The Linear Canvas

Last year, when the tax season got close, for the first time in a long time, I had to choose the software program I was using. I had already purchased a copy of the federal and state versions of Intuit’s TurboTax. Intuit had implemented DRM, Digital Rights Management, in their last year’s version to help prevent piracy. Then when I heard of software glitches in TurboTax from a friend in Detroit, I became concerned. He had system crashes when he installed Intuit’s TurboTax. Evidently the DRM software was behind the crashes. Even more problems were being found by end users, which were being traced to the DRM as well. Some of the problems were planned limitations, like only being able to print the return on one printer, on one computer. Others were accusations of spyware and data loss.

At the time, I was getting an IT trade magazine called Info World that featured Ed Foster as a columnist. Ed always has had a low opinion of things like DRM. He had been going on about Intuit and this new scheme. As I recall, Macrovision wrote the DRM, the same people who failed to make copy protected videotapes more consumer friendly. With all the reports of failures, I checked Intuit’s web site and wasn’t any more relieved by reading anything there.

Because I had not opened the packages, I was able to return the TurboTax software. Then I bought the TaxCut product from H&R Block. This TaxCut software was almost free after rebates. I really only paid a few dollars plus the original sales tax. Most of this package was partially Microsoft supportive. I received, with a rebate, a free copy of Microsoft Money Standard. This year I got a free copy of Microsoft Money Deluxe when I bought TaxCut. I have not installed either product yet. I am still using Intuit’s Quicken 2002. This is interesting as the chief competition to Money is Quicken software. That’s when the conspiracy theory started to come to me.

In the mid 1990’s, Intuit was almost purchased by Microsoft. The government wisely did not let that happen. Intuit has gone on to compete very well against Microsoft products, one of the few companies to do so. It is clear in hindsight that had Microsoft been allowed to acquire Intuit, that nothing good for the consumer would have come from it.

If I were Microsoft, I believe I could probably get someone in Intuit to start making decisions that were detrimental to the financial health of that company. One tactic could be a public relations disaster, like the DRM. That would probably cause confused consumers to blindly return their unopened tax software, buy TaxCut two years in a row, and acquire another product supported by Microsoft?

If that’s true, I fell for it too. I was a Microsoft hater and basher a few years ago. I used Netscape Navigator and Lotus SmartSuite when I could. Now I have gone to the dark side. I use Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. I am not alone. Other users of Netscape abandoned ship when I did. The reason I started using Microsoft Office is less clear, but it recently has been because I used it at work.

What did Microsoft do to cause these migrations? I’d say price. Microsoft knows that giving away a competing product will kill the competition. But can Microsoft ever sell Internet Explorer again? I’d say that Internet Explorer is the sacrifice to the market place to allow Microsoft proprietary formats to become standards. I am not sure that was what Microsoft planned at first, but it has evolved into a good strategy. All that the competitors of Microsoft can do is sue them. Microsoft can almost outlast anyone in a courtroom. It has shown just waiting four to eight years for administration changes can make a difference. Most small companies are memories by the time these things get settled.

Microsoft is no stranger to DRM, as their Microsoft Office supposedly demands registration after fifty uses. Their Windows XP makes you re-register when you make hardware changes. XP’s DRM wouldn’t be so harsh if Windows had any competition at all. Neither product has given me any problem, but I know it has affected the quantity of XP users overall. Compared to Windows 98 users, Microsoft has a long way to go to get XP on more computers than it. Publicly, Microsoft calls XP a success, but the number of users doesn’t really show that yet. I suspect that as long as Microsoft XP uses the DRM, with the problems that it caused when first released, it will be difficult to get users to upgrade operating systems before they upgrade their entire computer. This also might be the reason for the increase in interest in Linux and other alternative operating systems. DRM as currently used, adds complexity to some tasks for users who need as little complexity as they can get.

This year Intuit did not include any DRM in their TurboTax software. I think they learned an expensive lesson. That lesson might only be short lived, but I wouldn’t have any problem with DRM if it were more transparent and did not spy on me. It’s bad enough the government does it. I don’t need my tax software doing it too.

Ed Foster was not retained as a columnist at Info World when the magazine was reorganized a few months later. I can’t say that Ed was fired, but it seemed like it. Ed was bashing a few other things that I am sure made a lot of the advertising department managers at Info World nervous. The Intuit columns were probably really the reason. You can still read Ed’s weblog at http://www.gripe2ed.com/.

Symantec just released their Norton SystemWorks software with DRM. I read that PC World magazine was recommending VCom’s SystemSuite 5 over it anyway. I picked up a copy of SystemSuite 5 at Wal-Mart for $39 plus a $20 rebate. I am still waiting on a rebate from VCom from a few years ago, so that might not be a factor.

I have been using SystemWorks, Quicken, and TurboTax for years and have had mostly good performance from them. Still, if any more companies want me to pay money for extra aggravation, I do not plan to participate.