Hey, Microsoft, Betanews readers have some 2010 advice for you

Betanews readers are an opinionated lot, so it's no surprise they've got a few things to tell Microsoft about how to run the business. On December 7, I asked readers to offer their advice for Microsoft in 2010 -- and, whoa, have they done it.

By the way, I'll offer advice, too, sometime next week. I've been doing it for the last couple years in lieu of making predictions. Meanwhile, here are readers' recommendations:

xsnred: "Would it really hurt MS to give away their OS in 2010? I mean really. Even at $19.95, but wait, act now and will send you a free copy of Office 2010, MS and Gateboy will still be uber rich. I realize this is an absurd suggestion, but it seems to be the least MS can do for the public that they have led around by the nose for 25 years now."

johnrc2: "Don't just copy your competitors. Innovate. I know there are brilliant people at Microsoft. Unleash them, and take the lead back from Apple and Google."

fadeblack: "Strip the OS and make the world's leanest, fastest OS. Then sell browsers, e-mail and everything else that chokes a OS seperate. You then don't have to worry about the UA lawsuits. Everything will be low price pieces. Everyone will be happy getting just [what] they want."

Floodland: "Use the KISS concept (Keep It Simple Stupid) when developing new software. That does not mean to produce crippled software. Just avoid the .NET philosophy (thousands of shared libraries hanging without reason, hard to deploy, hard to maintain and very hard to diagnose when something goes wrong). There are many examples of good software to look at (not yours)."

rojo:

1. Get Natal to market this year since it executes on the "Natural User Interfaces" vision.

2. Bring Natal-like experiences to Windows Mobile 7. This and #1 will gain mindshare.

3. Release a new Windows Home Server product.

4. Create a Microsoft branded phone.

5. Release a HTML5 and CCS3 compliant IE9 by June with a radically new UI.

6. The Zune platform is good but you need to switch to a 6-month release cycle to catch up to Apple. Create lala.com-like features on Zune.net for Zune pass subscribers.

7. Add movies/TV to the Zune pass subscription to compete with Netflix Watch Instantly.

8. Take ZuneHD and store global.

9. Add Microsoft stores in Dallas, Chicago, New York, LA, and San Fran but make them look radically different. Like your visitor center on the main campus in Redmond. That would make a fantastic store concept. http://www.istartedsomet...icrosoft-visitor-center/

10. Show off Windows 8 at PDC in 2010.

Aires: "There's too little inter-connectivity (which I've wrote about before). Bing, Xbox, Windows 7, Windows Mobile - they're all too separate from each other and not tightly knit. I can't remember what I wrote before about 6mths to a year ago, but it was brilliant. Microsoft have no seeming overall strategy in place and they need one badly. Oh and Microsoft need to buy out Opera if they want a foothold in the mobile market."

pforbes: "The permanent introduction of new operating systems and the lifecycle policy give a sense of provisionality to all Microsoft products, but when you know what you have in your hands you find that the new 'invention' means only a few new essential things and a lot of eye candy. New real advantages should be offered and sold as improvements to an essential permanent NT OS, so that you could introduce them easily into your present computers forgetting once and for always the damned lifecycle policy according to which anything you buy to Microsoft has to be abandoned in a short time to be replaced by something which is 90% similar to what you previously had."

jc_lvngstn:

1. XP shipped with what, three different skins? Microsoft proceeded to act as if it couldn't care less if anyone ever did anything else with it. They need to include at least some more powerful skinning options with windows, aka windowblinds or something.

2. Windows needs some 'cool' or 'wow' apps. Things that surprise people in how cool it is. The apps that ship with Windows (calculator, wordpad, PAINT) are about as bland and uninteresting as they come.

3. ...Microsoft marketing...it's fail. Horrible fail. They need a some true visionary here also.

mdn777901: "Please, Microsoft, One answer emails, Two provide contact numbers/e-mail addresses for repair shops. Legitimate shops like ours have no problem registering with you all. If a computer doesn't have a MS License, they either buy a legitimate one or we won't work on it. Come up with an OS install disk similar with the Vista Anytime disk. Retail purchases kills the profit margin for little shops like ours. Of course, I can refuse to repair Windows 7 computers which won't exactly be a positive advertisement for Microsoft Win 7, but do you leave us much choice?"