Open? (Premium)

I didn't attend Microsoft Ignite this year, electing instead to spend an extra week in Mexico. But whether I attend in person or not, I always download videos for various keynotes and sessions so I can watch them later. I do this with Build, as well, and with Apple WWDC and Google I/O.

But the point is always the same: There's always more information to be had in these videos than is contained in the formal announcements. So I always learn something, and if it's important enough, I can use it as a source for an article. For example, while Laurent and I were briefed about the Windows Resiliency Initiative ahead of Ignite, the discussions about this topic at the show triggered thoughts about the "two Windows," and so I wrote an additional article.

Windows is always top of mind, of course. And so I returned to the Ignite website repeatedly during and after the show so that I could find sessions videos as they were posted. You have to search to find these videos--Windows is no longer a top-level topic at the show for some reason--but there are at least a few worth viewing. Key among them, of course, is What's New in Windows Security, Productivity and Cloud, which features Windows lead Pavan Davuluri, David Weston, and others, though the shorter Windows 11 security and resiliency provides a reasonable overview too.

My initial reaction to the Davuluri talk was ... nonplussed. A combination of surprised, confused, and amused. It was an interesting reminder of my reaction to Yusuf Mehdi announcing Recall back in May ahead of Build and totally glossing over the security protections it would include, as if Microsoft's customers would for any reason just trust it to do the right thing. Breathtakingly clueless, in other words.

I mean, it begins innocently enough. Pavan repeats the groan-inducing "Win with Windows" tagline that was introduced in a marketing video before he comes on stage, and then he kicks off the talk in the typical Microsoft manner, meaning a style that is somehow both earnest and rote. And then it happens. Less than a minute into his talk, Pavan stands in front a slide that reads, simply, "Windows. The most open operating system."

And. Wow.

What?

So I tweeted the following. And cross-posted to Mastodon and Threads.

I don't know how to measure this, or if I can even measure this, since I will not pay for Twitter, but this has to be one of my most-read social media posts of the year. Twitter/X does tell me that it has over 540,000 views, over 500 replies, and almost 1,000 retweets. So that's something, I guess.

The commentary is, of course, priceless.

Most seem to take this, as I did, as a complete misunderstanding of what it means to be open as an operating system. Many cracked jokes about security, which is ironic given the context, as in "Maybe open as in, open backdoors and security vulnerabilities." Or bloatware. Or enshittification. Some, even more humorously, either agreed with this assertion o...

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