like they did for Windows.

Interestingly, it’s been announced since then that Avalon (in addition to many other technologies, such as WinFX and WinFS) will be available on Windows XP. Does this mean that Microsoft Won the API War? Regardless, one thing that Joel misunderstands is why new copies of Windows actually get sold. It’s not due to new features and doo-dads (though that helps to a certain extent). I actually asked a Microsoft VP a very similar question: What’s the motivation for anyone to buy Windows Longhorn Vista? The answer can be found in the market for the Windows OS. Who really buys the vast majority of Microsoft’s consumer OS’s?

~Tim